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How to use SPSS

This is a set of resources introducing SPSS, and how to use it. They were created by Mimmi Barmark at the Department of Sociology, and are narrated in Swedish but subtitled in English.

Overview

Background

Mimmi Barmark has co-authored “Statistisk verktygslåda 0”, a Swedish introduction to statistical methods (link here) and the resources below can be used as chapter companions to that book or as stand-alone resources that you can use when you learn how to use SPSS – to aid this, we have grouped relevant resources thematically.

Videos

Introduction to SPSS

Introduction to SPSS (ch. 1 in book)
An introduction to the program, to variable view and data view | Click here to view

Enter variables in SPSS (ch. 3 in book)
Instructions on how you create your own SPSS file by registering your own data (e.g. from a survey you have conducted). The first step is to enter the variables. | Click here to view

Enter data in SPSS (ch. 3 in book)
Instructions how you create your own SPSS file by registering your own data. The second step is to enter the actual data (e.g. the answers to survey questions). | Click here to view
 

Processing and preparing data

Recoding a categorical variable in SPSS (ch. 8 in book)
Instructions on how to recode a categorical variable in SPSS (e.g. merge categories). | Click here to view

Recoding a numerical variable in SPSS (ch. 9 in book)
Instructions on how to recode a numerical variable in SPSS (i.e. categorize the variable). | Click here to view

Computing a new variable in SPSS (ch. 10 in book)
Instructions on how to construct a new variable by e.g. dividing the value of one variable with the value of another variable. | Click here to view

Constructing an index in SPSS (ch. 12 in book)
Instructions on how to create an index (/summated scale/composite measure) in SPSS. | Click here to view

Merge data in SPSS (ch. 17 in book)
Instructions on how to merge data from two different files in SPSS. | Click here to view

 

Univariate analysis - analyzing the distribution of one variable

Frequency table in SPSS (ch. 4 in book)
Instructions on how to create and interpret a frequency table in SPSS. | Click here to view

Graphs in SPSS (ch. 5 in book)
Instructions on how to produce basic graphs in SPSS. | Click here to view

Measures of central tendency and dispersion in SPSS (ch. 6 in book)
Instructions on how to produce the most common measures of central tendency and dispersion, including the mean, median, standard deviation, range and quartiles (percentiles). | Click here to view

Confidence interval in SPSS (ch. 7 in book)
Instructions on how to produce a confidence interval for a mean in SPSS. | Click here to view
 

Bivariate analysis - analyzing the association between two variables

Cross tab and Chi2-test in SPSS (ch. 12 in book)
Instructions on how to produce a cross tab (contingency table) in SPSS, together with a Chi2-test of the association. | Click here to view

Comparing means (two categories) in SPSS (ch. 13 in book)
Instructions on how to analyze and test a mean difference between two groups  (Independent samples t-test). | Click here to view

Comparing means (more than two categories) in SPSS (ch. 14 in book)
Instructions on how to analyze and test a mean difference between more than two groups (ANOVA). |  Click here to view

Scattergram in SPSS (ch. 15 in book)
Instructions on how to produce a scattergram in SPSS. | Click here to view

Regression analysis in SPSS (ch. 16 in book)
Instructions on how to do a regression analysis in SPSS. | Click here to view