This document provides an introduction to SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) software. It discusses opening and closing SPSS, the structure and windows of SPSS including the Data View and Variable View windows for entering data. It defines key concepts in SPSS like variables, different types of variables (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio), and the process of defining variables in the Variable View window by specifying name, type, width, labels, values etc. before entering data. Examples are given around designing an experiment with independent and dependent variables and dealing with extraneous variables.

1. Introduction to SPSS
Nazia.ashraf1536@gmail.com

2. Objectives
• To describe opening and closing SPSS
• To introduce the look and structure of SPSS
• To introduce the data entry windows: Data
View and Variable View
• Entering data
• Basic data analysis

3. Research??Is it just finding something??

5. What is research
Investigate systematically
“ The systematic investigation into and study of
materials and sources in order to establish facts
and reach new conclusions”

6. We already know a research process
consists of
• Identification of a problem
• Review of literature
• Formulate a hypothesis/ Question
• Find appropriate research design
• Collection of data
• Data analysis
• Results

7. Introduction: What is SPSS?
“Statistical package for social sciences”
One of the most popular statistical packages
which can perform highly complex data
management and analysis with simple
instructions.

8. Statistics
Statistics is the science of collecting, organizing,
presenting, analyzing and interpreting numerical
data to assist in making more effective
decisions/conclusions.

9. Why we need SPSS

11. Uses of SPSS
• Data management
• Data analysis

12. What is a variable
• Any characteristic which is subject to change
and can have more than one value.
• Anything that has a quantity or quality that
varies.

13. Variable ??

14. Types of variables

15. Variables affect each other

16. Dependent variable
• Variable affected by the independent variable
• It responds to the independent variable

17. Independent variable
• Variable that is presumed to influence other
variable
• It is the presumed cause whereas the
dependent variable is the presumed effect

19. Example
• You are interested in how stress affects
mental state of human beings
• Independent variable : stress
• Dependent variable : mental state of H.B
You can manipulate stress level and measure
how those stress levels change mental state

20. Example 2
Prizes affects student’s motivation
Prize :
Independent variable
Student’s motivation:
dependent variable

21. Extraneous variable
• Any variable other than dependent or
independent variable

22. Extraneous variable
• Extraneous variables are undesirable variables
that influence the relationship between the
variables an experimenter is examining

23. example
• Two groups of students are made.
• All of the students study text material on a
biology topic for thirty minutes. One group
uses a new strategy and other uses a strategy
of its own choice
• Then all students complete a test over the
material.
• Extraneous knowledge… pre knowledge of the
topic.

24. Intervening/confounding variable
• It is a variable whose existence is inferred but
it can not be measured

25. Example
• Determining the effects of video clips on
learning ability of students
• The association between the video clips and
learning ability is to be explained
other variables intervene
• Such as anxiety , fatigue etc.

26. TASK
• Create an experiment of your own choice
showing
• A dependent variable which is effected by a
independent variable
• Any extraneous variable affecting the
experiment
• Time Allowed 5 minutes

27. Nominal or categorical variable
• They can be measured only in terms of
whether the individual items belong to
certain distinct categories
• Different numbers for different objects
• We can not quantify or rank/order the
categories
• Nominal data has no order

28. Example
• Gender 1.male
2. female
• Martial status 1. married
2. unmarried

29. Ordinal variable
• Ordinal data has an order but the intervals
between the scale points may be uneven.
• Numbers have meaningful order
• A typical example of ordinal data is the
socioeconomic status of the families
• Lower
• Middle
• Upper

30. Interval
• Numbers have orders but there are also equal
intervals between adjacent categories
• Example : temperature in degrees
• 43
• 44
• 45

31. Ratio
• Differences are meaningful ( like interval) plus
now ratios are also meaningful and there is a
true zero point
• Example: weight in pounds
• 10 lbs is twice as much as 5 lbs(ratios are
meaningful) 10/5=2 and
• Zero pounds means no weight or an absence
of weight

32. • SPSS comes into the picture after data has
been collected (questionnaire)
• Questions in the questionnaire are mapped
into variables in SPSS

33. Opening SPSS
• Double click the SPSS icon on the desktop
OR
• Start/Programs/SPSS for Windows/SPSS**

34. • The default window will have the data
editor
• There are two sheets in the window:
1. Data view 2. Variable view

38. The data entry process
• Define your variables in Variable View
• Enter the data, the values of the variables, in
Data View

39. Definition of variables
• Name
• Values
• Type
• Missing
• Width
• Column
• Decimals
• Align
• Label
• Measure

40. Variable View window
• Name
– The first character of the variable name must be alphabetic
– Variable names must be unique, and have to be less than 64
characters.
– Spaces are NOT allowed.

41. Variable View window: Type
• Type
– Click on the ‘type’ box. The two basic types of variables
that you will use are numeric and string. This column
enables you to specify the type of variable.

42. Variable View window: Width
• Width
– Width allows you to determine the
number of characters SPSS will allow to
be entered for the variable

43. Variable View window: Decimals
• Decimals
– Number of decimals
– It has to be less than or equal to 16
3.14159265

44. Variable View window: Label
• Label
– You can specify the details of the variable
– You can write characters with spaces up
to 256 characters

45. Variable View window: Values
• Values
– This is used and to suggest which
numbers represent which categories
when the variable represents a
category

46. Defining the value labels
• Click the cell in the values column as shown below
• For the value, and the label, you can put up to 60
characters.
• After defining the values click add and then click OK.
Click

47. 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

48. Practice 1 (Solution Sample)
Click

49. Click

50. 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