What do the spirit, vitality, etc. stats affect?

Question

What do the attribute values such as "Spirit" and "Vitality" do in FF7? I know one of these helps to reduce damage, but an explanation of what each category does would be helpful for early-game strategies (I'm replaying!).

Answer

Spirit affects magic defense. Having more spirit lowers incoming magic attack damage.

One note from the wiki:

The player's overall Magic Defense was intended to be a sum of the character's Spirit stat and the MDef value of their armor, but due to a bug in the coding, the MDef value is not used and Spirit alone determines the character's Magic Defense.

Vitality affects physical defense. High vitality lowers damage from physical attacks.

EDIT: There's a full guide here (Thanks for the wiki link):

http://faqs.ign.com/articles/452/452504p1.html

Pasted relevant information:

?================?================?==========================?===============?
| Stat Name      | Purpose        | How Stat is Increased    | Stat Maximum  |
?================?================?==========================?===============?
| Strength       | Attack Power   | Power Sources            |       255 (+) |
|                |                | Gaining Levels           |               |
?----------------+----------------+--------------------------+---------------?
| Dexterity      | Speed (ATB)    | Speed Sources            |       255 (+) |
|                |                | Gaining Levels           |               |
?----------------+----------------+--------------------------+---------------?
| Vitality       | Attack Defense | Guard Sources            |       255 (+) |
|                |                | Gaining Levels           |               |
?----------------+----------------+--------------------------+---------------?
| Magic          | Magic Power    | Magic Sources            |       255 (+) |
|                |                | Gaining Levels           |               |
?----------------+----------------+--------------------------+---------------?
| Spirit         | Magic Defense  | Mind Sources             |       255 (+) |
|                |                | Gaining Levels           |               |
?----------------+----------------+--------------------------+---------------?
| Luck           | Critical Hits  | Luck Sources             |       255 (+) |
|                |                | Gaining Levels           |               |
?----------------+----------------+--------------------------+---------------?

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