SPSS For Dummies (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

• SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is a data management and analysis software that allows users to generate solid, decision-making results by performing statistical analysis
• This book provides just the information needed: installing the software, entering data, setting up calculations, and analyzing data
• Covers computing cross tabulation, frequencies, descriptive ratios, means, bivariate and partial correlations, linear regression, and much more
• Explains how to output information into striking charts and graphs
• For ambitious users, also covers how to program SPSS to take their statistical analysis to the next level

From the Back Cover

Program SPSS with Python® and Command Syntax

The fun and easy way® to generate solid decision-making results with SPSS

Stymied by SPSS? This friendly, plain-English guide gets you up and running with the latest version of the software so that you can start performing calculations right away. It then covers all key analysis topics step by step — from cross tabulation and descriptive ratios to linear regression, hierarchical analysis, and more. You'll export data flawlessly and with flair!

• Install and run the software

• Get data into and out of SPSS

• Create striking charts and graphs

• Execute analyses — from correlations to linear models

• Display data in a variety of graphs

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Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies (April 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470113448
• ISBN-13: 978-0470113448
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #109,620 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #50 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Databases > Data Mining
  #65 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Software > Mathematical & Statistical
  #68 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Statistics

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Statistics for Dummies - Like Making a Word Salad, November 1, 2007

By	TastyBabySyndrome "T(to the)B(to the)S" ("Daddy Dagon's Daycare" - Proud Sponsor of the Little Tendril Baseball Team, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

The "For Dummies" series are funny books and are sometimes helpful but, much like Sparknotes or Cliffnotes, they are inherently flawed. This is ESPECIALLY true for anything that has to do with computerization; if you really need to earn something then you really need a book that will teach you a solid way to generate results. In the case of SPSS I really thinks this is true and then some - the program gives you all sorts of ways to test and to generate answers BUT the word dummies doesn't really play here.
If anything, it seems criminal to tell people they can learn something without hammering away at it.

A few of my students have used this book and the truth of the matter is this: they learn the most basic functions of the program but, when asked to perform something a little more difficult, they freeze and their eyes frost. The book doesn't add in the terminology needed, doesn't cover the ideas behind concepts, and doesn't even cover the stuff an introduction class would.
If you need help and need it badly, this would set you back and confuse you even more. Instead, you could buy a SPSS Basics book to grasp the immediate, look into an Experimental Design class to learn what SPSS is attempting (you can look online and see what classes require, then mirror the class without taking it if you can't afford the time), or you could consult the program and the book that accompanies it. Either way, this is not progression but the illusion of progression and you can tell that by reading exactly what it promises to teach you.
Very bad primed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Learn statistics FIRST !, June 11, 2009

By	Bassam Bokhowa "BassamBokhowa.com" (Bahrain) - See all my reviews

This Dummies book will get you introduced to SPSS but will use all sorts of statistics jargon and you are lost unless you've built a solid foundation in statistics previously. Also, it hardly touches on some quite basic yet very useful parts of SPSS (e.g. descriptive statistics>frequencies) ... quite odd ! If you're new to both SPSS and statistics this may be a better choice Discovering Statistics Using SPSS (Introducing Statistical Methods)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good!, June 9, 2008

By	Inese Lusena-ezera "researcher" (Europe, Latvia, Riga) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is very good for people, who just now have started to work with SPSS and never have done it before: easy to understand how to enter data, make graphs, and other very important things. Almost all is shown by examples of SPSS.