A NOTE ON SPSS

SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was released in its first version
in 1968 after being founded by Norman Nie and ! "adlai "ull! Nie was then a #olitical
science #ostgraduate at Stanford $niversity% and now &esearch Professor in the
'e#artment of Political Science at Stanford and Professor (meritus of Political Science at
the $niversity of hicago! SPSS is among the most widely used #rograms for statistical
analysis in social science! )t is used by market researchers% health researchers% survey
com#anies% government% education researchers% marketing organi*ations and others! +he
original SPSS manual (Nie% ,ent - "ull% 19./) has been described as 0Sociology0s most
influential book0! )n addition to statistical analysis% data management (case selection% file
resha#ing% creating derived data) and data documentation (a metadata dictionary is stored
with the data) are features of the base software!
Statistics included in the base software1
'escri#tive statistics1 ross tabulation% 2re3uencies% 'escri#tives% (4#lore%
'escri#tive &atio Statistics
,ivariate statistics1 5eans% t6test% 7N897% orrelation (bivariate% #artial%
distances)% Non#arametric tests
Prediction for numerical outcomes1 :inear regression
Prediction for identifying grou#s1 2actor analysis% cluster analysis (two6ste#% ;6
means% hierarchical)% 'iscriminant analysis
+he many features of SPSS are accessible via #ull6down menus or can be #rogrammed
with a #ro#rietary <=: command syntax language.
SPSS #laces constraints on internal file structure% data ty#es% data #rocessing and
matching files% which together considerably sim#lify #rogramming! SPSS datasets have a
>6dimensional table structure where the rows ty#ically re#resent cases (such as
individuals or households) and the columns re#resent measurements (such as age% se4 or
household income)! 8nly > data ty#es are defined1 numeric and te4t (or ?string?)! 7ll data
#rocessing occurs se3uentially case6by6case through the file! 2iles can be matched one6
to6one and one6to6many% but not many6to6many!
+he gra#hical user interface has two views which can be toggled by clicking on one of
the two tabs in the bottom left of the SPSS window! +he 0'ata 9iew0 shows a s#readsheet
view of the cases (rows) and variables (columns)! $nlike s#readsheets% the data cells can
only contain numbers or te4t and formulas cannot be stored in these cells! +he 09ariable
9iew0 dis#lays the metadata dictionary where each row re#resents a variable and shows
the variable name% variable label% value label(s)% #rint width% measurement ty#e and a
variety of other characteristics! ells in both views can be manually edited% defining the
file structure and allowing data entry without using command synta4! SPSS can read and
write data from 7S)) te4t files (including hierarchical files)% other statistics #ackages%
s#readsheets and databases! SPSS can read and write to e4ternal relational database tables
via 8', and S@:!
Statistical out#ut is to a #ro#rietary file format (A!s#v file% su##orting #ivot tables) for
which% in addition to the in6#ackage viewer% a stand6alone reader can be downloaded! +he
#ro#rietary out#ut can be e4#orted to te4t or 5icrosoft Bord! 7lternatively% out#ut can
be ca#tured as data (using the 85S command)% as te4t% tab6delimited te4t% P'2% C:S%
"+5:% C5:% SPSS dataset or a variety of gra#hic image formats (DP(=% PN=% ,5P
and (52)!
7dd6on modules #rovide additional ca#abilities! +he available modules are1
SPSS Programmability (4tension (added in version 1<)! 7llows Python
#rogramming control of SPSS!
SPSS 'ata 9alidation (added in version 1<)! 7llows #rogramming of logical
checks and re#orting of sus#icious values!
SPSS &egression 5odels 6 :ogistic regression% ordinal regression% multinomial
logistic regression% and mi4ed models!
SPSS 7dvanced 5odels 6 5ultivariate =:5 and re#eated measures 7N897
(removed from base system in version 1<)!
SPSS lassification +rees! reates classification and decision trees for identifying
grou#s and #redicting behaviour!
SPSS +ables! 7llows user6defined control of out#ut for re#orts!
SPSS (4act +ests! 7llows statistical testing on small sam#les!
SPSS ategories
SPSS +rends
SPSS onEoint
SPSS 5issing 9alue 7nalysis! Sim#le regression6based im#utation!
SPSS 5a#
SPSS om#le4 Sam#les (added in 9ersion 1>)!
!AFAFAFAFAFA!