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Acknowledgments

In 2002, I was requested by the faculty of social sciences of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands to reframe some statistical courses. The emphasis was shifted from theoretical knowledge toward practical applications, and this book is a result of that process. My thanks to Professor Scheepers, with whom I had discussions regarding simple methods to teach SPSS to social science students who wanted to apply statistics in their research but found it difficult. The Dutch version of this handbook was published mainly to cater to the needs of such students. Our intention was to remove fear from the minds of students who wanted to learn statistics and instill confidence in them. In the Netherlands, over the years, the Dutch version has become a best seller. It is part of the syllabi in five universities and in many college schools. The best compliment, however, came from a student of anthropology: “It is unbelievable that a subject as dull as statistics has been made so interesting!” Even after a decade this statement brings a smile on my face. I am also grateful to the University of Applied Sciences, Hengelo, the Netherlands for requesting me for an English edition in 2013, which paved the way for this international edition. Finally, I would like to thank Anita, Lotte, and Tommy for their love and concern.

—Manfred te Grotenhuis

As a student, even during my college days I got frustrated looking at the massive volumes of SPSS, which were not user friendly. The students who are not familiar with statistics found application of SPSS often difficult. It was during my internship and thesis that I got the opportunity to work on a more practical method to make learning SPSS easy. My thanks to Professor Scheepers for his valuable inputs and suggestions (in the Dutch version) regarding easy application of SPSS for students, which have been included in this book.

—Anneke Matthijssen

We express our gratitude to Matthew “Iron Man” Bennett for correcting our initial manuscripts and for providing indispensable inputs regarding the usage of English. We extend our special thanks to all the students from Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, whom we had the privilege to teach and who in turn contributed to the improvement of our lecture materials over the past 12 years. We thank the authorities in IBM SPSS who allowed us to use the screenshots of their program. Last but not least, we are most grateful to copyeditor Krishna Pradeep Joghee and the staff at SAGE Publications, in particular Vicki Knight, who immediately saw merits in this project.

The authors and SAGE Publications also acknowledge Robert Carter, University of Louisville; Patrick Kelly, Saint Louis University; Angela Pirlott, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire; and Ayana Conway, Virginia State University, for their useful contributions to this text.