Introduction

How to Use this Document

This document introduces prospective researchers to SPSS 18 for Windows, which currently runs under Windows XP, Vista, or 7. Those who do not own a personal copy of SPSS for Windows may access the software from various UITS Student Technology Centers at IU. You may also enroll in a UITS STEPS class by contacting the IT Training & Education. Faculty members who are interested in arranging introductory workshops for their classes in using SPSS for Windows may contact the UITS IT Training & Education Program. Contact the UITS Stat/Math Center if you are interested in leasing SPSS for Windows to install on IU owned PCs at an educational discount. Under the SPSS Enterprise License Agreement, faculty, staffs, and students can purchase an SPSS CD for use at home.

What is SPSS?

SPSS is a comprehensive and flexible statistical analysis and data management system. SPSS can take data from almost any type of file and use them to generate tabulated reports, charts, and plots of distributions and trends, descriptive statistics, and conduct complex statistical analyses. SPSS is available from several platforms; Windows, Macintosh, and the UNIX systems.

SPSS for Windows, brings the full power of the mainframe version of SPSS to the personal computer environment. It will enable you to perform many analyses on your PC that were once possible only on much larger machines. SPSS for Windows provides a user interface that makes statistical analysis more intuitive for all levels of users. Simple menus and dialog box selections make it possible to perform complex analyses without typing a single line of command syntax. The built-in SPSS Data Editor offers a simple and efficient spreadsheet-like utility for entering data and browsing the working data file. High-resolution, presentation-quality charts and plots can be created and edited. Using the SPSS Viewer, you can handle the output with greater flexibility. SPSS for Windows also reads data files from a variety of file formats including Excel, SAS, and Stata.

Hardware and Software Requirements

The minimum hardware and software requirements for SPSS for Windows are:

• Windows XP, Vista, or 7.
• Intel or AMD x86 processor at 1GHz or higher
• 1 GB RAM
• 1 GB hard disk space
• CD-ROM drive
• SVGA (800x600 resolution) graphics card