This book offers guidance to Windows and Macintosh users on the basics of SPSS and applying SPSS to solve statistical problems. This new edition has been revised to be used by both novices and experts. It helps readers learn how to select the appropriate statistical methods, conduct these methods using SPSS, and write results using APA Style guidelines. Topics covered in the comprehensive book include introducing the basics of SPSS; creating and working with data files; working with data; working with SPSS charts and output; creating variables; t test procedures; univariate and multi-variate analysis-of-variance techniques; correlation, regression, and discriminant analysis procedures; scaling procedures; and nonparametric procedures. For research directors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and statisticians.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
This book offers guidance to Windows and Macintosh users on the basics of SPSS and applying SPSS to solve statistical problems. This new edition has been revised to be used by both novices and experts. It helps readers learn how to select the appropriate statistical methods, conduct these methods using SPSS, and write results using APA Style guidelines. Topics covered in the comprehensive book include introducing the basics of SPSS; creating and working with data files; working with data; working with SPSS charts and output; creating variables; t test procedures; univariate and multi-variate analysis-of-variance techniques; correlation, regression, and discriminant analysis procedures; scaling procedures; and nonparametric procedures. For research directors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and statisticians.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The development of easy-to-use statistical software like SPSS has changed the way statistics is being taught and learned. No longer do students have to learn a system of elaborate code to conduct simple or complex analyses. Instead, students simply enter their data into an easy-to-use data editor. They can then select items from a pull-down menu to make appropriate transformations of variables, click options from another menu to create graphs of distributions of variables, select among various statistical analyses by clicking on appropriate options, and more. With a minimal amount of time and effort, the output is displayed, showing the results.
Researchers also have benefited from applications like SPSS. They do not have to spend time reacquainting themselves with the ins and outs of a statistical software package or learning new programs for conducting analyses that take hours to master. They also don't have to teach assistants how to write code to produce analyses, or examine and reexamine code that has produced error messages that do not really indicate what is wrong. Everyone can just point and click. More sophisticated users can use the syntax features.
In general, programs like SPSS have made life easier for students who are learning statistics, for teachers who are teaching statistics, and for researchers who are applying statistics. Nevertheless, many users of these programs find "doing statistics" an arduous, unenjoyable task. They still are faced with many potential obstacles, and they feel overwhelmed and stressed rather than challenged and excited about the potential for mastering these important skills.
What are some of the obstacles that students, in particular, face when they are trying to conduct statistical analyses with SPSS?
- Obstacle 1: Although SPSS is extremely easy to use, many students and first-time users find it very complex. They have to learn how to input data into the Data Editor, save and retrieve data, make transformations to data, conduct analyses, manipulate output, create graphs, edit graphs, and so on.
- Obstacle 2: Students can feel helpless. Although they can point and click, they are frequently confronted with new dialogue boxes with many decisions to make. Their instructor does not have the time to talk about each of the options, so students feel as if they are making uninformed decisions.
- Obstacle 3: The amount of output and numbers produced by any statistical procedure is enough to cower most researchers if they are forced to explain their meaning. How can students who are taking statistics for the first time feel confident about interpreting output from an SPSS procedure? In trying to understand output, they are likely to face language problems. For example, "What is a Sig. F? Is it the same as the p value that the instructor is talking about? No, it couldn't be, or she or he would have told us."
Researchers, graduate students, and more advanced undergraduate students are going to face additional obstacles.
- Obstacle 4: Users can think of a number of different ways to analyze their data, but they are unsure about which way would yield the most understanding of their results and not violate the assumptions underlying the analyses.
- Obstacle 5: Even if users make all good decisions about statistical approaches and understand the output, they still must write a results section that conforms to American Psychological Association (APA) format.
Using SPSS for Windows and Macintosh: Analyzing and Understanding Data was Written to try to help readers overcome the five obstacles discussed above.
Part I, "Introducing SPSS," was written to address Obstacle 1, while Part II, "Working with SPSS Procedures," was designed to address the other four obstacles.
