Hello, statistics students! Welcome to an updated version of Statistics for Beginners
using SPSS: Online Edition... subtitled "what I did during quarantine."
Worked at home, with my dogs, made some videos, and I grew a beard!
A few years back, I created a series of eight videos that introduced students to SPSS and a
few of the basic analyses. Since that time, SPSS has come out with its newest version. APA has the
seventh edition of its publication manual. And you may have heard about this pesky little virus
creating chaos all around the world?! For a while, it was pretty bad here in the U.S., and all the
universities had to switch to online learning. That was tough for students trying to learn SPSS.
My goal is to get you familiar with SPSS, not simply how to run a particular test,
but how to get really good using the software. The next eight videos are a thorough
introduction to SPSS. Now in the first video, I get you acquainted with the SPSS workspace.
I will show you how to open SPSS for the first time...
introduce you to the data view and variable view, and the structure of SPSS data,
show you how to enter data, how to create variable labels, explain the variable settings,
and how to handle missing data.
With just that one video, you will become comfortable with the basics of handling data
in SPSS. And then next, we'll turn to importing data from various sources. I will give you a data
set in Microsoft Excel about dog toys, and we're going to import that data set... which won't be
easy because I've included plenty of errors in the data that we'll have to fix when we import.
Now, trust me, you will be glad that I taught you that. Then we will finish cleaning the data,
set the variables, convert variables that were imported as words into numbers,
and even create some new variables of our very own. Now at that point,
you are going to feel like you really know how to use SPSS!
So we will begin exploring variables using basic analyses that will be part of every research
project, called "Descriptive statistics." I'll begin with categorical data: nominal and ordinal.
And show you how to create frequency tables, measures of central tendency, bar charts,
and i'll show you how to create pie charts... but i'll slap you if you use pie charts in public.
Now next, we'll turn our attention to continuous - or what SPSS calls "Scale" - variables.
I will show you various ways of examining scale variables using the FREQUENCIES command,
the DESCRIPTIVES command,
create z-scores, and when to use the EXPLORE command. I will show you how to
turn a scale variable into a categorical variable using binning, and wrap up with
some skills for testing assumptions: something that you'll need later for statistical testing.
Now having created all of that output, I have a special video about how to
modify your charts to make them APA style, and how to edit tables both using pivot tables
and table looks, so that your tables are ready for publication. Along the way, I will introduce you
to some simple ways to use SPSS syntax for running analyses, and then how to export either your data,
or your findings, to Microsoft Word, Excel, a PDF, or even HTML for a website.
Then I'm going to show you a very useful - but often overlooked - tool called
a "Codebook", that will allow you to see all of the variables that you created,
their labels, and levels, and statistics, all in one document. And finally, I will wrap up
the series showing you how to put together all of the pieces demonstrating how a real statistician
uses SPSS in an ideal workflow, including how to organize your files for your research project.
When we are done you will have grown from amateur to an expert, zero to hero,
novice to prelate, padawan to jedi grand master, or you'll just get good using SPSS.
Now this series is ideal for students who have little to no experience with SPSS,
especially students learning in an online classroom. All that I assume is that you
have SPSS installed on whatever computer you are using, and you are ready to follow along.
I'm using IBM SPSS Statistics 27.0.1 on a Mac. You will have no difficulty following these steps if
you're using a PC, but there are a few functions in the newest upgrade that you will not see unless
you have the 27.0.1 update. If you have SPSS open, then we are ready to begin. Now as you can see,
we have a lot to cover, so if you are ready, let's get started with SPSS for Beginners!
In the next video we will explore the SPSS workspace
and learn how to enter data. And by the way, if you're an instructor,
you can feel free to link to any of these videos for use in your online classrooms.
Hi, guys. Thank you... thank you little dog.