Hi all,

I've posted a couple of questions about stats here recently, because I'm somewhat lacking in knowledge of the area. I get a bit of time off this summer, so I was wondering if anyone can recommend any stats books, or books which are good to help novices learn to use SPSS, or perhaps stats and SPSS combined. I don't need a huge knowledge of stats, as I'll probably just use varieties of t-test, ANOVA etc, nothing too complex, but it would still be good to have a working knowledge of these things...

Matt

I'd really recommend Andy Field's 'Discovering statistics using SPSS'. It's really helped me during my PhD as I'm hopeless with statistics! :-)

I've seen that one, Catnap, although it's slightly more than I was hoping to spend. Still, if it's the only book I need then it's worth it. Does it also give details about how to enter data, graphs, etc, or is it purely stats?

4matt - have a look on statisticshell.com - it really has most of the book contents on it, but in individual hand outs. e.g. one on data entry, one on t-tests etc etc.

I would recommend getting the book though - its an investment, its essentially my bible.

Hi

I find stats and spss really difficult, and hard to get my head around. I have the Field book as wel, but to be honest, for me, i find it quite difficult in bits. although some of it was helpful. I found the 'SPSS survival manual' by J Pallant, the best book i've ever come across. it's really simple to understand, and takes you through every aspect from setting up your data sheet, entering your data to performing statistical tests. It explains really clearly what each type of test should be used for, and i find it explains even really complicated stats in a way that's really easy to understand. and you can easily dip in and out of it for specific bits of information. It's definatly the spss/stats book i would recommend.

I'm so very very bad at understanding stats language that the Andy Field book is too complicated for me...:$ Instead I've found the Choosing and Using Statistics: A Biologists Guide to be amazing. It's be Calvin Dytham, and it;s really accessible and easy to understand, plus the examples are all biology ones, I can't get my head around the psychology examples. It doesn't include everything, but it's gives a really good basis that you can understand what you need to get.

yeah, the Andy field is very psychology/social science based. And to really get it you have to read through chapters again and again, but when you have you definitely understand it all, rather than knowing which tables to look at, you know what the table actually means!

Try youtube as well - there are videos on there that literally guide you through each test. (although if your data is difficult e.g. non-normal then it can be trickier)

Oh wow, now I have three choices, all of which seem viable. I might pop down to my library and see if any are in stock, although I suspect they only have the Field one...

Well, having looked at the Field and Pallant books, I definitely prefer the former - the Pallant book looks pretty hard to read. I'm still interested in the Dytham book too though...

This is a list of all the Field handbooks in case you can't afford the book. ALthoguh on Amazon I think Field (2009) is only about £25

http://www.statisticshell.com/cocytus.html

I learned SPSS from Kinnear and Gray SPSS made simple. It also gives some basic information on stats tests such as which to use.

Maybe I should add that my field is biomedical, so the vast majority of my statistics are relating to things in dishes, and I think it's unlikely that I'd habve to go much beyond t-test, ANOVA, and their non-normally distributed equivalents. That said, epidemiology is something I could move into in the future, so anything which gives me extra knowledge now would be useful.

forget the books look at this profs stats notes website http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/PA765/statnote.htm . the backround info on every statistic easy to navigate and includes everything inluding examples. My paper had been rejected i went to the site read the statistics and learned about Factorial ANOVA and Mulivariate anova... its published in A+ journal.

I'd definitely recommend the Andy Field material. I was taught all my SPSS knowledge by Andy as a lowly undergrad, and compared to anything else I've seen is really relatable and simplified. In real-life he aids teaching by dressing up as Santa and throwing chocolate at the students, brilliant...but not transferable in a book!!
If you look on his Statistics Hell website, all the class handouts are there and are less overwhelming than the book if you are after a specific test. But the book is a great bible to have for all problems.