STATISTICAL PACKAGE FOR SOCIAL SCIENCE (SPSS)

HISTORY:
SPSS, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences has been developed by three PhD
students at the University of Stanford: (Norman H. Nie, C. Hadlai (Tex) Hull and Dale
H. Bent), after graduation.
Initially not meant for distribution outside their home university, the publication of the first
manual made SPSS widely known and used. Initially developed for IBM mainframe
computers, versions for most other important mainframe brands (Univac, CDC,
Honeywell...,) and later for the so-called minicomputers (like DEC, PR1ME,....) were
available. SPSS Inc. was then founded in 1975. In 2009 IBM acquired SPSS; it is now fully
integrated into the IBM Corporation Business Analytics Software portfolio.

Version history:
 SPSS 6 (1968), 7, 8, 9
 SPSSX (1983) (the X standing for version 10) was a major revision, SPSS X 2 and 3
followed, then the X was dropped and numbering of new versions continued SPSS
4,5,6
 SPSS 7, 8,…..15: Version 7, at least on some computers, had an interactive user
interface
 SPSS Statistics (2008) 16, 17.0: major revision, user interface rewritten in Java
(solved the problem of having different versions on different platforms. Now the
Windows, Mac and Linux versions are published at the same time. SPSS also added
"Statistics" to the name of the product formerly simply called SPSS.
 PASW Statistics (2009) 17.02 and version 18:: name change to Predictive Analytics
Software [note that on the SPSS Website PASW and SPSS Statistics were used inter-
changably]. The reason for this: when IBM accquired SPSS Inc, the brand name
"SPSS" was disputed; therefore IBM had to change the name of the product, until the
issue was finally solved in court.
 IBM SPSS Statistics (2010) - The new official name is now IBM SPSS Statistics and
is part of IBM's analytics portfolio.
 2018 50th Anniversary
 New versions nearly every year: Version 25 (2017).....28 (2021)

Before Microsoft Windows became the dominating platform on PCs, there was also a SPSS-
PC version for MS-DOS, a simplified version of the full SPSS, with an interactive, MS-DOS
based user interface.
The SPSS software package was created for the management and statistical analysis of social
science data. It was originally launched in 1968 by SPSS Inc., and was later acquired by IBM
in 2009. Officially dubbed IBM SPSS Statistics, most users still refer to it as SPSS.

SPSS FEATURES:

SPSS is a popular tool for research, experimentation, and decision-making. It is one of the
most widely used statistical software worldwide in the world for its attractive features. Here
are some of them:
1. Using SPSS features, users can extract every piece of information from files for the
execution of descriptive, inferential, and multiple variant statistical procedures.
2. Thanks to SPSS’ Data Mining Manager, its users can conduct smart searches, extract
hidden information with the help of decision trees, design neural networks of artificial
intelligence, and market segmentation.
 3. SPSS software can be used to solve algebraic, arithmetic, and trigonometric operations.
4. SPSS’s Report Generator feature lets you prepare attractive reports of investigations. It
incorporates text, tables, graphs, and statistical results of the report in the same file.
5. SPSS offers data documentation too. It enables researchers to store a metadata
directory. Moreover, it acts as a centralized information repository in relation to the
data – such as relationships with other data, its meaning, origin, format, and usage.

CONCLUSION:

SPSS helps scientists, researchers, business analysts, managers, and marketers during the
entire analytics process, starting from planning, data collection, data analysis, report creation,
and deployment. No matter what your business objectives are if you have a bunch of data that
you want to analyze, SPSS is one of the best statistical analysis tools that you can use.

INTRODUCTION:

The “Statistical Package for the Social Sciences” (SPSS) is a package of programs for
manipulating, analyzing, and presenting data; the package is widely used in the social and
behavioral sciences. SPSS also provides a toolbar for quick and easy access to common
tasks.

Initial SPSS for Windows dialogue box

THE DATA VIEW SPREADSHEET:

The Data Editor consists of two windows. By default the Data View, which allows
the data to be entered and viewed as shown in the display 1.2. The other window
is the Variable View, which allows the types of variables to be specified and
viewed. The user can toggle between the windows by clicking on the appropriate
tabs on the bottom left of the screen.
Data values can be entered in the Data View spreadsheet. For most analysis SPSS
assumes that rows represent cases and columns variables. For example, some of
five available variable values have been entered for twenty subjects. By default
SPSS aligns numerical data entries to the right-hand side of the cells and text
(string) entries to the left-hand side. Here variables sex, age, extrover, and car take
numerical
 Display 1.2 Data View window of the Data Editor.

values while the variable make takes string values. By default SPSS uses a
period/full stop to indicate missing numerical values. String variable cells are
simply left empty. Here, for example, the data for variables extrover, car, and make
have not yet been typed in for the 20 subjects so the respective values appear as
missing.
The appearance of the Data View spreadsheet is controlled by the View drop-down
menu. This can be used to change the font in the cells, remove lines, and make value
labels visible. When labels have been assigned to the category codes of a categorical
variable, these can be displayed by checking Value Labels (or by selecting on the
toolbar). Once the category labels are visible, highlighting a cell produces a button
with a downward arrow on the right-hand side of the cell. Clicking on this arrow
produces a drop-down list with all the available category labels for the variable.
Clicking on any of these labels results in the respective category and label being
inserted in the cell. This feature is useful for editing the data.

