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Introduction To SPSS and How To Use It

SPSS is a statistical software package used for data management and analysis. It allows users to enter data, define variables, perform statistical tests like correlations, regressions, t-tests and ANOVA, and display results in tables and graphs. The software provides options for running tutorials, entering new data, opening existing datasets and files. When entering new data, users define variables in the variable view including name, type, label and value codes before entering the actual data in the data view. This allows SPSS to properly analyze and represent the data.

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Jordine Umayam
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201 views7 pages

Introduction To SPSS and How To Use It

SPSS is a statistical software package used for data management and analysis. It allows users to enter data, define variables, perform statistical tests like correlations, regressions, t-tests and ANOVA, and display results in tables and graphs. The software provides options for running tutorials, entering new data, opening existing datasets and files. When entering new data, users define variables in the variable view including name, type, label and value codes before entering the actual data in the data view. This allows SPSS to properly analyze and represent the data.

Uploaded by

Jordine Umayam
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Introduction to SPSS and how to use it

SPSS is an acronym for “Statistical Package for Social Science” and is a Windows
based program which is used to perform different tasks like, data entry, analysis and
further presentation of results through tables and graphs. SPSS as software is
available to handle large amounts of data in order to perform the analysis. The
software finds its application most in terms of Social Sciences and Business World.

The software can be used to conduct the following operations:

1. Data Transformation

2. Data Examination

3. Descriptive Statistics

4. Reliability Tests

5. Correlation Tests

6. Regression Tests

7. T-Tests

8. ANOVA

9. Factor Analysis and many more

SPSS has scores of statistical and mathematical function with a flexible data
handling capability. It can read a number of data, i.e. numeric, alphanumeric, binary,
dollar, date, time, and further it also has data manipulation utilities.

Opening SPSS
1. Click of the SPSS Shortcut on the desktop, by simply putting the cursor on the
icon and double-click the left mouse button.

2. However, if you do not have a shortcut on the desktop then, click the Start
button on your desktop, and Click on All Programs. Search for SPSS 19.0 and
Click with the left mouse button to open.
How to work on SPSS?
1. Once the SPSS file (new file within the software) is open, a new dialogue box
opens, which gives user 6 options to choose from.

Start-up
dialogue box
 Run a Tutorial: which allows the user to run SPSS tutorial which explains
basic tools and tests which can be used within SPSS.

 Type in data: When the user needs to conduct a new analysis based on a
survey, they need to choose this option.

 Run an existing query: When the user wants to open an existing query and run
it in the SPSS software along with data on it which may have been obtained
from other sources or your friend.

 Create a new query using Database Wizard: This provides the user with an
opportunity to create a new query or new data set using a formulated
database wizard

 Open an Existing data: When the user wants to open a data saved in a folder
and run it on software
 Open another type of file: This is similar to option “e” only here one can open
a different type of files like MS Excel file.

Generally, we select “TYPE IN DATA” or “CANCEL”.

2. Now here for this example, the user will choose, Type in Data in order to
develop new query on SPSS, which is mostly applicable since we need to
develop new query with every new statistical assignment. Once you select
that there will be two views i.e. DATA VIEW and VARIABLE VIEW.

 DATA view: It displays the actual data (i.e. responses from respondents who
participated in the survey) of the variables which you have created (See
Figure 2 given below)
Data View in
SPSS
 VARIABLE view: It displays the variables which are defined by name, type,
size, alignment, decimal including other information (See Figure 3 given
below)
Variable View
in SPSS

Further, what each of these parameters signifies is described in Figure 4 given below:

Variable View
 Name: Name of the variable. For example, in the case of demographic
factors, “name” will be Age, Income, Gender, etc.

 Type: Indicates if the data is Numerical, String (alphabet), date, currency, etc.


“age” is represented in number. Usually, since we do coding/ calculations for
all the questions in a questionnaire, we do not use the “String” option. We only
use “Numerical” option. Therefore for example, even if “Gender” is ideally “M’
or “F”, we will code them as “1” and “2” respectively for calculation purposes.
 Width: Defines the Width of the value in the “Data View” sheet of SPSS. The
width will impact the representation of really big words such as
“arachnophobia” or “cardiovascular disease” in the tables or graphs.
Generally, we keep the Width at “8”.

 Decimals: Defines up to how many decimal levels the value is to be


considered. Usually, it should be 0. Only in case of complex scientific
experiments where even .001 difference in result matters, we define the
decimal points.

 Label: Signifies the name or label of the variable (“Age of respondent”,


“gender of respondent”, etc.). The exact label described in this column will
appear in the tables/ graphs.

 Values: The Coded value of the variable for each question is signified. For
example, if one question in the questionnaire has 5 options (Strongly agree,
Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly Disagree), then they will be represented as
the following values:

o
 Strongly agree (Label)= 1 (Value)

o
 Agree= 2

o
 Neutral= 3

o
 Disagree= 4

 Strongly Disagree= 5

 Missing: There could be instances within data, where the respondent has not
replied due to one or more reasons like “Not applicable” or “Don’t know”, in
such cases it is important to define the missing value (i.e. blank in the
datasheet/view). Steps to define Missing value have been explained in detail
in Article: Introducing Data. However, in most of the cases, these sections are
untouched in most of the studies.

 Columns: Defines the width of the column in Data view. This is generally left
untouched.

 Align: Signifies the alignment in the box in Data View. This can be left, right
or centre.
 Measure: Options to choose from, scale, ordinal and nominal. For details
about the difference between all the 3, refer to the article (Difference between
Ordinal, Nominal and Scale).

This article presented the basics of what SPSS is actually about. In the next
article, Introducing Data, I will be discussing how the SPSS sheet is filled for the
new query.

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