A Crash Course in SPSS for Windows
Third Edition
Updated for Versions 10, 11, 12, and 13Andrew Colman and Briony Pulford
2006, Oxford: Blackwell. Pp. xiv + 861. ISBN 0-19-861035-1 (pbk), 978-0-19-861035-9 (pbk), 0-19-280632-7 (hbk), 978-0-19-280632-1 (hbk).
(2nd edition 2003 by Rod Corston and Andrew Colman; 1st edition 2000 by Rod Corston and Andrew Colman)
Third edition review:
"This textbook provides an inexpensive and quick way to become familiar with SPSS. True to its title, the book presents an abbreviated introduction to SPSS without being brusque. The authors expect novices to be able to complete the book in under 10 hours. For those familiar with the Windows operating system and spreadsheet programs (e.g., Excel), the material can completed in a few hours less. . . . Overall, the book delivers a quick and easy to follow introduction to SPSS suitable for novices." (J. Wade Davis in The American Statistician, February 2007, Vol. 61, No. 1, p. 99)
Contents
Preface to the Third Edition
Choosing an Appropriate Statistical Procedure
Where to Find Things in SPSS
1. Introduction
2. Using Windows
2.1 Running SPSS for Windows
2.2 Resizing and moving a window
2.3 The Data Editor
2.4 Entering data
2.5 Scrolling
2.6 Saving data
2.7 Exiting SPSS for Windows
3. Loading Data and Printing
3.1 Loading data
3.2 Printing an entire data set
3.3 Printing a selection of data
4. General Descriptive Statistics
4.1 Analysing data
4.2 Means, standard deviations, and other measures
4.3 Cutting and pasting
4.4 Pasting data into a Word document
5. Correlation Coefficients
5.1 Background
5.2 Pearson’s correlation coefficient
5.3 Spearman’s rho
6. Chi-square Tests
6.1 Background
6.2 The chi-square test of association
6.3 Naming variables and labelling values
6.4 Data input and analysis
6.5 The chi-square goodness-of-fit test
7. Independent-samples, Paired-samples, and One-sample t Tests
7.1 Background
7.2 The independent-samples t test
7.3 The paired-samples t test
7.4 The one-sample t test
8. Mann–Whitney U and Wilcoxon Matched-pairs Tests
8.1 Background
8.2 The Mann–Whitney U test
8.3 The Wilcoxon matched-pairs test
9. One-way Analysis of Variance
9.1 Background
9.2 Data input
9.3 Analysis
9.4 Results
10. Multifactorial Analysis of Variance
10.1 Background
10.2 Data input
10.3 Analysis
10.4 Results
11. Repeated-measures Analysis of Variance
11.1 Background
11.2 Data input
11.3 Analysis
11.4 Results
12. Multiple Regression
12.1 Background
12.2 Data input
12.3 Analysis
12.4 Results
13. Log-linear Analysis
13.1 Background
13.2 Data input
13.3 Analysis
13.4 Results
14. Factor Analysis
14.1 Background
14.2 Data input
14.3 Analysis
14.4 Results
15. Charts and Graphs
15.1 Background
15.2 Bar charts
15.3 Pie charts and simple line graphs
15.4 Multiple line graphs
15.5 Scatterplots
16. Handling Variables and Large Data Files
16.1 Recoding to create new variables
16.2 Computing new variables
16.3 Handling large data files
17. Syntax Windows
17.1 Background
17.2 A worked example
17.3 Some syntax procedures
Appendix 1: Handling Dates
Appendix 2: Exporting and Importing Excel Files
References
Index
Preface to the Third Edition
With the help of this Crash Course, you should be able to learn SPSS for Windows quickly and painlessly, provided that you have some background knowledge of statistics. The package is not hard to use, and the basics can be explained without fuss. In our experience, busy people dislike spending large amounts of time learning computer applications. We believe that most SPSS manuals are far more cumbersome than they need to be. Learning SPSS for Windows with more conventional manuals is time-consuming and quite an ordeal.
This book is designed to make things quicker and easier. It grew out of a specific need, and it proved popular because it filled a gap in the market, although since the first edition, some flattering imitations have appeared. Almost all computational examples in A Crash Course are taken from real data in published research, rather than hypothetical examples such as are found in most statistics and computing books, but we have chosen small data sets to minimize the time and boredom involved in inputting data.
The contents and presentation of the book were greatly improved by usability trials that we carried out for the first edition. We sent a rough draft of the book to 15 students and academics at a dozen different universities, all of whom had expressed a wish to learn SPSS for Windows but had no previous knowledge or experience of it, and we asked them to work through it carefully, making notes of everything that they found unclear or felt could be improved, and keeping a record of the time taken to complete the course. The results were enormously helpful. Our readers came up with comments, criticisms, and helpful suggestions for every chapter. These responses enabled us to produce a revised version incorporating a vast number of improvements, big and small, and we know of no other SPSS manual that has had the benefit of such systematic feedback from the end-users for whom it is intended. The time taken to complete the course in the usability trials ranged from five and a half to nine hours, with a mean of just under seven hours (6 hours 52 minutes, to be exact), usually spread out over several sessions. The content has expanded slightly since then, but most readers should still be able to complete the course within about 10 hours.
The first two chapters are written with complete beginners in mind. They describe the basic features of Windows and explain from the very beginning how to get the SPSS package up and running. If you already have some familiarity with Windows-based applications, then we suggest that you just skim these introductory chapters, paying attention to the less familiar information in sections 2.3 and 2.4. Chapter 3 describes how data are loaded and printed in SPSS for Windows, and this will also be fairly familiar territory to many readers. The remaining chapters describe the most widely used statistical techniques and graphic facilities available in SPSS for Windows.
Most of the procedures covered in this book are included in the SPSS for Windows Base System. The exceptions are repeated-measures analysis of variance (chapter 11) and log-linear analysis (chapter 13), both of which are supplied with the SPSS Advanced Models Option (originally called Advanced Statistics) that has to be purchased separately. If you don’t have the Advanced Modules option, then you should just skip those chapters.
The first edition of the Crash Course, published in 2000, was designed for use with Versions 8 and 9 of the SPSS. The second edition, published in 2003, was for Versions 10 and 11. The changes for the second edition were largely matters of detail, but there were many of them. In almost every paragraph, small alterations had to be made to accommodate changes in SPSS from Versions 8 to 11. We are very explicit about exactly which keys to press, so even minor alterations necessitated textual changes. For the second edition, in response to requests from readers, we also added two completely new chapters, chapter 13 on log-linear analysis and chapter 14 on factor analysis.
This third edition has become necessary because of further minor modifications introduced in SPSS Versions 12 and 13. The procedures themselves have remained largely unchanged, but various small improvements and alterations to the Data Editor, Output Viewer, Chart Editor, and dialog boxes mean that a user running SPSS 12 or 13 cannot always follow the key strokes precisely as set out in the second edition. The principal substantive changes for this edition are the addition of two short chapters, one on "Handling Variables and Large Data Files" (chapter 16), another on "Syntax Windows" (chapter 17), and a new appendix on "Exporting and Importing Excel Files". We have deleted the section on importing text files, and we have rewritten some passages to improve clarity and readability. The earlier editions of this Crash Course were well received by readers, many of whom have been in touch with us, and there has been a steady demand for it throughout the English-speaking world. But there is always room for improvement, and the new co-author for the third edition has brought a fresh pair of cerebral hemispheres to the task.
SPSS 10 and 11 run under Windows 95, 98, 2000, or NT operating systems, and later versions also run under Windows ME and (from SPSS 11.0.1 onwards) Windows XP. The Macintosh versions of SPSS for Windows operate with only minor deviations from the procedures that we describe in this book.
We are grateful to everyone who took part in the usability trials, and to others who have offered technical advice and help of various kinds. In particular, we wish to express our gratitude to Joseph Amoah-Nyako, John Armstrong, John Beckett, Sarah Bird, Mark Bowers, Kenneth Cowley, Simon Dunkley, Joanne Emery, Sarah Fishburn, Gerry Gardner, Erica Grossman, Rob Hemmings, Richard Joiner, Geoff Lowe, Sandy MacRae, Rhonda Pearce, Ian Pountney, Caroline Salinger, Berni Simmons, Kathy Smith, Helga Sneddon, Jonathan Stirk, David Stretch, Catherine Sugden, Johnny Sung, Carolyn Tarrant, Cathy Thorp, Gary van Heerden, Stephen L. White, Sue Wilson, and Alison Wray.
We have made the book as straightforward as possible, but we haven’t made it totally idiot-proof, partly because that would not have been possible and partly because only an idiot would want to read an idiot-proof book. But we’ve done our best to make it clear, explicit, and user-friendly, and we’d very much appreciate hearing from students and researchers about any further improvements that might be worth introducing into future editions. We’ll acknowledge everyone who offers helpful suggestions unless they ask us not to. Feel free to e-mail us directly about the contents or presentation of the book, or write to us care of the publisher, but please don’t ask us for statistical help or advice.
Andrew Colman (amc@le.ac.uk)
Briony Pulford (bdp5@le.ac.uk)
Online support material to accompany this text is available at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/crashcourse