Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
lifesaver, December 5, 2000
It had been a difficult couple of years. I had more life changes than most people have in 30 years, and not the least was that I had moved three times. In the middle of it all, I took multivariate statistics, a graduate course that I didn't have all the prerequisites for. I loved the course, but wow, was it hard. The sheer volume of the work nearly flattened me. Then I had an emotional meltdown right in the middle of the semester project, which was to apply seven multivariate techniques to the data I had collected for my own research.My professor gave me an "incomplete," bless him, and I had the summer to finish the project. Then I moved again and lost everything -- class notes, textbook, everything. Then I found this book, and it was all I needed to complete most of the project. Each section describes a statistical procedure clearly, with examples. It is easy to decide whether the technique is appropriate for your data, or, as in my case, how to use your data to try a technique. Then you walk through the technique, step by step, with pictures. The book gives you annotated printouts to help you find the most useful information in what SPSS gives you. Then, my favorite part -- a sample results section in APA style. If I hadn't had this, I would never have finished by my revised due date, and would have had to repeat the course. Downside -- it tells you what choices to make as you go through each analysis without fully explaining the options. That's good when you're in a hurry (and I was) but I would love to see these authors make an expanded version to use when I have more time. I would like their help with choosing additional graphs, for instance. It doesn't help with non-SPSS techniques, of course, and I certainly could have used some help with Structural Equation Modeling. I have since bought Rex Kline's excellent book for that. If you need to do some heavyweight statistics, you have SPSS, and you find the SPSS help file impenetrable (if you can understand it, you don't need it), then this book is for you. It's worth its weight in gold, and it's heavy.
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48 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, but not for undergraduates, July 3, 1999
By A Customer
As a 2nd year graduate student, I find myself referring back to this book constantly. The explanations of the output are excellent, along with the model APA-style Results sections. The included data sets and instructions have allowed me to teach myself many of the analyses that were missed in my classes. On the other hand, I got the book in an undergraduate data analysis class 3 years ago, and have to say, that at that time, it was all very much over my head. The book's explanations are way too dense and jargon-loaded for undergraduates, but if you've had 2 or 3 stats courses already, you should find this wonderful book extremely helpful.
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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
using spss, May 15, 2000
i bought the first edition of this book (1997). i have used it extensively to do the statistical analysis of data for my thesis. it is a good spss reference. but does not offer 100% coverage of the tests, abilities, etc of spss. if you need to know how to carry out straight forward tests, which tests to choose, etc., this book will help you. but, if things get complicated, as they often do, this text may alert you to a situation, but then not perform the follow through to get you out of the situation. for example, i ran an anova which indicated a significant interaction. examples given in the text walk you through the lmatrix syntax for a simple 2x3 simple main effects test, but don't discuss the syntax for higher order anovas. they also alert you to the fact that they are walking you through the syntax for simple main effects assuming homogeneity of variance. if you have a situation where you are not assuming homogeneity of variance, you are out of luck, they discuss the topic no further because of space restrictions. so if you have some advanced stats questions/topics/situations, this book may not cover them, and like me you will be searching for a more thorough treatment. on its good side, is the format, and the synnopsis at the end of each chapter which summarizes the statistical findings in apa format. this is a great feature when you get to the point where you need to write up your findings! so, this book helped me out a great deal in the begining, and in the writeup phase, but when things got complicated, i was stuck.
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