- Welcome
- Important notice
- About the author
- About this site
- Site guide + Search box
- Dedications
- Acknowledgments
- My personal pantheon (of the great and the good in survey research)
- Recent and planned activities
- Textbooks for Research Methods and Data Analysis
- 1: Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)
- 1a: Statistical concepts and methods
- 1b: Teaching with Survey Data
- 1c: Developing research projects using survey data
- 1d: Workshop and presentations for ASSESS (SPSS users in Europe)
- 2: Survey Research Practice
- 2a: Survey Research Methodology, Practice and Training
- 2b: Major survey series
- 3: Subjective Social Indicators (Quality of Life)
- 4: Survey Unit, Social Science Research Council (UK)
- 5a: Polytechnic of North London (1976-1992)
- 5b: Survey Research Unit (1978-1992)
- Village life in Normandy
- Contact
- Origins of the British Crime Survey
- British Crime Survey
Introduction to Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)
[Page last updated 4 April 2019]
The original Survey Analysis Workshop (1976 - 1992) was a professional, practice-oriented, hands-on course (postgraduate, part-time, evening) in the capture, management and analysis of data from questionnaire surveys. It was based on the survey analysis component of the SSRC Summer Schools in Survey Methods (1970 - 1976: 3-week full-time residential). The course was aimed at university lecturers, social researchers in the academic, public and voluntary sectors and at (unemployed) graduates in sociology, politics, planning and other social sciences, many of whom had little or no previous experience of computing or statistics. By 1990 it qualified as a module for 15 points at CNAA Master's level.
MA Sociology & Social Policy: SR501 Survey Analysis Workshop has full details of study requirements, module objectives, module assessment, and study programme for the final version Feb - June 1992
An undergraduate version, Data Management and Analysis, was also compulsory for sophomores on the BSc Social Research (full-time) and strongly recommended for BSc Sociology .
Learning materials developed for these courses, using SPSS-X on a Vax mainframe, Vax control language VMS and editing language EDT, via 16 Visual Display Units and 4 fast servers from a remote campus (three languages: quite complex) have now been updated, converted and greatly expanded for SPSS for Windows on a PC (one language: much simpler). See Background to current project
Most of my tutorials use SPSS syntax (its English-language-like command language) in preference to the drop-down menus available from the graphic user interface (GUI). For most of the basic operations involved in survey analysis, syntax is much clearer, quicker and easier and will help you to learn (and remember) more about the process and logic involved. However, for point-and-click addicts, many of the examples and exercises are replicated (at inordinate length!) using the GUI. There is a brief introduction Working with syntax on the SPSS help page, but you'll learn a lot more about syntax from my tutorials,
Unfortunately, syntax is not implemented in the Student Version (which is owned by Prentice-Hall and is only available bundled with certain textbooks) The student version also also has other limitations, but some sites offer (trial, time-limited) free downloads of earlier versions. However, most users will have access to the full version via their college or workplace or by purchasing the Gradpack version (specially priced for students: was time-limited to 6 or 12 months, but now possibly $200 for 4 years). Full details are on IBM SPSS Solutions for Education and there is a comparison table showing what is available in each version.
Even without access to syntax (or even to SPSS) you will learn and remember a lot about survey analysis simply by following the tutorials on this site. To date there are around 600 pages of tutorials (with lots more in preparation): they follow a natural progression through the research process and use a gentle, step-by-step approach, with full colour screenshots at each step.
The original Survey Analysis Workshop (1976 - 1992) was a professional, practice-oriented, hands-on course (postgraduate, part-time, evening) in the capture, management and analysis of data from questionnaire surveys. It was based on the survey analysis component of the SSRC Summer Schools in Survey Methods (1970 - 1976: 3-week full-time residential). The course was aimed at university lecturers, social researchers in the academic, public and voluntary sectors and at (unemployed) graduates in sociology, politics, planning and other social sciences, many of whom had little or no previous experience of computing or statistics. By 1990 it qualified as a module for 15 points at CNAA Master's level.
MA Sociology & Social Policy: SR501 Survey Analysis Workshop has full details of study requirements, module objectives, module assessment, and study programme for the final version Feb - June 1992
An undergraduate version, Data Management and Analysis, was also compulsory for sophomores on the BSc Social Research (full-time) and strongly recommended for BSc Sociology .
Learning materials developed for these courses, using SPSS-X on a Vax mainframe, Vax control language VMS and editing language EDT, via 16 Visual Display Units and 4 fast servers from a remote campus (three languages: quite complex) have now been updated, converted and greatly expanded for SPSS for Windows on a PC (one language: much simpler). See Background to current project
Most of my tutorials use SPSS syntax (its English-language-like command language) in preference to the drop-down menus available from the graphic user interface (GUI). For most of the basic operations involved in survey analysis, syntax is much clearer, quicker and easier and will help you to learn (and remember) more about the process and logic involved. However, for point-and-click addicts, many of the examples and exercises are replicated (at inordinate length!) using the GUI. There is a brief introduction Working with syntax on the SPSS help page, but you'll learn a lot more about syntax from my tutorials,
Unfortunately, syntax is not implemented in the Student Version (which is owned by Prentice-Hall and is only available bundled with certain textbooks) The student version also also has other limitations, but some sites offer (trial, time-limited) free downloads of earlier versions. However, most users will have access to the full version via their college or workplace or by purchasing the Gradpack version (specially priced for students: was time-limited to 6 or 12 months, but now possibly $200 for 4 years). Full details are on IBM SPSS Solutions for Education and there is a comparison table showing what is available in each version.
Even without access to syntax (or even to SPSS) you will learn and remember a lot about survey analysis simply by following the tutorials on this site. To date there are around 600 pages of tutorials (with lots more in preparation): they follow a natural progression through the research process and use a gentle, step-by-step approach, with full colour screenshots at each step.
Tutorials
1: Note on SPSS Tutorials on this site
2: Summary guide to SPSS tutorials
3: Detailed guide to SPSS tutorials
4 Guide to SPSS tutorials (lists the full contents of 2 and 3 above. It is actually for users landing on one of my www.acdemia.edu pages: it redirects them to this site)
All tutorials and materials are available as free downloads They comprise gentle, step-by-step
demonstrations (with full colour screenshots at each step) using appropriately colour-coded text and colour graphics, each step worked in SPSS syntax with many examples also replicated using the drop-down menus. There are more tutorials to write and upload for later stages, but if you work through what's already there, you should be able to move around easily inside SPSS. You might even become fluent in the SPSS command language and come over to the syntax camp!
All data sets used in my tutorials come from real surveys of real people: there are no artificial data.
Workshop resources
1: Data sets and documents used in tutorials and exercises
2: Statistical notes (specially written to accompany this course)
3: SPSS textbooks lists recommended books together my with comments and/or reviews
4: On-line introductions and tutorials for SPSS contains links to useful sites for on-line SPSS
intros, tutorials, help, blogs etc.
2: Statistical notes (specially written to accompany this course)
3: SPSS textbooks lists recommended books together my with comments and/or reviews
4: On-line introductions and tutorials for SPSS contains links to useful sites for on-line SPSS
intros, tutorials, help, blogs etc.