Introduction to SPSS

Last updated:
01 Mar 2007

Contents

Assumed knowledge

The following sections of Francis (4th ed) are covered in Experimental Psychology, a prerequisite or corequisite, and thus is assumed knowledge.  Use of SPSS is readily forgotten, so it is recommended that you refamiliarise yourself with these sections.

  • Section 1 (Intro): pp. 1-8
  • Section 2 (Distribution): pp. 9-24
  • Section 3 (Pairs – Relationship): pp. 25-34 and 52-71
  • Section 4 (Entering): pp. 89-95

SPSS tour

The aim of the tour is to (re)-familiarise you with the SPSS software environment and to highlight some of the features of SPSS which will be particularly useful during this unit.

  • Three main types of windows in SPSS:
    1. Data (.sav)
      • Data view
      • Variable view
        • Changing variable properties
    2. Output (.spo)
      • Chart Editor - Chart manipulation
      • Table manipulation
    3. Syntax (.sps)
      • Pasting
      • Writing
      • Executing
      • Notating
  • Data manipulation
    • Inserting
    • Deleting
    • Sorting
    • Recoding
  • Editing SPSS defaults
    • Edit - Options, e.g.,
      • Pivot Tables - TableLook
  • Help
    • Index
    • Tutorials

Importing data from MS Excel

Chart manipulation

Edit to APA format, e.g.,

  • Remove default background and box
  • Appropriate labels/legend
  • Descriptive axis titles
  • Times New Roman 12pt font
  • remove missing values / out of range scores, etc.
  • Provide a title below the chart (in the word processing file) 
  • Is the maximum (relevant) information conveyed in the most efficient and understandable way?
  • Note that graphs can also be prepared in Excel, MS Word (Insert - Object - Microsoft Graph Chart, or many other packages.

Table manipulation

Edit to APA format, e.g.,

  • Edit either in SPSS output or copy into a word processor
  • Note that sometimes its easier to creating a new table in a spreadsheet or word processing program
  • Remove default gridlines except horizontal lines above and below the header row and at the bottom of the table
  • Meaningful row and column labels
  • Use correct statistical symbols
  • Times New Roman 12pt font
  • Provide a the title above the table
  • Is the maximum (relevant) information conveyed in the most efficient and understandable way?

Copying output to MS Word

  • r. click on an SPSS Output Table or Graph
    • "Copy" treats the item as elements (which can be edited after pasting) - best option for Tables
    • "Copy objects" treats the item as a picture (not editable) - it will look as (almost) exactly as it does in the SPSS output - best option for Charts.
  • In an MS Word document ctrl-v (to paste) (or choose Edit - Paste)
  • Centre the figure / table
  • Edit to APA format
  • See also Francis (2004), p. 212.

Working with SPSS syntax

  • SPSS syntax files are simply text files which allows you to store, modify, and then re-run specific commands. 
  • This is particularly useful when you are working over multiple sessions on a series of related analyses.  For example, if you did 10 hours of analysis on your lab report data and then found a mistake in the data, you would have to redo all the analyses.  If you had stored the syntax commands, you would simply fix and then data, load the syntax file, highlight the commands and execute them.
  • You can directly type SPSS commands into the syntax screen, but this takes a lot to learn. 
  • Alternatively, use the pull-down menus and instead of clicking on "OK" to execute the command, click on "Paste". This will dump the command syntax into a (.sps) text file.  The file can then be saved. To run the command, put the cursor on the command (or highlight it) and click on the "Run" (play) button.
  • It is recommended that you annotate syntax files with lines which start an asterisk (*) and finish with a full-stop (.).  That way you will be more easily be able to come back to the syntax file later on.
  • See also Francis (2004), pp. 217-218.