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Textbooks: SPSS
[Page last updated 14 January 2020]
I've done quite a bit of web-searching and discovered a plethora of available textbooks and some really good web-based tutorials for learning and using SPSS. I've picked out the books which seem to be
aimed at (almost) beginners or which use data derived from questionnaire surveys or similar.
Highly recommended SPSS textbooks (Buy your own copy of one of them)
SPSS textbooks worth a look (Get library to buy or buy to share)
On-line SPSS textbooks (Four really good freebies)
Textbooks requested or awaiting review
[Latest additions]
Not strictly SPSS, but ideal for beginners in the social sciences:
Ronn J Hy
Using the Computer in the Social Sciences
Elsevier Science Ltd (December 1977) but difficult to track unless you have a library subscription.
Keith McCormick, Jesus Salcedo with Aaron Poh, SPSS for Dummies, Wiley (3rd edition, 2015)
John MacInnes’ An Introduction to Secondary Data Analysis with IBM SPSS Statistics. (Sage 2017)
Has same pedagogic approach as me, but progresses to more advanced statistical analysis and model building.
Review/comments on page MacInnes (2017)
A nice introductory pamphlet, very easy to follow, is:
Jen Buckley and Sarah King-Hele (Manchester)
What is SPSS for Windows?
UK Data Service (May 2014, 44pp, pdf)
See also another excellent booklet, which sets survey data in the context of the research process:
Pauline Turnbull and Sarah King-Hele (Manchester)
Using Survey Data
UK Data Service (August 2015, 46pp, pdf)
Most of the books I have selected approach SPSS via the drop-down menus available from the graphic user interface (GUI) Few if any include the use of syntax (the SPSS language) except indirectly via the PASTE facility. Many are basically statistics texts in various fields (psychology, medicine, [social] statistics) and mainly cover descriptive and/or inferential statistics. Few deal with problem formulation, research design, data management, file design or tabulation, or specifically with data from questionnaire surveys (which was what SPSS was written and used for when it first came out in 1968).
Given modern printing technology, all the books could be improved with full colour screenshots, graphics and colour-coded text (but one such has just been published.and is awaiting review on this site)
Norris, Qureshi, Howett and Cramer
Introduction to Statistics with SPSS for Social Science (UK: for USA click here)
(Pearson, 2013)
Another book which covers SPSS is:
Lesley Andres
Designing and Doing Survey Research
(Sage 2012)
. . is less useful than texts listed below, but is is on my list of recommended survey methods textbooks as it places survey research and SPSS, firmly in a methodological context, and should be read by anyone working as, or aspiring to become, a survey researcher.
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, mini-manuals written for beginners as guides to the main manual.
The Longer Manual
The Shorter Manual (File not found)
[See also Web Page Materials for Statistical Methods for Psychology, 8th ed.]
See also:
On-line SPSS intros and tutorials (Hours of enjoyable learning)
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 for Windows books are totally different and use mainly the drop-down menus. The official SPSS Statistics Guides are:
1: PASW Statistics 18 Guide to Data Analysis
2: SPSS/PASW Statistical Procedures Companion
3: PASW Statistics 18 Advanced Statistical Procedures
However, they can be prohibitively expensive and are not particularly suitable for beginners. There are always new editions for later releases of SPSS. and Sussex University has a useful link to IBM SPSS Statistics 19 Brief Guide
Apart from Marsh and Elliott, Babbie et al., Boslaugh and Buckingham and Saunders, none of the books start from absolute scratch with where data come from in the first place (including problem formulation and research design) and, with the exception of Boslaugh and the more advanced Collier, none approach SPSS from a syntax perspective. That's partly why I have prepared the tutorials on this site.
See also:
David C Howell (1941 - 2018) retired in 2002 as Chair of Psychology at Vermont.
Book: Fundamental Statistics for the Behavioural Sciences 8th edition
Companion website: Fundamental Statistics for the Behavioural Sciences
His website contains a wealth of material including:
Statistical Methods for Psychology
Outline of the Statistical Pages Folder covering t-tests, chi-square, regression, R and much more.
his personally revamped SPSS Manuals
The Longer Manual
The Shorter Manual (File not found)
and links to some Great Web Sites (worth exploring, but some may no longer exist,)
My tutorials are based on the post-graduate Survey Analysis Workshop course I designed and taught (using SPSS-X on CDC, ICL, DEC and Vax mainframes) from 1976 to 1992. They have now been greatly expanded and updated for SPSS for Windows 15 to 23 (can't keep up with all these releases: 24 is already out!) and comprise gentle, step-by-step demonstrations (with full colour screenshots at each step) using colour-coded text and colour graphics, each step worked in both syntax and often also using the drop-down menus. There are many more tutorials for later stages to write and upload, but if you work through what's already there, you should be able to work easily with the books I've chosen. You might even become fluent in the SPSS command language and come over to the syntax camp!
