- 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
Note on SPSS tutorials on this site
[Page last updated 22 March 2020]
The SPSS tutorials on this site are entry-level and are aimed at beginning students and trainees in social (survey) research. They are not intended to be a substitute for the tutorials and help menus available within SPSS itself, or for the several excellent SPSS textbooks currently available.
Rather than drop-down menus they use SPSS syntax (the English-like command language. my unapologetic preference, but not available in the Student Version) and adopt a gentle, step-by-step approach, with full colour screenshots at each step. They follow the natural sequence (reflected in the numbering system) of the basic operations involved in the capture, management and analysis of data from questionnaire surveys. Although syntax-based, many examples and exercises are also repeated using drop-down menus.
Since 1st April 2010 many tutorials have been revised or duplicated, and are based on PASW 18 or SPSS 19 rather than SPSS 15. Links go to tutorials which have been revised, renamed and renumbered, but they all cover the same ground. The ones for PASW 18 have been broken up into bite-sized chunks and the screenshots are also different from SPSS 15, but all the exercises also work with SPSS 15 (and probably also with older releases). As of 2015 I'm working with IBM SPSS Statistics 24, but most exercises and examples will work with previous versions going right back to 11.
The filename numbering indicates the sequence normally followed in the research process (as in the Marija Norusis books, 1987 -1990), by far the best SPSS textbooks for survey analysis if you can still get hold of a copy. Follow the tutorials in sequence to create your own raw data, your own SPSS syntax, your own SPSS saved files and above all your own analysis. In case you get stuck, I have also created and uploaded fall-back versions of all the raw data, syntax and saved files you will need.
The original Survey Analysis Workshop (13-week module) course on which these tutorials are based was constrained by what could be achieved in a three-hour timetable slot for teaching, computer lab session and follow-up discussion. With this version you can proceed at your own pace.
The course materials also include Jim Ring's accompanying statistics notes and a range of resource resource materials such as data sets and files used in tutorials and exercises
facsimile questionnaires, and user manuals relating to the original surveys used, ranging from small local studies to major national surveys.
There are no artificial data. All materials are available for free download.
The tutorials are arranged in four main blocks:
Block 1: From questionnaire to SPSS saved file
Block 2: Analysing one variable
Block 3: Analysing two variables (and sometimes three)
Block 4: Hypothesis testing
Most tutorials were originally written in Word 1997 and Word 2003, but I am now using Word 2016 which can convert Word *.doc and *.docx files to fully functioning Acrobat *.pdf format. Unconverted files will be left in *.doc and *.doocxformat, but will gradually be converted.
Now go to Summary guide to SPSS tutorials.
[NB: Some pages for SPSS are still being prepared and are subject to changes until I get them all in and the links verified: as of today they seem OK apart from the three "conditional frequencies" items in Block 2. All new and revised tutorials will use SPSS 24: the screenshots and output may look different but the syntax will still work with earlier releases]
The SPSS tutorials on this site are entry-level and are aimed at beginning students and trainees in social (survey) research. They are not intended to be a substitute for the tutorials and help menus available within SPSS itself, or for the several excellent SPSS textbooks currently available.
Rather than drop-down menus they use SPSS syntax (the English-like command language. my unapologetic preference, but not available in the Student Version) and adopt a gentle, step-by-step approach, with full colour screenshots at each step. They follow the natural sequence (reflected in the numbering system) of the basic operations involved in the capture, management and analysis of data from questionnaire surveys. Although syntax-based, many examples and exercises are also repeated using drop-down menus.
Since 1st April 2010 many tutorials have been revised or duplicated, and are based on PASW 18 or SPSS 19 rather than SPSS 15. Links go to tutorials which have been revised, renamed and renumbered, but they all cover the same ground. The ones for PASW 18 have been broken up into bite-sized chunks and the screenshots are also different from SPSS 15, but all the exercises also work with SPSS 15 (and probably also with older releases). As of 2015 I'm working with IBM SPSS Statistics 24, but most exercises and examples will work with previous versions going right back to 11.
The filename numbering indicates the sequence normally followed in the research process (as in the Marija Norusis books, 1987 -1990), by far the best SPSS textbooks for survey analysis if you can still get hold of a copy. Follow the tutorials in sequence to create your own raw data, your own SPSS syntax, your own SPSS saved files and above all your own analysis. In case you get stuck, I have also created and uploaded fall-back versions of all the raw data, syntax and saved files you will need.
The original Survey Analysis Workshop (13-week module) course on which these tutorials are based was constrained by what could be achieved in a three-hour timetable slot for teaching, computer lab session and follow-up discussion. With this version you can proceed at your own pace.
The course materials also include Jim Ring's accompanying statistics notes and a range of resource resource materials such as data sets and files used in tutorials and exercises
facsimile questionnaires, and user manuals relating to the original surveys used, ranging from small local studies to major national surveys.
There are no artificial data. All materials are available for free download.
The tutorials are arranged in four main blocks:
Block 1: From questionnaire to SPSS saved file
Block 2: Analysing one variable
Block 3: Analysing two variables (and sometimes three)
Block 4: Hypothesis testing
Most tutorials were originally written in Word 1997 and Word 2003, but I am now using Word 2016 which can convert Word *.doc and *.docx files to fully functioning Acrobat *.pdf format. Unconverted files will be left in *.doc and *.doocxformat, but will gradually be converted.
Now go to Summary guide to SPSS tutorials.
[NB: Some pages for SPSS are still being prepared and are subject to changes until I get them all in and the links verified: as of today they seem OK apart from the three "conditional frequencies" items in Block 2. All new and revised tutorials will use SPSS 24: the screenshots and output may look different but the syntax will still work with earlier releases]