Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

SPSS

IBM¯ SPSS¯ Statistics Version 18.0, formerly called PASW Statistics and most commonly referred to as simply SPSS, is a computer-based data management and inferential statistical analysis program. It is widely used in many fields, such as psychology, sociology, market research, business, and government. SPSS, originally named the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences(r), was first developed by graduate students in 1968 to address a growing need for statistical tools that could be performed by computers. SPSS started as a small university-owned tool and quickly became adopted more widely by businesses and government entities. It has since undergone major revisions in software, corporation, and ownership, and it has recently acquired smaller companies, incorporating their products into their line, such as SYSTAT (statistical software), Deltagraph (graphing), and Quantime (market research). SPSS produces versions of their software for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems, with frequent version updates and a separate student version as well.

Capabilities

There are two primary ways to use SPSS, with the Graphic User Interface (GUI) dialog boxes or with SPSS syntax, scripts, and macros. The GUI offers ease of use and a shallow learning curve, whereas the latter options offer greater flexibility, automation, and access to features that are not otherwise available through the GUI. For users who wish to transition from the GUI to syntax, any action permitted by a dialog box can be easily translated into an SPSS syntax window by using the “paste” button in a dialog box. In addition to enhanced flexibility, SPSS syntax also allows users to create an archive of the analyses previously conducted and allows users to recalculate previous analyses without clicking through all the options in the dialog boxes.

The SPSS GUI has three fundamental windows: the data editor, the syntax window, and the output window. The data editor uses a spreadsheet (“data view”) and integrated variable descriptor editor (“variable view”) for data management. The syntax window allows users to save and execute commands generated by the dialog boxes or to create specialized code for organizing and analyzing data. The results of analyses are organized and shown in the output window. All dialog box operations are available from each of the three types of windows.

The built-in SPSS tutorials are useful reference tools that can be accessed through the help menu in any of the GUI windows. SPSS also includes a syntax reference that explains the syntax structure for most or all of the statistical operations that can be performed.

Included with SPSS are several sample data sets, such as portions of the 1991 U.S. General Social Survey data, which are included to help new users acclimate to the software by offering examples of how users can structure data sets for particular analyses as well as for conducting practice analyses with appropriate data.

Data Management

SPSS can accommodate large data sets that have many thousands of variables and cases. Traditionally, SPSS data files are arranged such that individual variables are in columns and cases (participants or observations) are in rows. In addition to the data view, where actual data are entered and stored, there is also a variable view, which functions as a code book. Each variable name can be expanded into a more descriptive name by using the label option in the variable view (earlier versions of SPSS placed an 8-character limit on variable names; current versions of the program limit variable names to 64 characters). Each variable must be assigned a format such as numeric, string, or date; for numeric variables, the type of measurement might also be specified (i.e., scale, nominal, and ordinal). SPSS also provides the opportunity to assign meaningful labels to numeric values of variables (e.g., 1 = male and 0 = female). Other options in the variable view spreadsheet mode include defining the number of decimals displayed, determining the width of the variable columns, and specifying missing variables. SPSS automatically recognizes empty cells as missing; however, sometimes it is useful to assign a unique code for missing data to make it easier to check for data entry errors or to suit the particular needs of a project. Data might also be entered and saved in a SPSS syntax file using the data list command.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution