SPSS Lab 1

1
SPSS Lab 1

• Computer and Quantitative Methods

2
SPSS Basics

• One of several statistics packages
• Others are SAS, Systat, BMDP
• Allows
• Data import,
• Simple DBMS processing
• Simple and complex statistical processing
• Graphic visualization
• Data export

3
SPSS Components

• Spreadsheet type data editor/viewer
• Output window
• Import/export routines
• Menu-based basic processing and statistic
• Full featured command language
• Excellent on-screen tutorials

4
SPSS Datasets

• Extension of .sav
• Simple rectangular structure of
• Cases (in rows)
• Variables (in columns)
• Data editor views and modifies datasets
• Easy import and export for dbf and ascii files

5
Common SPSS Operations

• Import of dbf files (File Open)
• Direct editing of data (in cells)
• Creation of new variables (Data Define variable)
• Calculation of new variables (Transform Compute)
• Descriptive statistics (Statistics Summarize)
• Exporting of dbf files (File save As)

6
SPSS Output Window

• All output is placed in output window
• Items can be selected, then deleted or moved
• Titles can be changed
• Entire window can be saved as output file
• Many procedures can be run from output window

7
Basic SPSS

• Select File Open and load gss2.sav (or similar
  gss name)
• Select View Value-labels if necessary
• Hold cursor over variable name to see variable
  labels
• Select Statistics Summarize Frequencies and
  select several variables
• View the output
• Select Statistics Summarize Descriptives and
  select several variables