1.2 Software
AMOS
I will rely exclusively on AMOS as the structural equation modeling software for this course. There are many other SEM packages out there, but AMOS is the current leader and has been for at least a decade. I imagine it will continue to enjoy relevance and usefulness at least for another few years, if not another decade.
AMOS is currently owned and maintained by IBM. Obtaining a copy of AMOS will be critical for completing this course. You will not be able to finish the SEM assessments without AMOS.
I am not a licensed distributor for AMOS. I cannot provide you with a free or discounted license. Your best options are, in order of cost: (1) Use a license provided by your institution. Most research-oriented institutions will already have a site license. If you are a student, ask your faculty advisor if he or she has a copy you can install on your computer. Sometimes university libraries already have the software installed on their public computers. (2) If no institution support exists for AMOS, obtain a copy from the "academic superstore." Make sure you purchase the AMOS Graphics version. Avoid a limited version (such as a trial version). The trial version, and other limited licenses for AMOS, restrict the number of variables and the sample size allowed for analysis. (3) If you must purchase the full-priced version, it is available from IBM's website. Just search for "purchase AMOS Graphics" in your favorite search engine and you will find the relevant link to the most recent version.
Regarding versioning, the videos in this course will use AMOS version 25 (the most recent version as of the making of this course). This version is largely similar to most previous versions. The major difference between version 25 and versions 23 and lower is the location of plugins (an optional part of this course). Versions lower than 20 might not support user-defined estimands (also optional). Versions after 25 may also change, but I cannot anticipate that. I will keep the course as current as possible as new versions are released. For example, version 28 of AMOS changed something in the codebase that makes a few of the plugins incompatible. I'm currently (as of Sept 2021) working on a solution. I appreciate your patience and your willingness to conduct analyses without the plugins when necessary.
Up to date, AMOS only works on Windows operating systems. For those running a different operating system (such as a Mac OS), AMOS can be run virtually through a Citrix Server (if your institution provides that service), or on a parallel installation of Windows on your computer.
SPSS
For the majority of first-generation statistics (such as t-tests, ANOVA, simple linear regression, correlation, etc.), I will rely on IBM's SPSS. Whereas many advanced statistical packages are syntax (code) interfaces, requiring some programming skills, SPSS is a graphical user interface with menu systems. I use SPSS because it is an industry leader and because it is easy to use for the largest range of students.
As with AMOS, I am not a licensed distributor. Please refer to the three options listed above for how to obtain AMOS, as they are the same for obtaining SPSS. SPSS and AMOS have parallel release schedules, so I will also use SPSS version 25 for this course. SPSS has also remained fairly stable across version releases, so I do not anticipate needing to regularly update the content of this course as new versions are released. However, I will keep it as current as possible.
Unlike AMOS, SPSS does run on Mac and Windows. However, if you are using a Mac, I recommend installing SPSS on your Windows OS, so that they are in the same OS. During this course, you will occasionally go back and forth between AMOS and SPSS, so it is nice to have them in the same place.
Other Software
This course will also make use of Microsoft Excel (although the user can use any spreadsheet software, such as Google Sheets or Numbers for Mac). Beyond this, I have made some plugins for AMOS and some custom code (user-defined estimands) for AMOS to automate several tedious procedures. These automating tools are mostly optional. I will show in my videos how to conduct most analyses with and without the automating tools. For those who desire to use the tools but run into issues with installation and running the plugins or estimands, please refer to the StatWiki Troubleshooting page.