SPSS

History

SPSS can be traced back to 1967 when, according to the Chicago Tribune, Stanford University PhD candidate Norman Nie became “frustrated trying to use a computer to analyze data.” After Nie took detailed technical notes to fellow academics Dale Bent (an expert in file structures) and Hadlai Hull (an expert in coding), the 1968 version of SPSS was born.

Throughout the 1970s, SPSS was available for use on a variety of mainframe computer systems and the developers sought to ensure that the program was easy to use for academics who were not computer savvy. By the mid-1980s, SPSS became the first software package of its kind to become available on personal computers, and use on U.S. and overseas university campuses became more widespread. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the company diversified from academic settings into the business intelligence software market. In 2009, IBM acquired SPSS and has further developed and extended its suite of functions. As of 2017, IBM SPSS Statistics is available in all operating systems.

The Data Editor, Viewer, and Syntax Windows

Upon opening IBM SPSS, the user will be presented with the Data Editor window (Figure 1). The data are presented in the center of the window, whereas the window also presents the menu bar, icons, grid lines (between cells), view tab, and status bar. The data in the Data Editor can be window is the Viewer window, which [Page 1577]displays output from analyses carried out. The Viewer window can archive all outputs and is saved with the “.spo” extension. Finally, the Syntax window displays the command language. Generally researchers use the dialogue boxes to set up commands and do not see the operating syntax running “under the hood.” If a researcher wishes to see or manipulate the syntax underlying any procedure, the researcher can click on the Paste option provided at the bottom of each operating dialogue box and run the procedure from there.

Figure 1 The IBM SPSS Data Editor

Source: IBM Corporation. (2012).

The SPSS Menu Bar

On the Data Editor window, the menu bar consists of 12 go-to options that help the user make use of the SPSS program. File on the menu bar includes typical user functions such as Open, Save, Export, Exit, and Print. Edit includes the Undo/Redo (with limited memory), Cut, Copy, Paste, Clear, and Find options. View enables researchers to select or deselect the icons, grid lines, and status saved in a file with the extension “.sav.” Besides the Data Editor window, the other commonly used bar on the Data Editor window. View also allows the user to adjust font size and display raw data or value labels.

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