Introduction to SPSS SPSS is a software package

Introduction to SPSS

� SPSS is a software package used for statistical analysis. � Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, later modified to read Statistical Product and Service Solutions. � It is now termed as “ IBM SPSS Statistics”. It is also bundles with products for survey authoring and deployment (IBM SPSS Data Collection), data mining (IBM SPSS Modeler), text analytics and collaboration and deployment (batch and automated scoring services).

� At Stanford University in the late 1960 s, Norman H. Nie, C. Hadlai (Tex) Hull, and Dale H. Bent developed the original software system named Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). They needed to analyze a large volume of social science data, so they wrote software to do it. It later promoted with other researchers in Universities and Institutions across the globe. � Presently, it is used by market researchers, health researchers, survey companies, government, education researchers, marketing organizations and others.

� In addition to statistical analysis, data management (case selection, file reshaping, creating derived data) and data documentation (a metadata dictionary is stored in the data file) are features of the base software. � SPSS was released in its second version in 1972 and its company name is INDUS Nomi.

� Work on SPSS begins with by defining a set of variables , then one enter data for the variables to create a number of cases.

� The purpose of this software is to integrate the whole quantitative data analysis process: Planning > data collection > analysis > identify trends > reporting > produce accurate forecasts. Survey data collated in an Excel spreadsheet, Word table, Access database can be imported to SPSS.

� Easy to use � Covers broad range of statistical procedures. � Contains several tools for recoding data, computing variables, merging and aggregating datasets. � It is easy to learn. � It includes a full range of data management system and editing tools � It provides in-depth statistical capabilities � It offers complete plotting, reporting and presentation features.

� Statistics included in the base software: � Descriptive statistics: Cross tabulation, Frequencies, Descriptive, Explore, Descriptive Ratio Statistics � Bivariate statistics: Means, t-test, ANOVA, Correlation (bivariate, partial, distances), Nonparametric tests � Prediction for numerical outcomes: Linear regression � Prediction for identifying groups: Factor analysis, cluster analysis (two-step, K-means, hierarchical), Discriminant.

� Larger datasets such as statistical surveys are more often created in data entry software, or entered during computer-assisted personal interviewing, by scanning and using optical character recognition and optical mark recognition software, or by direct capture from online questionnaires. These datasets are then read into SPSS. � Statistical output is to a proprietary file format (*. spv file, supporting pivot tables) for which, in addition to the in-package viewer, a stand-alone reader can be downloaded.

� The proprietary output can be exported to text or Microsoft Word, PDF, Excel, and other formats. � Alternatively, output can be captured as data (using the OMS command), as text, tab-delimited text, PDF, XLS, HTML, XML, SPSS dataset or a variety of graphic image formats (JPEG, PNG, BMP and EMF). � Between 2009 and 2010, SPSS Inc. referred to its primary product lines under the PASW (Predictive Analytics Soft. Ware) banner, rather than referring to both the company and its products as "SPSS".

One can easily run an analysis if; � All the data is entered into SPSS. � All cases are defined by values stored in the variables. q SPSS reads through all your cases, performs the analysis , and presents you with the output as tables or graphs. q You can instruct SPSS to draw graphs and charts directly from your data in the same way you instruct it to do an analysis. You select the desired graph from the menu, assign variables to it, and click OK. q

q Not only does SPSS require that you select a sufficient number of variables to produce output, it also requires that you choose the right kinds of variables. If a categorical variable is required for a certain slot, SPSS will not allow you to choose any other kind. q Whether the output makes sense is up to you and your data, but SPSS makes certain that the choices you make can be used to produce some kind of result.

� Current 26. 0. version of SPSS is IBM SPSS Statistics