Part I, "Introducing SPSS," consists of seventeen lessons divided into four units. It guides students through the most basic of SPSS techniques and uses a step-by-step description.
Unit 1, "Getting Started with SPSS," shows the student how to get started using SPSS, including a survey of the main menus, a description of how to use SPSS Help, and a brief tour of what SPSS can do.
Unit 2, "Creating and Working with Data Files," goes through the steps of defining variables, showing how data are entered and edited, how to use the data editor and the data view screens, how to print SPSS data files, and how to import and export information to and from SPSS.
Unit 3, "Working with Data," describes how to find and replace data, recode and compute values, sort data, and merge and split files.
Unit 4, the final unit in Part I, titled "Working with SPSS Charts and Output," teaches the student how to create and enhance SPSS charts as well as how to work with the SPSS output and SPSS tables.
Part II, "Working with SPSS Procedures," consists of twenty-seven lessons, divided into six units. Each unit presents a set of statistical techniques and a step-by-step description of how to conduct the statistical analyses. This is not, however, a cookbook format. We provide extensive substantive information about each statistical technique, including a brief discussion of the statistical technique under consideration, examples of how the statistic is applied, the assumptions underlying the statistic, a description of the effect size for the statistic, a sample data set that can be analyzed with the statistic, the research question associated with the data set, step-by-step instructions for how to complete the analysis using the sample data set, a discussion of the results of the analysis, a visual display of the results using SPSS graphic options, a results section describing the results in APA format, alternative analytical techniques (when available), and practice exercises.
Unit 5, "Creating Variables and Computing Descriptive Statistics," shows how to create new variables from existing ones and shows the basic procedures for describing qualitative and quantitative variables.
Unit 6, "t Test Procedures," focuses on comparing means and shows how to use a variety of techniques, including independent and dependent t tests and the one-sample t test.
Unit 7, "Univariate and Multivariate Analysis-of-Variance Techniques," focuses on the family of analysis-of-variance techniques, including one-way and two-way analyses of variance, analysis of covariance, and multivariate analysis of variance.
Unit 8, "Correlation, Regression, and Discriminant Analysis Procedures," includes simple techniques such as bivariate correlational analysis and bivariate regression analysis, as well as more complex analyses such as partial correlational analysis, multiple linear regression, and discriminant analysis.
Unit 9, "Scaling Procedures," focuses on factor analysis, reliability estimation, and item analysis.
Unit 10, "Nonparametric Procedures," discusses a variety of nonparametric techniques, including such tests as the binomial, one-sample chi-square, Kruskal-Wallis, McNemar, Friedman, and Cochran tests.
New to This Edition
Version 11 of SPSS introduces a wealth of additional features. For more details about the additional features, refer to the SPSS Web site http://www.spss.com.
This third edition of Using SPSS for Windows and Macintosh includes the following additional coverage:
- Use of the Data View and Variable View windows (the new SPSS interface)
- Use of Data and Variables View for entering and summarizing data
- Saving data as read-only files to avoid unintentional deletion
Using SPSS for Windows and Macintosh comes with a Student Data Disk that includes all the files you will need to work through each lesson. Part I uses several data files, among them one named Crab Scale Results and another named Teacher Scale Results. These will be introduced as you work through the first seventeen lessons. They can also be seen in Appendix A.
The lessons in Part II use two types of data files. The first you can use as a sample data file when learning a particular SPSS procedure, such as paired-samples t test or factor analysis. These files can be easily identified since they are named, for example, Lesson 22 Data File 1 or Lesson 35 Data File 2. Also used in the second half of the book are sets of data files for completing lesson exercises. These are named, for example, Lesson 22 Exercise File 1 or Lesson 35 Exercise File 2.
Other Features of the Book
After This Lesson You Will Know
In Part I, at the beginning of each lesson, you will see a list of objectives—skills that you will master when you successfully complete the content of the lesson and work through all of the exercises in the lesson. These advanced objectives indicate what you can expect, and what is expected of you.
Key Words
Also in Part I, at the beginning of each lesson, there is a listing of key words that will be introduced and defined for the first time in the lesson. These words will be in boldface type the first time they are used.
Typing Conventions
There is only one typing convention you must attend to throughout this book. A sequence of actions is represented by what options are selected from what menu, connected by an arrow.
Examples
Each lesson includes step-by-step procedures, with copious illustrations of screen shots, for successfully completing a technique with sample data. Exercises at the end of each lesson allow you to practice what you have learned.
Tips
Some of the lessons contain tips (in the margins) that will help you learn SPSS and will teach you short cuts that make SPSS easier to use.
System Requirements
If you are using the Windows version of SPSS 11, then your system must meet the following requirements:
- Windows 98, 2000 Professional of NT 4.0
- 32 MG RAM (but 64 is much better)
- 70MB hard disk space
- SVGA monitor
If you are using the Macintosh version of SPSS 10 (the latest release), then your system must meet the following requirements:
- PowerMacintosh G# 233 MegaHertz or faster
- Macintosh OS 9
- 150 MB hard disk space
- 128 MG RAM
A Note about SPSS for Macintosh
Recently, SPSS released a version 10 of SPSS for Macintosh that is very similar to version 11 for Windows. For the methods described in this book, you can assume, with one caveat, that everything you do using the Macintosh version is exactly the same—as far as steps and results—as using the Windows version.
The one caveat has nothing to do with SPSS, but rather with the different ways in which the Windows and the Macintosh version handle files, including the assignment of names and the use of extensions. You should have no difficulty, be you a Macintosh user or a Windows user, following the guidelines and steps in this book.
However, the Macintosh is not a Windows-based machine, and there are some features of Windows that are not available on the Macintosh and hence not available in SPSS for the Macintosh (and we point these out when they occur). For example, you cannot right-click in the Macintosh version of SPSS where you can in the Windows version of SPSS. However, for the most part (and it is the most), anything you want to do using the Windows version, you can do with the Macintosh as well.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Analyzing and Understanding Data,
By Rico Rivera (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Using SPSS for the Windows and Macintosh: Analyzing and Understanding Data (3rd Edition) (Paperback)
A more appropriate name for the book would be "Analyzing and Understanding Data Using SPSS for Windows and Macintosh" to underscore the book's usefulness when one is analyzing data and wants explanations of the statistical procedures. This book is not only helpful to those who conduct quantitative research, but also helpful to students enrolled in applied statistics courses, in general research methods, and any course that involve the analysis of quantitative data. The book is very useful because the authors provide many chapters (i.e., lessons) with research examples of applicability, brief explanations of statistical procedures, discussions of underlying assumptions, step-by-step instructions using research examples (with data), descriptions of interpreting the illustrated SPSS output, and reporting the written or table results in APA style.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Step-by-step guide that is a GREAT reference!,
By "almost_phd" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Using SPSS for the Windows and Macintosh: Analyzing and Understanding Data (3rd Edition) (Paperback)
I am currently a Ph.D. student and have had a number of upper-level stat courses. I first received this book toward the end of the required stat courses (Multivariate Methods)...boy, do I wish I had it sooner. Everything is laid out in concise format, it is easy to read, and the material is relevant. Plus, there are also sample APA results sections in each portion. It is a great resource that any grad student should purchase! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Your personalized statistics, SPSS, and APA tutor!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Using SPSS for the Windows and Macintosh: Analyzing and Understanding Data (3rd Edition) (Paperback)
I first used this book in grad school where I actually took a class from Sam Green. I have been keeping it handy ever since. Every chapter explains the statistical test (purpose, background), gives a couple of applied examples, then takes you through SPSS step by step (what options to click on, etc.), shows you the results and how to interpret each based on the example given at the beginning, and then shows you how to write it all up in APA style (what to italicize, where to put spaces, etc., plus how to express it in words). It is the most useful and practical and easy to understand stats book (or stats teacher) I ever encountered. I highly recommend it to everyone, grad students, researchers, academics.
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