Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics, 4th Edition

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.

I'm finishing a Masters degree in the statistical sciences as they relate to psychology in prep for a doctoral program. I liked the book because it was more accessible than the Tabachnick text (although Tabachnick offers syntax where Field does not), and also more accessible than Warner. The only way to study statistics is with three to six textbooks on the topic at once so that the student can paint a picture. I always started with Field's book here before evaluating what the other stats bricks had to offer. If you're a parent or a student the following sentence may seem like more of a death sentence than the fact that somebody is taking Statistics, however... It's worth it to spend $400-500 extra on stats books for one course like Multivariate Stats so that you don't have to waste your time scratching your head. This is one for a Multivariate course you're going to want to have on the shelf.

Andy Field's wit is significant at the .00001 level! (I'm just worried my students wish he taught the course.) This book covers everything that one could possibly expect in a combined introductory/intermediate textbook, all for under $100, and how he manages to slip in a virtual SPSS manual to boot adds further value to this splendid text. OK, some of his humor is borderline pre-adolescent, but it counters the usual uncomfortable aura around Statistics, and he does impressively explain statistical concepts at various levels of difficulty with a conversational style that makes it easier for a student to digest. My only small gripe is Field does not mention basic chi-square until page 721, after covering topics such as multiple regression, MANOVA and factor analysis. (I like the bivariate analysis to come before the multivariate, but that is a small potatoes issue, and I sort of see why he did that to fill out a chapter.)

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.

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.