Resources to be a statistics user, not a statistician?

Hi guys,

I am in social sciences and due to the nature of my specific field, I have always been involved in qualitative research. However, now I think I would like to develop my research portfolio to also include the experience of managing quantitative research projects. Unfortunately, I struggle a little bit in handling numbers, maybe it is just how my brain is wired!

To address this, I would like to take online courses on conducting some statistical functions like logistic regressions and time series, for examples. However, most resources like textbooks and the online courses that I subscribed to, are geared towards training learners how to be statisticians. So, their materials are very heavy on the formulas and the philosophy behind the development of the functions. Currently, I have access to courses in Coursera and my observations are limited to this platform.

As of now, I have managed one quantitative research project using multiple regression and I have successfully published an article thanks to practical guides by others. I understood the purpose of conducting regression analysis, the basic assumptions, how to conduct the operations in SPSS and how to interpret the numbers. For me, I think learning these practical knowledge is enough for me as social scientist. However, most resources go beyond these and ask learners to commit to heavier materials like using R and to understand formulas and the advanced symbols. I believe these would be important if you want to be a data scientist, but I think due to the nature of my academic background, I am more interested in using statistics to understanding social issues, hence I just would like to be a statistics user.

With that in mind, I’m looking for resources tailored to someone like me: practical, user-friendly guides that focus on applying statistical methods in social science research, preferably with a focus on SPSS. Do you know of any books, courses, or other resources that fit this description?

Thank you and I really appreciate your help.