Understanding and Applying Research Design

6

USING SPSS IN RESEARCH

This is an introduction to using SPSS, a very powerful statistical software program. Ordinarily, research methods and design courses do not teach readers to use this software. Most such courses typically discuss the nature of research designs without “getting their hands dirty in data.” This book does not take this approach. We want to examine the key issues of research design and then use real-world data to show you how to create your own analyses and interpret research findings.

By using statistical software, we can place more attention on understanding how to interpret findings. Our approach encourages you to focus on how to understand and make applications of the results of research findings. SPSS and other statistical programs are efficient at performing the analyses; the key issue in our approach is how to interpret research results in the context of research questions.¹

REAL-WORLD DATA

As mentioned, we focus on using real-world data in this book. One reason is that you need to be grounded in approaches you can use with “gritty” data. We want to make sure you are prepared to encounter the little nuances that characterize every research project.

Another reason we use real-world data is to familiarize you with contemporary research questions in social science and public health. Classroom data often are contrived to make a certain point or demonstrate a specific research design, which are both helpful. But we believe it is important to draw the focus ...