Highly recommended SPSS textbooks
[Page last updated 18 May 2013]
[NB: Where authors are marked in red the links for titles are to other pages on this site containing my reviews and/or detailed comments and (where available) links to author profiles. Some links are to publishers' sites or Google Books and allow you to view extracts of the text. Some books have their own associated websites]
The best book I ever used for teaching was The SPSS Guide to Data Analysis (various editions, 1987 - 1991) by Marija Norusis which I bought in bulk from SPSS Inc and resold at cost to students. These books are still among the best for using SPSS syntax and for following the natural progression and logic of processing and analysing data from questionnaire surveys. Second-hand copies are like gold-dust. Check eBay and Amazon for rare second-hand copies. Her SPSS Statistics Guides are totally different and use mainly the drop-down menus.
There are already later editions of some of these but the ones I have chosen are:
Catherine Marsh & Jane Elliott
Exploring Data
(2nd edition, Polity Press, 2008)
Stephen A. Sweet, and Karen Grace-Martin
Data Analysis with SPSS: A First Course in Applied Statistics
(4th Edition, Pearson, 2012)
Looking at the publisher's blurb, checking out entries on the Analysis Factor site and seeing the co-authors’ profiles, I think I've found more kindred spirits. Although it's basically a textbook in applied statistics, it is aimed at students in sociology and related areas and is very thorough on theory, logic and technique. The data examples and exercises are probably more appropriate for this site than Andy Field's book (see
below).
I have now downloaded the e-textbook version of this book and am very impressed. As yet I have not located the data files distributed with the paperback copy: a stripped down version of the General
Social Survey 2008 and a specially compiled data set with administrative statistics from 50 states. As the authors state, "The GSS file contains 100 variables generated from interviews with 2,900 people, concerning their behaviors and attitudes on a wide variety of issues such as abortion, religion, prejudice, sexuality, and politics. The States data allows comparison of all 50 states with 400 variables indicating issues such as unemployment, environment, criminality, population, and education. Students will ultimately use these data to conduct their own independent research project with SPSS."
Earl Babbie, Fred S. Halley, William E Wagner III and Jeanne Zaino
Adventures in Social Research: Data Analysis Using IBM SPSS Statistics
(8th edition, Sage 2013)
An excellent book with a companion website and comprehensive coverage of the survey research process and logic of analysis as well as SPSS: very student- and user-friendly, especially for beginners, and
encourages co-operative working. Uses SPSS 19/20 with data from the 2010 General Social Survey but with GUI, not syntax..
Julie Pallant
SPSS Survival Manual: A Step by Step Guide to Data Analysis using SPSS for Windows
(4th edition, Open University Press, 2010)
An excellent book and deserved best-seller (witness the testimonials). Very good on process, presentation and statistics, but more suited to graduate students with assigment and dissertation deadlines in (social)
psychology and psychometrics than to students and researchers in sociology or political science and the like. Plenty of inferential statistics, but no tabulation and no syntax: whole swathes of SPSS capabilities skipped. Needs to be used in conjunction with other texts.
There is now a revised and updated 5th edition 2013 for SPSS 21 with additional readings and websites.
Also available in ebook version and with an accompanying website.
Andy Field
Discovering Statistics Using SPSS
(3rd ed., Sage, 2009)
. . . by far the best book combining statistics and SPSS. Andy also has a series of related video tutorials on Youtube and a brilliant personal website Statistics Hell with drop down menus for tutorials and handouts.
Jacqueline Collier
Using SPSS Syntax: A Beginner's Guide
(Sage 2010)
. . . is really a handbook for people already familiar with the drop-down menus, but attempting to wean them over to syntax, which is often far easier and quicker to use and has more facilities than those available via the menus. It's the only one to deal with dates.
Sarah Boslaugh
An intermediate guide to SPSS programming: using syntax for data management
(Sage 2005)
Like a breath of fresh air: clear and concise, nicely written and presented. Far more coverage than in other books and I particularly like the approach of posing data-management and research problems and situations
before launching into SPSS. Uses SPSS 11, but a new edition is in preparation for 18 or later.
Esther Leerkes and David C Howell
Not really textbooks, but, like many of the materials produced by Jim Ring and myself in the early 1970s, guides to the manuals re-written for beginners
The Longer Manual
The Shorter Manual
[See also Web Page Materials for Statistical Methods for Psychology, 8th ed.]
