For a long time, Barbara M. Byrne’s book “Structural Equation Modeling with AMOS” was the only textbook available that introduced and illustrated SEM using AMOS. In 2008, Niels J. Blunch published a book called “Introduction to Structural Equation Modelling using SPSS and AMOS”. The data sets used in the book can be downloaded from the publisher’s Web Site. Blunch’s book was recently reviewed in “Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal” (Volume 16, Issue 3, Pages 556 – 560, 2009). As the reviewers pointed out, one major drawback of the book is that Blunch chose the Visual Basic (VB) programming interface over AMOS’s graphics interface. However, I think the SEM community should highly appreciate that this book was written. Why? Because it contains brief treatments not covered by Bryne like classical test theory or reliability. Needless to say, as a collector of SEM textbooks, I had to buy this book, anyway. Less passionate colleagues contemplating a purchase should consider the following remark made by the reviewers: “It [the book] can be regarded as a good manual for the principles and practice of SEM for AMOS users as it provides a thorough rudimentary description of the VB syntax as well as an introduction to AMOS graphics using screen captures and annotated output” (p. 559).
