- Welcome
- Important notice
- About the author
- About this site
- Site guide + Search box
- Dedications
- Acknowledgments
- My personal pantheon (of the great and the good in survey research)
- Recent and planned activities
- 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
- Contact
- Origins of the British Crime Survey
- British Crime Survey
Textbooks: Statistics for Social Research
[New page 11 November 2013; last updated 26 January 2019]
I wasn't going to include a section on statistics textbooks, but that was a fond hope, so I've decided to include a few which are suitable for students doing research methods in sociology, social policy, political science and similar subjects. There is also an Electronic Statistics Textbook (Statsoft Inc., 2013) which has introductory sections suitable for beginners.
Most books listed below are new references on this site, but some are also listed under SPSS textbooks.
Hot off the press is;
Tiffany Bergin (Author profile: LinkedIn)
An Introduction to Data Analysis: Quantitative, Qualitative and Mixed Methods (Publisher blurb)
(Sage 2018)
Tiffany Bergin is clearly an experienced and effective teacher, reminiscent of the late Cathie Marsh (both authors taught research methods at Cambridge). This book is informed by professional experience outside academia and is recommended as required reading in research methods (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed) for courses in sociology, social policy and related areas. It can serve either as a course text or as a self-teaching aid.
Well organised and easy to use, written in a no-nonsense style, addressing the reader throughout as "you" with emphasis on learning by doing hands-on with real data, it is full of sound practical advice and stresses the importance of organising your work and especially on communicating your findings. For my initial comments see Bergin 2018
Robert de Vries (Author profile, Kent.ac.uk)
Critical Statistics
(Macmillan, Red Globe Press, 2018)
. . is a brand new book which looks ideal for users of this site. For my initial comments see de Vries 2018.
A nice little introductory book for beginners is:
Manfred de Grotenhuis and Theo van der Weegen
Statistical Tools: an Overview of Common Applications in Social Sciences (file not found)
(van Gorcum, 2009)
Slightly more formal, but still accessible for beginners, is:
Ian Diamond and Julie Jeffries
Beginning Statistics: An Introduction for Social Scientists
(Sage 2001, but a new edition is promised)
By far the best book combining statistics and SPSS is:
Andy Field
Discovering Statistics Using SPSS
(3rd ed., Sage, 2009)
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.
John MacInnes’
An Introduction to Secondary Data Analysis with IBM SPSS Statistics
(Sage 2017)
. . has the same pedagogic approach as me, but progresses to more advanced statistical analysis and model building. The companion website Student resources is open to all. This first edition contains some SPSS syntax errors and the companion website can be confusing is difficult to navigate.
To make it easier to use I have prepared an
Aide-mémoire for easier navigation of companion website
. . and detailed critical commentaries on:
MacInnes_Chapter 4: Getting Started with SPSS
MacInnes, Chapter 5 Dealing with Data Documentation
Some of the URLs have been changed:
MacInness 2017 (Web links) is a full list of all the previous and current links .
For full details of my comments on the book, see page MacInness (2017)
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,)
Stephen A. Sweet, and Karen Grace-Martin
Data Analysis with SPSS: A First Course in Applied Statistics
(4th Edition, Pearson, 2012)
Classic texts (if you can still find them) include:
Hans Zeisel
Say It With Figures (5th edition)
(Harper and Row, 1968)
Hubert Blalock
Social Statistics
(McGraw-Hill, Revised 2nd edition, 1981)
Loether & McTavish
Descriptive Statistics for Sociologists
(Allyn & Bacon, 1974)
Loether & McTavish
Descriptive and Inferential Statistics for Sociologists
(Allyn & Bacon, 1977)
Not strictly a stats teaching text, but an interesting critical overview (awaiting review on this site) is:
Geoff Payne and Malcolm Williams [Ed]
Teaching Quantitative Methods: getting the basics right
(Sage 2011)
I wasn't going to include a section on statistics textbooks, but that was a fond hope, so I've decided to include a few which are suitable for students doing research methods in sociology, social policy, political science and similar subjects. There is also an Electronic Statistics Textbook (Statsoft Inc., 2013) which has introductory sections suitable for beginners.
Most books listed below are new references on this site, but some are also listed under SPSS textbooks.
Hot off the press is;
Tiffany Bergin (Author profile: LinkedIn)
An Introduction to Data Analysis: Quantitative, Qualitative and Mixed Methods (Publisher blurb)
(Sage 2018)
Tiffany Bergin is clearly an experienced and effective teacher, reminiscent of the late Cathie Marsh (both authors taught research methods at Cambridge). This book is informed by professional experience outside academia and is recommended as required reading in research methods (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed) for courses in sociology, social policy and related areas. It can serve either as a course text or as a self-teaching aid.
Well organised and easy to use, written in a no-nonsense style, addressing the reader throughout as "you" with emphasis on learning by doing hands-on with real data, it is full of sound practical advice and stresses the importance of organising your work and especially on communicating your findings. For my initial comments see Bergin 2018
Robert de Vries (Author profile, Kent.ac.uk)
Critical Statistics
(Macmillan, Red Globe Press, 2018)
. . is a brand new book which looks ideal for users of this site. For my initial comments see de Vries 2018.
A nice little introductory book for beginners is:
Manfred de Grotenhuis and Theo van der Weegen
Statistical Tools: an Overview of Common Applications in Social Sciences (file not found)
(van Gorcum, 2009)
Slightly more formal, but still accessible for beginners, is:
Ian Diamond and Julie Jeffries
Beginning Statistics: An Introduction for Social Scientists
(Sage 2001, but a new edition is promised)
By far the best book combining statistics and SPSS is:
Andy Field
Discovering Statistics Using SPSS
(3rd ed., Sage, 2009)
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.
John MacInnes’
An Introduction to Secondary Data Analysis with IBM SPSS Statistics
(Sage 2017)
. . has the same pedagogic approach as me, but progresses to more advanced statistical analysis and model building. The companion website Student resources is open to all. This first edition contains some SPSS syntax errors and the companion website can be confusing is difficult to navigate.
To make it easier to use I have prepared an
Aide-mémoire for easier navigation of companion website
. . and detailed critical commentaries on:
MacInnes_Chapter 4: Getting Started with SPSS
MacInnes, Chapter 5 Dealing with Data Documentation
Some of the URLs have been changed:
MacInness 2017 (Web links) is a full list of all the previous and current links .
For full details of my comments on the book, see page MacInness (2017)
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,)
Stephen A. Sweet, and Karen Grace-Martin
Data Analysis with SPSS: A First Course in Applied Statistics
(4th Edition, Pearson, 2012)
Classic texts (if you can still find them) include:
Hans Zeisel
Say It With Figures (5th edition)
(Harper and Row, 1968)
Hubert Blalock
Social Statistics
(McGraw-Hill, Revised 2nd edition, 1981)
Loether & McTavish
Descriptive Statistics for Sociologists
(Allyn & Bacon, 1974)
Loether & McTavish
Descriptive and Inferential Statistics for Sociologists
(Allyn & Bacon, 1977)
Not strictly a stats teaching text, but an interesting critical overview (awaiting review on this site) is:
Geoff Payne and Malcolm Williams [Ed]
Teaching Quantitative Methods: getting the basics right
(Sage 2011)