The Variable View Spreadsheet

Variable View spreadsheet serves to define the variables (Display 1.3). Each variable
definition occupies a row of this spreadsheet. As soon as data is entered under a
column in the Data View, the default name of the column occupies a row in the
Variable View.
Display 1.3 Variable View window of the Data Editor.
There are 10 characteristics to be specified under the columns of the
Variable View (Display 1.3):

1. Name — the chosen variable name. This can be up to eight alphanumeric

characters but must begin with a letter. While the underscore (_) is allowed,
hyphens (-), ampersands (&), and spaces cannot be used. Variable names
are not case sensitive.
2. Type — the type of data. SPSS provides a default variable type once
variable values have been entered in a column of the Data View. The type
can be changed by highlighting the respective entry in the second
column of the Variable View and clicking the three-periods symbol (…)
appearing on the right-hand side of the cell. This results in the Variable
Type box being opened, which offers a number of types of data including
various formats for numerical data, dates, or currencies. (Note that a
common mistake made by first-time users is to enter categorical
variables as type “string” by typing text into the Data View. To enable
later analyses, categories should be given artificial number codes and
defined to be of type “numeric.”)
Width — the width of the actual data entries. The default width of
numerical variable entries is eight. The width can be increased or decreased
by highlighting the respective cell in the third column and employing the
upward or downward arrows appearing on the right-hand side of the cell
or by simply typing a new number in the cell.

Display 1.4 Declaring category code labels.

3. Decimals — the number of digits to the right of the decimal place to be
 displayed for data entries. This is not relevant for string data and for such
variables the entry under the fourth column is given as a greyed-out zero.
The value can be altered in the same way as the value of Width.
4. Label — a label attached to the variable name. In contrast to the variable
name, this is not confined to eight characters and spaces can be used. It is
generally a good idea to assign variable labels. They are helpful for
reminding users of the meaning of variables (placing the cursor over the
variable name in the Data View will make the variable label appear) and can
be displayed in the output from statistical analyses.
5. Values — labels attached to category codes. For categorical variables, an
integer code should be assigned to each category and the variable defined to be of
type “numeric.” When this has been done, clicking on the respective cell under the
sixth column of the Variable View makes the three-periods symbol appear, and
clicking this opens the Value Labels dialogue box, which in turn allows assign- ment
of labels to category codes. For example, our data set included a categorical
variable sex indicating the gender of the subject. Clicking the three-periods symbol
opens the dialogue box shown in Display 1.4 where numerical code “0” was
declared to represent females and code “1” males.
6. Missing — missing value codes. SPSS recognizes the period symbol as
indicating a missing value. If other codes have been used (e.g., 99, 999)
these have to be declared to represent missing values by highlighting the
respective cell in the seventh column, clicking the three-periods symbol
and filling in the resulting Missing Values dia- logue box accordingly.
7. Columns — width of the variable column in the DataView. The default cell
width for numerical variables is eight. Note that when the Width value is
larger than the Columns value, only part of the data entry might be seen in the
Data View. The cell width can be changed in the same way as the width of
the data entries or simply by dragging the relevant column boundary. (Place
cursor on right-hand bound- ary of the title of the column to be resized.
When the cursor changes into a vertical line with a right and left arrow, drag
the cursor to the right or left to increase or decrease the column width.)
8. Align — alignment of variable entries. The SPSS default is to align
numerical variables to the right-hand side of a cell and string variables to
the left. It is generally helpful to adhere to this default; but if necessary,
alignment can be changed by highlighting the relevant cell in the ninth
column and choosing an option from the drop-down list.
9. Measure — measurement scale of the variable. The default chosen by SPSS
depends on the data type. For example, for variables of type “numeric,” the
default measurement scale is a continuous or interval scale (referred to by
SPSS as “scale”). For variables of type “string,” the default is a nominal
scale. The third option, “ordinal,” is for categorical variables with ordered
categories but is not used by default. It is good practice to assign each
variable the highest appropriate measurement scale (“scale” > “ordinal” >
“nominal”) since this has implications for the statistical methods that ar e
applicable. The default setting can be changed by highlighting the
respective cell in the tenth column and choosing an appropriate option from
the drop-down list.

A summary of variable characteristics can be obtained from the Utilities drop-

down menu. The Variables… command opens a dialogue box where information
can be requested for a selected variable, while choosing File Info from the drop-
down menu generates this information for every variable in the Data View.
 1.1 Storing and Retrieving Data Files
Storing and retrieving data files are carried out via the drop-down menu available
after selecting File on the menu bar (Display 1.5).

Display 1.5 File drop-down menu.

A data file shown in the Data Editor can be saved by using the commands Save or
Save As…. In the usual Windows fashion Save (or from the toolbar) will
save the data file under its current name, overwriting an existing file or prompting
for a name otherwise. By contrast, Save As always opens the Save Data As dialogue
where the directory, file name, and type have to be specified. SPSS supports a
number of data formats. SPSS data files are given the extension *.sav..
To open existing SPSS data files we use the commands File – Open – Data… from
the menu bar (or from the toolbar). This opens the Open File dialogue box
from which the appropriate file can be chosen in the usual way (Display 1.6).
Recently used files are also accessible by placing the cursor over Recently Used Data
on the File drop-down menu and double- clicking on the required file. In addition,
files can be opened when first starting SPSS by checking Open an existing data
source on the initial dialogue box (see Display 1.1).
SPSS can import data files in other than SPSS format. A list of data formats is
provided by selecting the down arrow next to the Files of type field (Display 1.6).

Display 1.6 Opening an existing SPSS data file.

SAV- To save progress
SPV- To save output