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Title: Discovering Statistics Using SPSS (Introducing Statistical Methods series)
ISBN: 1847879063
Author:
Andy Field
Publicate Date: 2009-01-23
Publish: 2009-01-23
List Price: $150.00
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $150.00
Amazon Merchant Price: $150.00
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Bless you, Andy Field!
This should be the first book you buy if you need help with stats and SPSS. When I first began doing empirical research I knew almost nothing about statistics or SPSS, and had to learn virtually everything I needed to know about complex multivariate tests on my own. I had suffered through many of the relevant, canonical books before I happened upon Field. It was a V-8 moment. Not only does the book explain everything in engaging, easy to understand, often hilarious terms (a favorite example is the caption of the photo of statistician Bonferroni: "Carlo Bonferroni before the celebrity of his correction lead to drink, drugs and statistics groupies"), but again and again it answered questions I had that other sources didn't address in a practical way. One example out of many is how to calculate and interpret effect sizes, which SPSS doesn't calculate for all multivariate tests, or calculates using a measure that has been widely criticized. Field describes the rationale behind several measures of effect size as well as formulas for calculating them, including clear indicators of where to find the data in SPSS output.
Other reviewers have commented that this book is light on theory. I don't know enough about statistical theory to know if this is a valid criticism. But, I do think the book provides ample and detailed "whys" behind the "hows" that I haven't found elsewhere and that were necessary to help me justify the tests I run and how I interpret them. The level of detail and abstraction, in my opinion, is completely appropriate for most researchers and students.
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2: A relief when help was needed!
This book was an enormous help to me in writing my doctoral dissertation. Now, I am a Communications scholar and I did a content analysis, so I didn't need to master a lot of highly advanced techniques. But nor had I taken courses that taught statistics in any depth. I was feeling quite at sea on some things. And for a dissertation, you really have to understand things, so you can defend it at the end. Although I had other statistics books and they certainly were helpful, this one that walked me through the tests I had been doing and -- quite simply, with patience and good humor -- helped me to understand why they were necessary and basically how they worked. I liked the fact I could read much or as little detail as I could absorb at the time -- there are quick summaries, clearly marked, or longer, quite simple explanations for those in a hurry, as well as in-depth explanations for things you really need to know thoroughly. It was having those choices that made this book incredibly helpful.
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3: Finally statistics is easy to understand
This book is perfect!! Very informative, the layout is systematically and on top of it all; statistics becomes fun. It is a pleasure to read this book!!
Thanks to Andy Field which made my life as a PhD easier!!:O)
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4: Andy Field is absolutely brilliant!
Useful and entertaining stats books are hard to come by but this one has hit the mark! Comprehensive and clear explanations of statistical theory are provided as well as of SPSS output. Love the examples and icons. Who would have thought a stats text could make me laugh out loud?!
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5: must have text!
dr. field has done an excellent job of making stats understandable and spss user friendly. as a social psychology grad student, i enjoy the ease of use found with the index. if i forget the differences in rotation methods for factor analysis, i can quickly find clear explanations in the book. i suggest to all grad students and advanced undergrads using spss to get a copy of this text!
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