SPSS

This article is about SPSS, the computer program. SPSS can also refer to a Solar Power Satellite System.

The computer program SPSS (originally, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was released in its first version in 1968, and is among the most widely used programs for statistical analysis in social science. It is used by market researchers, health researchers, survey companies, government, education researchers, and others. In addition to statistical analysis, data management (case selection, file reshaping, creating derived data) and data documentation (a metadata dictionary is stored with the data) are features of the base software.

The many features of SPSS are accessible via pull-down menus (see image) or can be programmed with a proprietary 4GL "command syntax language". Command syntax programming has the benefits of reproducibility and handling complex data manipulations and analyses. The pull-down menu interface also generates command syntax, though, by default, this is invisible to the user. Programs can be run interactively, or unattended using the supplied Production Job Facility. Additionally a "macro" language can be used to write command language subroutines and SAX Basic "scripts" can access the information in the data dictionary and manipulate the default output. Scripts will be gradually replaced by the more functional Python programmability extension.

SPSS places constraints on internal file structure, data types, data processing and matching files, which together considerably simplify programming. SPSS datasets always have 2-dimensional table structure where the rows typically represent cases (such as individuals or households) and the columns represent measurements (such as age, sex or household income). Only 2 data types are defined, numeric and text (or "string"). All data processing occurs sequentially case-by-case through the file. Files can be matched one-to-one and one-to-many, but not many-to-many.

Different versions of SPSS are available for Windows, Mac OS X and Unix. The Windows version is updated more frequently, and has more features, than the versions for other operating systems.

SPSS can read and write data from ASCII text files (including hierarchical files), other statistics packages, spreadsheets and databases. SPSS can read and write to external relational database tables via ODBC and SQL.

Statistics included in the base software:

Descriptive statistics: Cross tabulation, Frequencies, Descriptives, Explore, Descriptive Ratio Statistics
Bivariate statistics: Means, t-test, ANOVA, Correlation (bivariate, partial, distances), Nonparametric tests
Prediction for numerical outcomes: Linear regression
Prediction for identifying groups: Factor analysis, cluster analysis (two-step, K-means, hierarchical), Discriminant

Add-on modules provide additional capabilities. The available modules are:

SPSS Programmability Extension (added in version 14). Allows Python programming control of SPSS.
SPSS Data Validation (added in version 14). Allows programming of logical checks and reporting of suspicious values.
SPSS Regression Models - Logistic regression, ordinal regression, multinomial logistic regression, and mixed models (multilevel models).
SPSS Advanced Models - Multivariate GLM and repeated measures ANOVA (removed from base system in version 14).
SPSS Classification Trees. Creates classification and decision trees for identifying groups and predicting behaviour.
SPSS Tables. Allows user-defined control of output for reports.
SPSS Exact Tests. Allows statistical testing on small samples.
SPSS Categories
SPSS Trends™
SPSS Conjoint
SPSS Missing Value Analysis. Simple regression-based imputation.
SPSS Map
SPSS Complex Samples (added in Version 12). Adjusts for stratification and clustering and other sample selection biases.

SPSS Server is a version of SPSS with a client/server architecture. It has some features not available in the desktop version.

SPSS The Company

The program SPSS is sold by a company called SPSS Inc. SPSS Inc. sells a wide range of software for market research, survey research and statistical analysis. These include AMOS for structural equation modelling, SamplePower for power analysis, AnswerTree used for market segmentation, SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys to code open-ended responses, Clementine for data mining and other packages for CATI and online surveys. The company is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

External links

[SPSS Inc Homepage] - support page includes a searchable database of solutions (login using "guest" as User name and Password)
[Raynald Levesque's SPSS Tools] - library of worked solutions for SPSS programmers (FAQ, command syntax; macros; scripts; python)
[Archives of SPSSX-L Discussion] - SPSS Listserv active since 1996. Discusses programming, statistics and analysis
[UCLA ATS Resources to help you learn SPSS] - Resources for learning SPSS
[UCLA ATS Techical Reports] - Report 1 compares the strengths and weaknesses of Stata, SAS and SPSS
[Using SPSS For Data Analysis] - SPSS Tutorial from Harvard
[SPSS Developer Central] - Support for developers of applications using SPSS, including materials and examples of the Python programmability feature
[SPSS Wiki] - A wiki on SPSS statistics (since December 2005)
[SPSS Log] - A blog posting answers on SPSS questions (since March 2006)
[SPSS Experts] - Profiles of six SPSS experts around the world

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SPSS

SPSS The Company

See also

External links