I've done quite a bit of web-searching and discovered a plethora of available textbooks and some really good web-based tutorials for learning and using SPSS. I've picked out the books which seem to be
aimed at (almost) beginners or which use data derived from questionnaire surveys or similar.
Highly recommended SPSS textbooks (Buy your own copy of one of them)
SPSS textbooks worth a look (Get library to buy or buy to share)
On-line SPSS textbooks (Four really good freebies)
Textbooks requested or awaiting review
[Latest additions]
Not strictly SPSS, but ideal for beginners in the social sciences:
Ronn J Hy
Using the Computer in the Social Sciences
Elsevier Science Ltd (December 1977) but difficult to track unless you have a library subscription.
Keith McCormick, Jesus Salcedo with Aaron Poh, SPSS for Dummies, Wiley (3rd edition, 2015)
John MacInnes’ An Introduction to Secondary Data Analysis with IBM SPSS Statistics. (Sage 2017)
Has same pedagogic approach as me, but progresses to more advanced statistical analysis and model building.
Review/comments on page MacInnes (2017)
A nice introductory pamphlet, very easy to follow, is:
Jen Buckley and Sarah King-Hele (Manchester)
What is SPSS for Windows?
UK Data Service (May 2014, 44pp, pdf)
See also another excellent booklet, which sets survey data in the context of the research process:
Pauline Turnbull and Sarah King-Hele (Manchester)
Using Survey Data
UK Data Service (August 2015, 46pp, pdf)
Most of the books I have selected approach SPSS via the drop-down menus available from the graphic user interface (GUI) Few if any include the use of syntax (the SPSS language) except indirectly via the PASTE facility. Many are basically statistics texts in various fields (psychology, medicine, [social] statistics) and mainly cover descriptive and/or inferential statistics. Few deal with problem formulation, research design, data management, file design or tabulation, or specifically with data from questionnaire surveys (which was what SPSS was written and used for when it first came out in 1968).
Given modern printing technology, all the books could be improved with full colour screenshots, graphics and colour-coded text (but one such has just been published.and is awaiting review on this site)
Norris, Qureshi, Howett and Cramer
Introduction to Statistics with SPSS for Social Science (UK: for USA click here)
(Pearson, 2013)
Another book which covers SPSS is:
Lesley Andres
Designing and Doing Survey Research
(Sage 2012)
. . is less useful than texts listed below, but is is on my list of recommended survey methods textbooks as it places survey research and SPSS, firmly in a methodological context, and should be read by anyone working as, or aspiring to become, a survey researcher.
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, mini-manuals written for beginners as guides to the main manual.
The Longer Manual
The Shorter Manual (File not found)
[See also Web Page Materials for Statistical Methods for Psychology, 8th ed.]
See also:
On-line SPSS intros and tutorials (Hours of enjoyable learning)
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 for Windows books are totally different and use mainly the drop-down menus. The official SPSS Statistics Guides are:
1: PASW Statistics 18 Guide to Data Analysis
2: SPSS/PASW Statistical Procedures Companion
3: PASW Statistics 18 Advanced Statistical Procedures
However, they can be prohibitively expensive and are not particularly suitable for beginners. There are always new editions for later releases of SPSS. and Sussex University has a useful link to IBM SPSS Statistics 19 Brief Guide
Apart from Marsh and Elliott, Babbie et al., Boslaugh and Buckingham and Saunders, none of the books start from absolute scratch with where data come from in the first place (including problem formulation and research design) and, with the exception of Boslaugh and the more advanced Collier, none approach SPSS from a syntax perspective. That's partly why I have prepared the tutorials on this site.
See also:
David C Howell (1941 - 2018) retired in 2002 as Chair of Psychology at Vermont.
Book: Fundamental Statistics for the Behavioural Sciences 8th edition
Companion website: Fundamental Statistics for the Behavioural Sciences
His website contains a wealth of material including:
Statistical Methods for Psychology
Outline of the Statistical Pages Folder covering t-tests, chi-square, regression, R and much more.
his personally revamped SPSS Manuals
The Longer Manual
The Shorter Manual (File not found)
and links to some Great Web Sites (worth exploring, but some may no longer exist,)
My tutorials are based on the post-graduate Survey Analysis Workshop course I designed and taught (using SPSS-X on CDC, ICL, DEC and Vax mainframes) from 1976 to 1992. They have now been greatly expanded and updated for SPSS for Windows 15 to 23 (can't keep up with all these releases: 24 is already out!) and comprise gentle, step-by-step demonstrations (with full colour screenshots at each step) using colour-coded text and colour graphics, each step worked in both syntax and often also using the drop-down menus. There are many more tutorials for later stages to write and upload, but if you work through what's already there, you should be able to work easily with the books I've chosen. You might even become fluent in the SPSS command language and come over to the syntax camp!