DISCOVERING STATISTICS USING IBM SPSS STATISTICS

I have had a fear of numbers since school, as my teacher showed little patience towards those of us who found statistics harder than the A grade students. As part of my psychology degree I have been forced to confront this fear. The modules at university have been dry to say the least, and this certainly makes learning more challenging. I was recommended this book and it has made statistics much more, dare I say, 'fun' for me to learn. My confidence is gradually growing; I thought it might be that I am just not intelligent enough to understand all this, but the book is proving me wrong :) I don't think statistics comes easy to me and I am having to re-read bits of the book to remember different concepts as there is a lot of learn but I have no doubt that it will sink in. This is not a reflection on the book or the way it is written by the way, it is just me having trouble with retaining lots of information. The book is great; it goes through statistical concepts and analyses starting from 1st year undergraduate to 3rd year and beyond, so things get more challenging as you go through the book. It also helps you learn how to use SPSS, which isn't overly complicated once you know your way around it, and Andy gives some humorous examples when explaining different statistical concepts which make the reading a lot easier. I would highly recommend this book to undergraduate students and postgraduate. Also check out Andy's website 'statistics hell' which has video tutorials and handouts which are equally as useful.

This is the most amazing book ever. It is an absolute must for any serious student of psychology who wants to get top marks in their undergraduate research work and particularly if pursuing research as a post graduate. The complex statistical theory is literally spoon-fed, so you can be sure to benefit greatly. For example, it speaks about why basing conclusions on merely the p-value is controversial and the importance of reporting and discussing effect size and what significant things this says about the data in the absence of a significant p-value. This is not to be missed by any researcher. Although the book does afford help in a glitch. The real benefit and learning will happen if you allocate the whole half term, for example, or time before commencing your studies, to peruse this book systematically, cover to cover. It is such an excellent teaching text, every effort should be made to use it as a course rather than simply a reference. The author presents the material in an extremely engaging format and uses excellent examples for illustration. I highly recommend answering the questions at the end of each chapter as these will show and fill gaps in understanding. By the end, you will be a research methods teacher. This books is a must.

Me and maths/statistics do not go together despite several attempts on my behalf to try and grasp it. Thankfully I stumbled upon this book during my doctorate degree and I can honestly say it was a lifesaver. I found that the content was explained in a straightforward, simple, accessible manner, with some rather amusing 'real-life' examples to illustrate the point. At first glance it seems to disregard the seriousness of statistics because it is filled with several jokes and self-disclosure (the author clearly loves cats), but once you look beyond that, it has a serious side. I havent read it page to page as i've only skipped to the sections relevant to me (muliple regression / factor analysis / t-tests, ANOVA) but from what I have seen, the author explains what the hell it is, why you would use it, what the mathmatic calculation is and then there is a step-by-step walkthrough. HOWEVER...I did find it a bit tooooooo much sometimes, in that I just wanted him to get to the point and tell me what line I would need to look at on my SPSS output and why. So for that reason, I ended up getting the SPSS survival guide too (but the SPSS survival guide can be a bit too basic). Therefore, both books together helped me do what I wanted and for once, I actually understood the statistics I was doing and why.

Super helpful for doing a psychology degree, book was recommended by my lecturer and although it's expensive for a book it is worth it because stats are confusing! Its full of jokes and pictures to make stats less boring and honestly did help me using SPSS. You could always borrow it from the library to help with the odd thing but it's good to have one to make notes in.

I think the book delivers exactly what it promises. There's no magic or mumbo jumbo, but a good straight forward way of describing what is what and what can be done in certain situations, as well some good examples for Psychology. It has a certain amount of humour in it too - which is really good considering the topic and how most of us feel about it. All in all great....

I have followed Andy Field's Discovering Statistics Using SPSS right from the first edition, back in the day. He has a hugely refreshing style and manages to cover very complex statistical concepts in ways that are accessible for the more statistically challenged. In fact Andy Field's books always leave me feeling I'm MUCH cleverer than I thought. His skill, not mine! I would recommend this book for all behavioural scientists from undergraduate through to post-doc and beyond. Brilliant.

