About this Course

Introduction to IBM SPSS Statistics is a two day instructor-led classroom course that guides students through the fundamentals of using IBM SPSS Statistics for typical data analysis process. Students will learn the basics of reading data, data definition, data modification, and data analysis and presentation of analytical results. Students will also see how easy it is to get data into IBM SPSS Statistics so that they can focus on analyzing the information. In addition to the fundamentals, students will learn shortcuts that will help them save time. This course uses the IBM SPSS Statistics Base features.

Audience Profile

This basic course is intended for:

• anyone with little or no experience in using IBM SPSS Statistics
• anyone who is new to using a statistical package for data analysis
• anyone who is considering purchasing IBM SPSS Statistics

Prerequisites

Students should have:

• Experience using applications, such as word processors or spreadsheets, in the Microsoft Windows, Macintosh or Linux environment
• Experience with IBM SPSS Statistics is not necessary, though a basic understanding of purpose and functions of the software is helpful
• No statistical background is necessary

Course Outline

1. Introducing IBM SPSS Statistics

• Explain the basic steps of data analysis using IBM SPSS Statistics
• Describe the roles of the primary windows within IBM SPSS Statistics
• Describe the basic layout of IBM SPSS Statistics dialog boxes

2. Reading Data

• Describe the choices on the File menu to read and save data files
• Read Excel files
• Read from an Access database
• Read delimited text files

3. Variable Properties

• Describe all of the variable properties
• Define variable properties in the Variable View window
• Define variable properties using the Define Variable Properties dialog
• Save variable properties with data in an IBM SPSS Statistics data file
• View variable properties interactively using Variables Utility
• View variable properties in tables using Display Data Dictionary facility and Codebook procedure

4. Working with the Data Editor

• Use features in the Data Editor
• Use Spell Checker
• Insert, delete, and move variables and cases
• Use Split Screen View
• Copy information from one dataset to another
• Use the Copy Data Properties feature

5. Summarizing Individual Variables

• Define levels of measurement
• Use the Frequencies procedure to produce tables and charts appropriate for nominal variables
• Use the Frequencies procedure to produce tables and charts appropriate for ordinal variables
• Use the Frequencies and Descriptives procedures to produce tables and charts for scale variables

6. Modifying Data Values

• Use the features of Visual Binning to group a scale variable
• Use the features of Recode into a Different Variable for categorical variables
• Use the features of Automatic Recode to create a numeric variable from a string variable
• Describe the features of Compute Variable
• Create new variables with numeric expressions
• Create new variables with conditional numeric expressions

7. Describing Relationships Between Variables

• Select the appropriate procedure to summarize the relationship between two variables
• Use the Crosstabs procedure to summarize the relationship between categorical variables
• Use the Means procedure to summarize the relationship between a scale and a categorical variable

8. Selecting Cases

• Describe and use the features of the Select Cases dialog
• Describe and use the features of the Split File dialog

9. Creating and Editing Charts

• Use the Chart Builder to create various types of graphs
• Format and edit the graph in the Chart Editor

10. Output in the Viewer

• Navigate through the Viewer
• Customize a pivot table
• Create and apply a template for a pivot table
• Export output to other applications

11. Syntax Basics

• Use the Syntax Editor environment
• Create syntax
• Run syntax
• Edit syntax using auto-completion of commands