About the Book

The internationally successful, user-friendly guide that takes students and researchers through the often daunting process of analysing research data with the widely used SPSS software package. Fully revised and updated for IBM SPSS Statistics version 26.

The SPSS Survival Manual throws a lifeline to students and researchers grappling with this powerful data analysis software.

In her bestselling guide, Julie Pallant guides you through the entire research process, helping you choose the right data analysis technique for your project. From the formulation of research questions, to the design of the study and analysis of data, to reporting the results, Julie discusses basic and advanced statistical techniques. She outlines each technique clearly, with step-by-step procedures for performing the analysis, a detailed guide to interpreting data output and an example of how to present the results in a report.

For both beginners and experienced users in psychology, sociology, health sciences, medicine, education, business and related disciplines, the SPSS Survival Manualis an essential text. Illustrated with screen grabs, examples of output and tips, it is supported by a website with sample data and guidelines on report writing.

This seventh edition is fully revised and updated to accommodate changes to IBM SPSS Statistics procedures, screens and outputs.

Table of Contents

Preface
Data files and website
Introduction and overview

Part One: Getting started
1. Designing a study
2. Preparing a codebook
3. Getting to know IBM SPSS Statistics

Part Two: Preparing the data file
4. Creating a data file and entering data
5. Screening and cleaning the data

Part Three: Preliminary analyses
6. Descriptive statistics
7. Using graphs to describe and explore the data
8. Manipulating the data
9. Checking the reliability of a scale
10. Choosing the right statistic

Part Four: Statistical techniques to explore
relationships among variables
11. Correlation
12. Partial correlation
13. Multiple regression
14. Logistic regression
15. Factor analysis

Part Five: Statistical techniques to compare groups
16. Non-parametric statistics
17. T-tests
18. One-way analysis of variance
19. Two-way between-groups ANOVA
20. Mixed between-within subjects analysis of variance 21. Multivariate analysis of variance
22. Analysis of covariance

Appendix: Details of data files
Recommended reading
References
Index

‘‘This book is recommended as ESSENTIAL to all students completing research projects - minor and major.”
— Dr John Roodenburg, Monash University

This is what readers from around the world say about the SPSS Survival Manual.

. . . highly recommended for both beginners and experienced SPSS users . . . an invaluable resource . . . SPSS is a powerful tool for data management and statistical analysis and this user-friendly book makes it very accessible.

— Dr Polly Yeung, Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work

I just wanted to say how much I value Julie Pallant’s SPSS Survival Manual. It’s quite the best text on SPSS I’ve encountered and I recommend it to anyone who’s listening!

— Professor Carolyn Hicks, Health Sciences, Birmingham University, UK

Having perceived myself as one who was not confident in anything statistical, I worked my way through the book and with each turn of the page gained more and more confidence until I was running off analyses with (almost) glee. I now enjoy using SPSS and this book is the reason for that.

— Dr Marina Harvey, Centre for Professional Development, Macquarie University, Australia

Julie Pallant has hit the sweet spot with this incredibly helpful book. She takes the reader through how to use IBM SPSS for statistical analysis with absolute clarity. Practical examples are used, based on sample data sets, which build confidence in using IBM SPSS from absolute beginner to more advance usage.

— A. Byrne, Amazon.co.uk

‘Not buying this manual would have been the biggest mistake of my academic experience.

— Israel Katura James, Amazon.com

Julie Pallant is a saint and responsible for the successful graduation of hundreds and hundreds of students, including myself.

— Kopitzee Parra-Thornton, PhD, St Joseph Health, US

Best book ever written. My ability to work the maze of statistics and my sanity has been SAVED by this book.

— Natasha Davison, Doctorate of Health Psychology, Deakin University, Australia

Whenever a student asks my advice on what textbook to use to help them with SPSS and statistical testing, it is always Julie Pallant’s text that I pull off the shelf for them. This text is ideal for getting to the point of the test. What students find most useful are the sections providing examples of how to report the results. Personally, I am never without a copy of Pallant on my bookshelf: one at home and one at the office.

— Dr Hazel Brown, University of Winchester, UK

I found this book to be a revelation. I could not have completed my honours thesis in psychology without it. The way in which this book is structured leads the reader in the right direction and leaves no stone unturned.

— Elizabeth Carey, Corlette, Australia

Simply the best book on introductory SPSS that exists. I know nothing about the author but having bought this book in the middle of a statistics open assignment I can confidently say that I love her and want to marry her. There must be dozens of books that claim to be beginners’ guides to SPSS. This one actually does what it says. Totally brilliant.

— J Sutherland, Amazon.co.uk

An excellent introduction to using SPSS for data analysis. It provides a self-contained resource itself, with more than simply (detailed and clear) step-by-step descriptions of statistical procedures in SPSS. There is also a wealth of tips and advice, and for each statistical technique a brief, but consistently reliable, explanation is provided.

— Associate Professor George Dunbar, University of Warwick

An excellent introduction to using SPSS for data analysis. It provides a self-contained resource itself, with more than simply (detailed and clear) step-by-step descriptions of statistical procedures in SPSS. There is also a wealth of tips and advice, and for each statistical technique a brief, but consistently reliable, explanation is provided.
— Associate Professor George Dunbar, University of Warwick

About the Author

JULIE PALLANT has spent many years helping students overcome 'statistics phobia' in her roles as Director of Research and Graduate Studies in the Department of Rural Health at the University of Melbourne, and Senior Lecturer in Applied Statistics at Swinburne University. She has worked as a counselling psychologist, and has taught psychology, statistics and research methods at a number of universities. She now works as a research and statistical consultant internationally.