On-line SPSS textbooks (Four really good freebies)
SPSS textbooks worth a look (Get library to buy or buy to share)
Textbooks requested or awaiting review
Back to SPSS textbooks
[NB: Where authors are marked in red the links for titles are to other pages on this site containing my reviews and/or detailed comments and (where available) links to author profiles. Some links are to publishers' sites or Google Books and allow you to view extracts of the text. Some books have their own associated websites]
The best book I ever used for teaching was The SPSS Guide to Data Analysis (various editions, 1987 - 1991) by Marija Norusis which I bought in bulk from SPSS Inc and resold at cost to students. These books are still among the best for using SPSS syntax and for following the natural progression and logic of processing and analysing data from questionnaire surveys. Second-hand copies are like gold-dust. Check eBay and Amazon for rare second-hand copies. Her SPSS Statistics Guides are totally different and use mainly the drop-down menus.
There are already later editions of some of these but the ones I have chosen are:
Catherine Marsh & Jane Elliott
Exploring Data
(2nd edition, Polity Press, 2008)
Stephen A. Sweet, and Karen Grace-Martin
Data Analysis with SPSS: A First Course in Applied Statistics
(4th Edition, Pearson, 2012)
Looking at the publisher's blurb, checking out entries on the Analysis Factor site and seeing the co-authors’ profiles, I think I've found more kindred spirits. Although it's basically a textbook in applied statistics, it is aimed at students in sociology and related areas and is very thorough on theory, logic and technique. The data examples and exercises are probably more appropriate for this site than Andy Field's book (see
below).
I have now downloaded the e-textbook version of this book and am very impressed. As yet I have not located the data files distributed with the paperback copy: a stripped down version of the General
Social Survey 2008 and a specially compiled data set with administrative statistics from 50 states. As the authors state, "The GSS file contains 100 variables generated from interviews with 2,900 people, concerning their behaviors and attitudes on a wide variety of issues such as abortion, religion, prejudice, sexuality, and politics. The States data allows comparison of all 50 states with 400 variables indicating issues such as unemployment, environment, criminality, population, and education. Students will ultimately use these data to conduct their own independent research project with SPSS."
Earl Babbie, Fred S. Halley, William E Wagner III and Jeanne Zaino
Adventures in Social Research: Data Analysis Using IBM SPSS Statistics
(8th edition, Sage 2013)
An excellent book with a companion website and comprehensive coverage of the survey research process and logic of analysis as well as SPSS: very student- and user-friendly, especially for beginners, and
encourages co-operative working. Uses SPSS 19/20 with data from the 2010 General Social Survey but with GUI, not syntax..
Julie Pallant
SPSS Survival Manual: A Step by Step Guide to Data Analysis using SPSS for Windows
(4th edition, Open University Press, 2010)
An excellent book and deserved best-seller (witness the testimonials). Very good on process, presentation and statistics, but more suited to graduate students with assigment and dissertation deadlines in (social)
psychology and psychometrics than to students and researchers in sociology or political science and the like. Plenty of inferential statistics, but no tabulation and no syntax: whole swathes of SPSS capabilities skipped. Needs to be used in conjunction with other texts.
There is now a revised and updated 5th edition 2013 for SPSS 21 with additional readings and websites.
Also available in ebook version and with an accompanying website.
Andy Field
Discovering Statistics Using SPSS
(3rd ed., Sage, 2009)
. . . by far the best book combining statistics and SPSS. Andy also has a series of related video tutorials on Youtube and a brilliant personal website Statistics Hell with drop down menus for tutorials and handouts.
Jacqueline Collier
Using SPSS Syntax: A Beginner's Guide
(Sage 2010)
. . . is really a handbook for people already familiar with the drop-down menus, but attempting to wean them over to syntax, which is often far easier and quicker to use and has more facilities than those available via the menus. It's the only one to deal with dates.
Sarah Boslaugh
An intermediate guide to SPSS programming: using syntax for data management
(Sage 2005)
Like a breath of fresh air: clear and concise, nicely written and presented. Far more coverage than in other books and I particularly like the approach of posing data-management and research problems and situations
before launching into SPSS. Uses SPSS 11, but a new edition is in preparation for 18 or later.
Esther Leerkes and David C Howell
Not really textbooks, but, like many of the materials produced by Jim Ring and myself in the early 1970s, guides to the manuals re-written for beginners
The Longer Manual
The Shorter Manual
[See also Web Page Materials for Statistical Methods for Psychology, 8th ed.]
On-line SPSS textbooks (Four really good freebies)
SPSS textbooks worth a look (Get library to buy or buy to share)
Textbooks requested or awaiting review
Back to SPSS textbooks