My daughter is at university and is studying psychology and her course involves a lot of research methods and the library only has a certain amount of books available so she was better of buying the book without the hassle of having to wait until someone brought the book back or reserving it at her university library. I do find that the books she needs for uni are expensive but this is the cheapest one I've found so far so definitely worth it as it is important for my daughters studies.

A must have for any student (or professional) who has always felt confused by statistics! This is the quintessential manual on how to use SPSS and Andy Field’s explanation of statistics is the easiest to follow. You’ll be taken step-by-step through the entire process of using SPSS (something that no other book does as well as this one). The explanations are detailed and he includes many pictures and examples to illustrate his point.

In this book there is absolutely everything I have always needed to know about statistics and SPSS. It's extremely well written, examples are funny and easy to understand. It guides you through every step of the process, from choosing the statistics, to conducting it, interpreting it and reporting the results. I totally recommend it.

Ideal for researchers that need to master quantitative methods without being statisticians... Super funny as well, Andy is hilarious! i haven't finished reading the book yet, but i can't seem to find a chapter on cluster analysis.. It would be nice to have one in the next edition :)

Andy Field's wit is significant at the .00001 level! (I'm just worried my students wish he taught the course.) This book covers everything that one could possibly expect in a combined introductory/intermediate textbook, all for under $100, and how he manages to slip in a virtual SPSS manual to boot adds further value to this splendid text. OK, some of his humor is borderline pre-adolescent, but it counters the usual uncomfortable aura around Statistics, and he does impressively explain statistical concepts at various levels of difficulty with a conversational style that makes it easier for a student to digest. My only small gripe is Field does not mention basic chi-square until page 721, after covering topics such as multiple regression, MANOVA and factor analysis. (I like the bivariate analysis to come before the multivariate, but that is a small potatoes issue, and I sort of see why he did that to fill out a chapter.)

nachdem ich schon viel von diesem Buch gehört habe (von Dozenten, Studenten, Tutoren), hab ich mir diese neue Ausgabe hier zugelegt und bin sehr begeistert! Ich muss mich für die Prüfung in Multivariate vorbereiten und außer der Clusteranalyse (über die der Herr Field auch eine kurze Einführung geschrieben hat, die man leicht im Internet findet), ist eigentlich alles drin, was man braucht. Im Vergleich zur alten Ausgabe (die noch bei uns im Hiwizimmer lag), sind die Grafiken jetzt bunt und sehr schick - alles wirkt viel moderner und v.a. sind einige wichtige Erweiterungen (z.B. Mediator- und Moderatoranalyse) enthalten. Das Englisch ist wirklich super zu verstehen - es liest sich fließend, v.a. wenn man vom Studium schon das ein oder andere englische Paper gewohnt ist. Mit viel Humor und Ironie (die auch mal gegen sich selbst gerichtet sind), führt Andy Field durch die oft verwirrenden Themen d. Statistik und zeigt in jedem Kapitel, das im Prinzip alle Analysen auf ein und dasselbe Lineare Modell zurückzuführen sind. Damit ist unser (wirklich engagierter, aber didaktisch leider wenig hilfespendender Professor) auch erst jetzt im Masterstudium herausgerückt - schaffte es aber leider nicht so klar und z.T. unterhaltsam herüberzubringen, wie der Herr Field hier. Auch wenn die regelmäßig auftauchenden Comic-Figuren (allen voran Brian, der versucht das Statistik-Genie Jane zu beeindrucken, indem er alles über Statistik lernt) wohl nicht für jeden etwas sind, verleihen sie dem ganzen Thema doch einen zwangloseren Geschmack, strukturieren die Kapitel (liefern z.B. Zusammenfassungen o. SPSS-Tipps) und sind manchmal einfach ganz nett, um das Gehirn etwas zu entspannen ;-) Deshalb klare Empfehlung an alle, die Statistik wirklich mal verstehen wollen: kaufen! ;-)