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- 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
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- Origins of the British Crime Survey
- British Crime Survey
What is SPSS?
[Page last updated 8 May 2014]
What is SPSS and what does it do?
SPSS consists of an integrated series of computer programs which enable the user to read data from questionnaire surveys and other sources (e.g. medical and administrative records) to manipulate them in various ways and to produce a wide range of statistical analyses and reports, together with documentation.
Most users will have access to SPSS via their college or workplace or by purchasing the Gradpack version (specially priced for students). Full details are on IBM SPSS Solutions for Education and there is a comparison table showing what is available in each version.
The original version of SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was written in the late 1960's by two post-graduate political science students who despaired of having to use the programming language Fortran for processing, manipulating and analysing data from questionnaire surveys. They brought in a programmer to help them produce something to help users write commands which looked more or less plausible social science language in English, and for the first time gave social scientists control over their own such research. Needless to say, SPSS spread like wild-fire: sociologists and political scientists loved it; statisticians and computer programmers hated it. There's an interesting 1998 account by Barry Wellman in Doing It Ourselves: The SPSS Manual as Sociology's Most Influential Recent Book
SPSS was first released in the USA in 1968 and, on Tony Coxon's recommendation, was first installed in the UK in 1970 at Edinburgh University (the only one with an IBM computer) by David Muxworthy and Marjorie Barritt. It was an integrated set of programs for the management and statistical analysis of social science data, developed especially for the processing and analysis of data from questionnaire surveys. Because of its straightforward English-like command language and impressive user manual, it spread quickly throughout the social (survey) research community. It was so successful that, to protect the charitable status of the University of Chicago, SPSS Inc was set up as a separate entity . It rapidly became the world standard for social science computing. Later on SPSS Inc turned to business rather than social research applications and developed a graphic user interface (GUI) based on drop-down menus rather than syntax.
For a fairly detailed account of the company's business history to 2003 click here.
What is SPSS and what does it do?
SPSS consists of an integrated series of computer programs which enable the user to read data from questionnaire surveys and other sources (e.g. medical and administrative records) to manipulate them in various ways and to produce a wide range of statistical analyses and reports, together with documentation.
Most users will have access to SPSS via their college or workplace or by purchasing the Gradpack version (specially priced for students). Full details are on IBM SPSS Solutions for Education and there is a comparison table showing what is available in each version.
The original version of SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was written in the late 1960's by two post-graduate political science students who despaired of having to use the programming language Fortran for processing, manipulating and analysing data from questionnaire surveys. They brought in a programmer to help them produce something to help users write commands which looked more or less plausible social science language in English, and for the first time gave social scientists control over their own such research. Needless to say, SPSS spread like wild-fire: sociologists and political scientists loved it; statisticians and computer programmers hated it. There's an interesting 1998 account by Barry Wellman in Doing It Ourselves: The SPSS Manual as Sociology's Most Influential Recent Book
SPSS was first released in the USA in 1968 and, on Tony Coxon's recommendation, was first installed in the UK in 1970 at Edinburgh University (the only one with an IBM computer) by David Muxworthy and Marjorie Barritt. It was an integrated set of programs for the management and statistical analysis of social science data, developed especially for the processing and analysis of data from questionnaire surveys. Because of its straightforward English-like command language and impressive user manual, it spread quickly throughout the social (survey) research community. It was so successful that, to protect the charitable status of the University of Chicago, SPSS Inc was set up as a separate entity . It rapidly became the world standard for social science computing. Later on SPSS Inc turned to business rather than social research applications and developed a graphic user interface (GUI) based on drop-down menus rather than syntax.
For a fairly detailed account of the company's business history to 2003 click here.
Where next?
My first time: in at the SPSS deep end (1972) describes how I discovered SPSS
Survey Analysis Workshop explains the background to the course, and provides details of SPSS versions available to students.
Note on SPSS Tutorials explains the nature of the SPSS tutorials
Currently available SPSS materials lists pages containing tutorials and support materials. Each of the pages has hyperlinks to all relevant course materials.
There is a separate Summary Guide to SPSS tutorials, but see also
Catalogue of SPSS tutorials (Excel file with full hyperlinks to all tutorials)
Guide to pop-out menus demonstrating pop-out links to web pages for Survey Analysis Workshop
There is a fully Detailed guide to SPSS tutorials containing all the contents of all the main menus. but this may not be up-to-date. There are more than 600 pages (90 mb) of downloadable tutorials and supporting materials.
See also:
What is SPSS 20 for Windows?
(Paula Turnbull and Sarah King-Hele (2014) UK Data Service, University of Essex and University of Manchester)
Well-written introductory booklet using data from the British Social Attitudes Survey, 2011: also covers hierarchical data using the English Housing Survey, 2011-2012: Household Data. Examples mainly use the drop-down menus from the GUI, but also covers some syntax.
Survey Analysis Workshop explains the background to the course, and provides details of SPSS versions available to students.
Note on SPSS Tutorials explains the nature of the SPSS tutorials
Currently available SPSS materials lists pages containing tutorials and support materials. Each of the pages has hyperlinks to all relevant course materials.
There is a separate Summary Guide to SPSS tutorials, but see also
Catalogue of SPSS tutorials (Excel file with full hyperlinks to all tutorials)
Guide to pop-out menus demonstrating pop-out links to web pages for Survey Analysis Workshop
There is a fully Detailed guide to SPSS tutorials containing all the contents of all the main menus. but this may not be up-to-date. There are more than 600 pages (90 mb) of downloadable tutorials and supporting materials.
See also:
What is SPSS 20 for Windows?
(Paula Turnbull and Sarah King-Hele (2014) UK Data Service, University of Essex and University of Manchester)
Well-written introductory booklet using data from the British Social Attitudes Survey, 2011: also covers hierarchical data using the English Housing Survey, 2011-2012: Household Data. Examples mainly use the drop-down menus from the GUI, but also covers some syntax.