Getting Started With SPSS

What Is SPSS?

SPSS stands for Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Many people assume that use of SPSS software is limited to statistics or social science applications. However, it is a powerful application that allows you to read almost any kind of data, analyze data, and create reports and graphs. SPSS looks similar to Excel and similar spreadsheet programs.

Data Management and Analysis

SPSS allows you to manipulate data in different ways. You can create new variables, fix problems with data entry, change the data to a different scale, e.g., to percentage correct, and more. Information on getting your data into SPSS and in the format you want can be found on the SPSS data management page.

SPSS performs many different types of data analysis, from simple descriptive statistics to logistic regression to reliability measures. Getting output is easy. Getting output in the form that you want may take a little more work. You can find suggestions and answers to frequently asked questions on the SPSS statistics page.

Graphs and Reporting

Creating graphs and reports in SPSS is relatively easy. However, achieving the exact formatting that you would like will take a little work.

To learn how to format graphs in SPSS, see the SPSS graphics page.

The basic version of SPSS software creates plain reports. If you need additional features, you will need to purchase add-on packages. You can see an example and learn more about SPSS reports on the SPSS reports page.

Last updated: Monday, July 13, 2009, 16:46PM PDT