Basics about spss, Introduction, data view, variable view

1. Introduction to SPSS

2. SPSS - AN INTRODUCTION
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
SPSS was initially developed in 1965 at Stanford University in California.
SPSS is a registered trademark of SPSS Inc.
The software was originally meant for the social sciences, but has become popular in other fields
such as health sciences and especially in marketing, market research and data mining..
To begin with, SPSS was DOS based; now it is WINDOWS based; a number of versions are
released and the latest is SPSS 25.0.

3. IBM acquired spss.com!!!
Between 2009 and 2010 the premier software for SPSS was called PASW (Predictive Analytics
Software) Statistics.
The latest version is - IBM SPSS Statistics 25

4. The Core Functions of SPSS
SPSS offers four programs that assist researchers with their complex data analysis needs.
Statistics Program
SPSS’s Statistics program provides a plethora of basic statistical functions, some of which include
frequencies, cross tabulation, and bivariate statistics.
Modeler Program
SPSS’s Modeler program enables researchers to build and validate predictive models using
advanced statistical procedures.

5. The Core Functions of SPSS
Text Analytics for Surveys Program
SPSS’s Text Analytics for Surveys program helps survey administrators uncover powerful insights
from responses to open ended survey questions.
Visualization Designer
SPSS’s Visualization Designer program allows researchers to use their data to create a wide
variety of visuals like density charts and radial boxplots with ease.

6. The First Screen …

8. The Main Screen

9. This provides
view about the
data.
This view provides a
platform to define
variables and their
characteristics.

10. The Variable View
…

11. This view is used to define a variable.
1. Its name.
2. Type
3. Width
4. Decimals
5. Labels
6. Values
7. Missing
8. Columns
9. Align
10.Measure

12. Name
Each variable must have a unique name of not more than 8 characters and
starting with a letter
Try to give meaningful variable names:
Describing the characteristic: for example, age
Linking to the questionnaire: for example, A1Q3
Keep the names consistent across files

13. Rules for Variable Name

14. Type
Internal formats:
◦ Numeric - Numeric measurements, Codes, Definition of the size of the variable
◦ String (alphanumeric)- String variables contain words or characters; strings can include numbers but,
taken here as characters, mathematical operations cannot be applied to them. The maximum size of a
string variable is 255 characters
◦ Date- The input format for date variables must be defined, such as DD/MM/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY or
MM/DD/YY
Computers store dates as numbers from a base date; in SPSS, dates are stored as the number of
seconds from 14 October 1582

15. Type
Output formats:
◦ Comma
◦ Dot
◦ Scientific notation
◦ Dollar
◦ Custom currency

16. Width and Decimals
◦ Width =
◦ Width allows you to determine the number of characters SPSS will allow to be entered for the variable
◦ # of digits displayed in data view
◦ Decimals = # of decimal places displayed in data view
It has to be less than or equal to 16

17. Labels
Descriptors for the variables
Name of variable displayed when running analyses
Maximum 256 characters
Used in the output

18. Values
Value labels are descriptors of the categories of a variable Coding
Value Labels – i.e. 1 = Male, 0 = Female

19. Missing
Values that the system will recognize as missing
Defines missing values
The values are excluded from some analysis

20. Columns and Align
Columns sets the amount of space reserved to display the contents of the variable in Data View;
generally the default value is adequate
Align sets whether the contents of the variable appear on the left, centre or right of the cell in
Data View
Numeric variables are right-hand justified by default and string variables left-hand justified by
default; the defaults are generally adequate

21. Measure
Levels of measurement:
◦ Nominal
◦ Ordinal
◦ Interval
◦ Ratio
In SPSS, interval and ratio are designated together as Scale
The default for string variables is Nominal
The default for numeric variables is Scale

22. This view is used to enter
and edit data. (Data Editor)

23. DR. SANKET VIJ, B. P. S. WOMEN UNIVERSITY, KHANPUR KALAN, SONIPAT
Output and Draft Viewer

24. DR. SANKET VIJ, B. P. S. WOMEN UNIVERSITY, KHANPUR KALAN, SONIPAT

25. DR. SANKET VIJ, B. P. S. WOMEN UNIVERSITY, KHANPUR KALAN, SONIPAT

26. DR. SANKET VIJ, B. P. S. WOMEN UNIVERSITY, KHANPUR KALAN, SONIPAT

27. DR. SANKET VIJ, B. P. S. WOMEN UNIVERSITY, KHANPUR KALAN, SONIPAT

28. DR. SANKET VIJ, B. P. S. WOMEN UNIVERSITY, KHANPUR KALAN, SONIPAT

29. DR. SANKET VIJ, B. P. S. WOMEN UNIVERSITY, KHANPUR KALAN, SONIPAT

34. Loglinear is a technique used
in statistics to examine the
relationship between more
than two categorical variables.

35. You find factor analysis here

36. Here, You will find reliability
analysis

52. Practice 1
How would you put the following information into SPSS?name gender height
sheryl female 5.7
jennifer female 5.4
tara female 5.3
christian male 5.6
jose male 5.8
roberto male 5.7
kasie female 5.5
cady female 5.5
sandy female 5.6
daniel male 6
kurra female 5.4
ashley female 5.4
alain male 6.1

53. Practice 1 (Solution Sample)
Click

54. Click

55. Saving the data
To save the data file you created simply click ‘file’ and click
‘save as.’ You can save the file in different forms by clicking
“Save as type.”
Click