Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics, 4th Edition

I am NOT a math person by any means. I despise it most of the time (to the point of tears). However, this book has given me a connection and a new appreciation for math (in statistics form, anyway). The book is easily navigated and exceptionally written. It teaches you how to use SPSS in a fun, exciting, and witty way. I highly recommend this book to anyone who may need it to learn how to use SPSS. I had to have it for my grad school class, and I honestly fell in love with this book a bit. It's wonderful. Again, coming from a nonmath person. It made me laugh while teaching me what I needed to know. Please buy this over other books.

I'm a statistics tutor and a Master's student in psychology. This is my go-to primer for most of what I do in SPSS, and I usually recommend it to my students. I tell them that it's informative while actually being readable. It's endearing and entertaining, but usually very clear. The SPSS guides are terrifically helpful. You can tell that this author is someone who genuinely cares about student learning while also genuinely caring about correct (and ethical) use of statistics. There are occasionally topics that aren't covered in as much detail as I'd like, but it's generally just beyond the scope of the book. Definitely get this one; it'll be nearly everything you'll ever need. Also, there are pictures of cats.

Let me be clear.....I hate anything with numbers but I had to learn statistics by force while completing my Ph.D thesis. Just trying to figure out how to go about analyzing my data gave me a headache. However, after sitting down with this book and "biting the bullet" as they say, I found the process bearable (which is saying ALOT!!). Not only did the author give practical and funny scenarios/examples to explain concepts, he also gave step-by-step graphical instructions on how to perform functions in SPSS. He also did a pretty good job explaining how to interpret the mindboggling data that SPSS churned out. I think this is a must-have book for anyone doing quantitative research in any discipline. I still hate stats. but having this book makes the process easier to deal with.

I'm impressed that the author has dedicated so much of his professional career to writing this book and updates it every four (I think he said four) years. We are told not to worry if the publication date of the book is a few years behind or ahead of the version of SPSS that you are using as each year the updates are not that significant. When SPSS first came out, it was its own company and I only recently learned that it was bought out by IBM. It was so cost prohibitive to buy, the only way I could have access to it was at school or work. There was a student version but it limited you to the number of cases you could enter into the software. Now it is so cheap to buy, I don't know why anyone would want to do statistics on Excell. SPSS is a really easy software program to use if you understand statistics. (I had to learn it in the old days when there was no Windows interface and had to learn coding to do my data runs!). Back in the day before IBM bought it, the software came with a ton of manuals. There was a whole cottage industry of people who would offer seminars that would cost up to $1,000.00 to teach you how to use the software that came with manuals and disks with practice exercises. I'm pretty sure this book probably put that whole industry out of business. I could only afford to take those classes if my company paid for it and I almost always had to fly to some other location to get the classes I needed that covered stuff I didn't learn in college. So compared to ten years ago, being able to have access to a book like this is unbelievably awesome! It saves you time and money and its very well written and you have to be able to trust the fact that its published by SAGE which publishes a large series of handbooks on a large number of statistical methods which were considered the gold standard but written in a very technical language. The biggest problem I have with the book is that its just too wordy. There is a lot of story telling in this book which is very time consuming to get through. Eventually you just learn how to skim over the long winded stories and start highlighting the areas where the author gets to the main point. Also, I know he is trying to be funny and appeal to college kids but I really don't think mentioning a study on the use of coke as a spermicide was something that added any value to the book. So if you are a student just learning how to use SPSS, consider yourself lucky to own this but if you are a busy working professional, this might not be your best option. There are online videos now at a website called Lynda that can walk you through the software and get you up to speed very quickly but you won't get the rich details found in the book.

OH. MY. GOD. This book is a lifesaver when I was outlining my dissertation analyses. Heck, when I presented my planned analyses to my stats consultant, she was really impressed and surprised. To the point where she declined to be included as an author on the paper because she didn't feel like she did anything to be on it. I highly recommend this book and author. Backstory, I actually like statistics but I'm a bit slow to learn it. I struggled in undergrad and grad school trying to understand statistical analyses. If I had this book in the beginning, it may have been easier for me to understand stats. This book is structured and worded in a way that can make it easier for almost anyone to understand. I'm raving about this book to EVERYONE. You, person reading this review, whether you hate or love statistics this book is a must have if you're doing statistics in your future.

Book arrived in condition expected

THE GOOD: Good insight on how to use SPSS. Ensure you go to the companion website because tons of files, answers, quizzes, and tips are posted there. Make sure you download all of the SPSS data files so you can follow along with each chapter's analysis. THE GREAT: also, Andy Filed has videos online that go through the data step by step. Search for these on his website or in a search engine. Just type the topic, his name, and SPSS and it should come up. THE OK: He does not address every topic in this book. I think the reason is that the items not addressed cannot be completed in SPSS (such as confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), structural equation modeling (SEM), Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), etc). Same goes with some of the more complicated models over time like latent growth modeling and some other multiple levels of analysis. THE BAD: He uses the examples for shock value (i think most of the data sets are made up). It gets old very quickly. the jokes are raunchy and the self-deprecation gets old too. Many (maybe most) of the examples are lude, and would be hard to discuss with most professors. To be blunt, there's only so much i can to hear about Viagra and eels up your butt. He should just change most of the examples into something a little more palatable. also keep in mind he is British and this is more in line with British humor than what you might find elsewhere in the world.

Very nice and helpful book. Makes statistics less painful to deal with for my PhD. It is a not too complicated and examples make work much more fun. Very helpful subchapters on how to write the results up in your paper and when to use which method etc. It really covers a lot of things. PS note for shipping costs - it's super heavy. If you want just to get a basic understanding try "How to design and report Experiments" of the same author. It's totally easy read, but doesn't go into many details, which you will actually need. Helped me to straighten up some basic misconceptions I had.