Understanding Social Statistics
- Jane Fielding - University of Surrey, UK
- Nigel Gilbert - University of Surrey, UK
The textbook covers everything typically included in an introductory course on social statistics for students in the social sciences and the authors have taken the opportunity of this Second Edition to bring the data sources as current as possible. The book is full of up-to-date examples and useful and clear illustrations using the latest SPSS software.
While maintaining the student-friendly elements of the first, such as chapter summaries, exercises at the end of each chapter, and a glossary of key terms, new features to this edition include:
- Updated examples and references
- SPSS coverage and screen-shots now incorporate the current version 14.0 and are used to demonstrate the latest social statistics datasets
- Additions to content include a brand new section on developing a coding frame and an additional discussion of weighting counts as a means of analyzing published statistics
- Enhanced design aids navigation which is further simplified by the addition of core objectives for each chapter and bullet-pointed chapter summaries
- The updated Website at http:/www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/uss/index.html reflects changes made to the text and provides updated datasets
A valuable and practical guide for students dealing with the large amounts of data that are typically collected in social surveys, the Second Edition of Understanding Social Statistics is an essential textbook for courses on statistics and quantitative research across the social sciences.
This is a very comprehensive guide to the use of social statistics. This text does as it says. It takes 'the fear out of using numbers in social research'. This text would be useful for both undergraduate and master's students completing an introduction to statistics course or embarking on using SPSS for the first time. The text begins with an introduction to quantiatative research and builds up to the use of various statistical techniques from the more straightforward to the more complex. Throughout there are numerous illustrations which facilitate keeping pace with the concepts that are introduced. This is certainly an invaluable guide for any student taking those first steps into social statistics.
I recommended the book for this time, since the programme was already mainly settled for the term. However, I aim to replace the current text book and would make Understanding Social Statistics the core reading next time.
The great advantage of the book is the step-by-step guide through SPSS. The avoidance of formulas by and large provides an easy introduction to statistics for students who are reluctant to engage with statistics. Once they know how easy it can be to produce meaningful results, they are more likely to use them in the future and understand the logic of it. formulas can always be introduced at a later stage for more advanced students. However, I would recommend to use it only in conjunction with a general methods book that covers qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches as well as research design and mixed methods.
The book was limited in scope
Very good introduction to statistics, very good intro to SPSS.
I will strongly recommend this book to all students who will be using quantitative methods in their studies.
This is an excellent text and covers many of the data operations in SPSS that often get little attention. I also approve of the inclusion of equations, rather than shying away from them.
I have used the previous version of this book and have found it to be extremely useful and benefical to the course.
Sage College Publishing
