SPSS: Welcome

Welcome to the SPSS Learning Resources guide

The sheer amount of data produced every minute is enormous. In the past decade, the global number of internet users has grown exponentially (ITU, 2020). The 2020 Data Never Sleeps 8.0 infographic by Domo (2020) shows that every minute, Instagram users posted 347,222 stories, YouTube users uploaded 500 hours of video, consumers spent $1 million online. The skills to analyze data have become indispensable in many sectors where the 2019 GreenBook Research Industry Trends (GRIT) report shows that data analytics and data science are the most in-demand skills in the market research industry.

SPSS is one of the data analysis tools you can use to gain insights from your data. This library guide will point you to learning resources and guide you on your SPSS learning journey.

Before we get started, let's get a basic understanding of SPSS and its history!

What is SPSS? 

SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is a quantitative data analysis software that is used to extract insights from data. As the name implies, it was developed for the social sciences but it has been commonly used in many other places such as education research, marketing, and health sciences.

SPSS's main job is to perform calculations for you. It produces statistical results in the form of tables, charts, and graphs so you can draw conclusions and interpretations about your data.

A bit of history

SPSS was developed in 1968 by three Stanford University Ph.D. students i.e. Norman H. Nie, C. Hadlai (Tex) Hull, and Dale H. Bent. Originally written to process a large volume of social science data without the intent for distribution, the software caught attention within the university community and later gained large popularity when the three produced the first manual in the 1970s. The use of SPSS has spread from universities to public sectors as well as the private.

Nei and Hull then founded SPSS Inc. in 1975 and it was acquired by IBM in 2009. The name of the software has gone through different versions. Before IBM acquired SPSS Inc., the product was called SPSS Statistics, and before that simply SPSS. When IBM acquired SPSS Inc. in 2009, it was briefly called "PASW", which stands for Predictive Analytics Software. Since 2010, the product is officially known as IBM SPSS Statistics.

In 2018, SPSS has turned 50 years old!