Learning SAS/SPSS

[jortin10]

I am looking for resources where I can learn how to use SAS and SPSS. Any great books or websites is greatly appreciated.

[globalnomad]

I'm currently working my way through Kirkpatrick and Feeney's "A simple guide to IMP SPSS Statistics". Like the title says, it's very simple, at times, too simple it seems. But so far, it's been a great way for me to get reintroduced to SPSS. It walks you through both the point-and-click and the syntax methods, and includes how to conduct various procedures (t-test, ANOVA, multiple regression etc). There are great screen shots of what you might encounter.

I also picked up "SPSS Essentials: Managing and analyzing social science data". I haven't opened that one was yet so maybe someone else can chime in.

[MaxiJaz]

I am looking for resources where I can learn how to use SAS and SPSS. Any great books or websites is greatly appreciated.

Is it possible to take a stats elective in your program?. I need SAS (I'm familiar with SPSS) for my thesis, but the software seems to be out of my reach, and I think I learn programming a lot better via instruction and homework. Thus, I was advised to take 2 stats electives to cover the breadth of SAS

Edited July 23, 2012 by MaxiJaz

[Dal PhDer]

Hi there,

Are you looking just strictly to learn how to operate the programs, or also how to do statistics....these are very different things.

SPSS is very straight forward with most functions being point and click. I would recommend starting out with SPSS point and click, then move into SPSS syntax writing- I found SPSS very easy to learn and made working in other statistics programs easier as most of them are command/syntax base.

You can also find most (if not all) syntax commands on the internet through a google search. I know there are lots of great reference sites for SPSS, STATA and R...I am assuming there would be a lot out there for SAS.

I always found that the best way to learn how to use the programs was to sit down with a dataset and ask my own questions. Guided labs never really helped me and often didn't cover important first steps- database generation or data cleaning.

[Ruminare]

Hi there! I am the creator of a series of YouTube tutorials on SAS. Saw your post here on these forums and made an account to let you know about it. All of the videos are free and teach you how to use SAS from the very basics. So far, there aren't too many statistical tutorials (they're more data-oriented atm), but more videos will come in time if you want to subscribe! Hope it helps. Link is here:

I also have a few SPSS tutorials with more to come:

[jortin10]

Thanks everyone for their input and thank you Ruminare for the link. I want to work in the field of Educational Research as an analyst or researcher, and many jobs require proficiency in SPSS, SAS, R, or STATA. I am familiar with SPSS, but my problem is that many programs teach you how to use the program but not which test to run for different scenarios. I guess I would have to take a graduate level intro to STAT course. I'll try to see if any of the MOOC have free courses.

[randompsychologist]

Dear Ruminare... thank you for the link to your series!!! I'm trying to teach myself SAS and then, eventually, R.

For SPSS I used this book (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1847879071/?tag=hyprod-20&hvadid=15473431659&hvpos=1o1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2097698287976950686&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&ref=asc_df_1847879071) by Andy Field when starting out.

This book is good for things not covered in the other book (http://www.amazon.com/SPSS-Introductory-Intermediate-Statistics-Interpretation/dp/0415880475/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345407764&sr=1-1&keywords=intermediate+statistics+spss).

[Dal PhDer]

There is also A LOT of great resources that you can find via google- that are free! It is especially helpful if you are using syntax- you can just copy, paste, edit and run! It's a breeze!

[oldpsycho]

Try SPSS Step by Step by Cole Davis: http://www.coledavis.org/policypress.html

[juilletmercredi]

SPSS:

SPSS Survival Manual: A step by step guide to data analysis using SPSS by Julie Pallant

Discovering Statistics Using SPSS by Andy Field (great book)

 

SAS:

The Little SAS Book: A Primer, by Lora Delwiche and Susan Slaughter (currently on the 5th ed. I think)

Discovering Statistics Using SAS by Andy Field and Jeremy Miles (I have never used this one, but I have used the one for SPSS and it's good, so I'm assuming this one is good too.

 

 

There are also a lot of online resources for syntax for both, like ats.ucla.edu.

 

I spent hours Googling, sitting in front of SAS in the lab and referencing books to teach myself.  Personally, I preferred that to a class.