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- Textbooks for Research Methods and Data Analysis
- 1: Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)
- 1a: Statistical concepts and methods
- 1b: Teaching with Survey Data
- 1c: Developing research projects using survey data
- 1d: Workshop and presentations for ASSESS (SPSS users in Europe)
- 2: Survey Research Practice
- 2a: Survey Research Methodology, Practice and Training
- 2b: Major survey series
- 3: Subjective Social Indicators (Quality of Life)
- 4: Survey Unit, Social Science Research Council (UK)
- 5a: Polytechnic of North London (1976-1992)
- 5b: Survey Research Unit (1978-1992)
- Village life in Normandy
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- Origins of the British Crime Survey
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Babbie, Halley, Wagner and Zaino 2013
Earl Babbie, Fred S. Halley, William E Wagner III and Jeanne Zaino
Adventures in Social Research: Data Analysis Using IBM SPSS Statistics
(Sage 2013, with associated website)
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.
This edition uses SPSS 19 (can be bundled with the Student Version of SPSS) but William Wagner is preparing an 8th edition using SPSS 20. An excellent book with a companion website and comprehensive coverage of the survey research process and logic of analysis as well as SPSS. Examples use real data drawn from the General Social Survey carried out annually since 1972 (except for 1979, 1981 and 1992) by the National Opinion Research Centre (NORC) at the University of Chicago. Data are selected to be relevant to a wide range of social science interests (scaled down to enable use with the SPSS Student Edition, which is restricted to 1,500 cases and 50 variables, and which unfortunately does not have the SPSS syntax facility). On the website the General Resources page has links to the sample data sets, additional appendices and reprints of four academic papers based on GSS data.
The book is very student- and user-friendly, especially for beginners, and encourages co-operative working. At the end of each chapter there's a summary of the main points covered, a list of keywords and a set of review questions and homework assignments designed to test your understanding of concepts and procedures and to encourage further exploration of the data to answer your own research questions. This book, which uses only the GUI drop-down menus (syntax is not implemented in the student version of SPSS) has a similar pedagogic and sequential approach to the Marsh and Elliott book above and to my own Survey Analysis Workshop. It makes an excellent complement to the syntax-based tutorials on this site since it seeks to impart genuine (marketable) research skills, encourages curiosity about the social world, starts from the social research process and poses research questions and problems before moving on to solutions using SPSS. As the authors state, the purpose is to help readers to use, not be used by, computers and computer software.
There is a review of the 5th edition (SPSS11 for Windows) by Gill Gillespie (Northumbria University).
NB: There is now a new edition
Earl Babbie, William E Wagner III and Jeanne Zaino
Adventures in Social Research: Data Analysis Using IBM SPSS Statistics
(10th edition, Sage 2019)
Uses SPSS 24 with data from the 2016 NORC General Social Survey, but still with GUI, not syntax.
Comes in A4 format with 3 holes and perforations along the spine edge of each page so that pages can be separated from the book.and kept in separate folder.
Adventures in Social Research: Data Analysis Using IBM SPSS Statistics
(Sage 2013, with associated website)
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.
This edition uses SPSS 19 (can be bundled with the Student Version of SPSS) but William Wagner is preparing an 8th edition using SPSS 20. An excellent book with a companion website and comprehensive coverage of the survey research process and logic of analysis as well as SPSS. Examples use real data drawn from the General Social Survey carried out annually since 1972 (except for 1979, 1981 and 1992) by the National Opinion Research Centre (NORC) at the University of Chicago. Data are selected to be relevant to a wide range of social science interests (scaled down to enable use with the SPSS Student Edition, which is restricted to 1,500 cases and 50 variables, and which unfortunately does not have the SPSS syntax facility). On the website the General Resources page has links to the sample data sets, additional appendices and reprints of four academic papers based on GSS data.
The book is very student- and user-friendly, especially for beginners, and encourages co-operative working. At the end of each chapter there's a summary of the main points covered, a list of keywords and a set of review questions and homework assignments designed to test your understanding of concepts and procedures and to encourage further exploration of the data to answer your own research questions. This book, which uses only the GUI drop-down menus (syntax is not implemented in the student version of SPSS) has a similar pedagogic and sequential approach to the Marsh and Elliott book above and to my own Survey Analysis Workshop. It makes an excellent complement to the syntax-based tutorials on this site since it seeks to impart genuine (marketable) research skills, encourages curiosity about the social world, starts from the social research process and poses research questions and problems before moving on to solutions using SPSS. As the authors state, the purpose is to help readers to use, not be used by, computers and computer software.
There is a review of the 5th edition (SPSS11 for Windows) by Gill Gillespie (Northumbria University).
NB: There is now a new edition
Earl Babbie, William E Wagner III and Jeanne Zaino
Adventures in Social Research: Data Analysis Using IBM SPSS Statistics
(10th edition, Sage 2019)
Uses SPSS 24 with data from the 2016 NORC General Social Survey, but still with GUI, not syntax.
Comes in A4 format with 3 holes and perforations along the spine edge of each page so that pages can be separated from the book.and kept in separate folder.