SPSS: Statistical Package for Social Sciences

SPSS is statistical analysis software primarily developed for social sciences researchers. It is user friendly software. It is best suitable for those who do not have much background in using software for statistical analysis. The users often feel that even if they do not understand statistics, they will be able to use SPSS and carry out data analysis. This is major misconception. No statistical software is a remedy for knowledge about statistics. SPSS is not panacea for all statistical problems. It can handle certain class of problems that are primarily encountered by social scientists. Disciplines that can be benefited by SPSS. Psychology: Psychologist constitute large segment of SPSS users. Historically, SPSS has been part of psychology training in USA and Europe which has created this situation. The picture is now changing slowly and steadily. Sociologist: Like Psychology, Sociologist have also started using SPSS. Anthropology: Political Sciences: Communication and Journalism: Economics: The package is not much useful for the economists since the time-series is not up to the mark. Opening SPSS This is how SPSS looks like when you start it. It provides you with various options.

The data looks like following picture:

You can do analysis on the data by clicking on analysis:

You can choose the analysis option and go ahead with the analysis. For example, to get descriptive: Step 1.

Step 2: click descriptive and dialog box will open.

Step 3: Select the variables and choose option.

Step 4: Select option and click continue and then click OK

This is the output looks like.

Good luck..!