SPSS Statistics for Data Analysis and Visualization

Chapter 1 Comparing and Contrasting IBM SPSS AMOS with Other Multivariate Techniques

Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) truly is a family of techniques, and the literature offers many dedicated texts, both introductory and advanced. IBM SPSS AMOS, the tool we discuss in this chapter, is both a standalone tool and integrated with SPSS Statistics (in that they share .sav data files) with a long history as part of the SPSS family. Since IBM acquired SPSS in 2009, it has marketed it in a variety of ways, sometimes bundling with add-on modules causing potential confusion that it is an add-on module itself. It has its own unique graphical user interface (GUI). The chapter spends a substantial amount of time analyzing a single case study dataset using several approaches before turning our attention to AMOS, so it is a good review of multivariate techniques in SPSS Statistics. It should prove valuable on this level as well as an introduction to SEM, even if you never acquire AMOS. Certainly, you should consider downloading an AMOS trial to explore the case study results and to get a richer introduction to AMOS, but the chapter should be clear even if you don’t attempt using the AMOS interface.

Although AMOS is unique in the book in that it has its own GUI, this chapter doesn’t discuss the GUI in detail. The focus is on interpretation of results and what makes the AMOS approach special. The standard approach in this book is to spend considerable time performing steps in the SPSS Statistics ...