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Learn how to use SPSS Statistics to analyse your data.

Our comprehensive, step-by-step guides show you how to analyse your data using a wide range of statistical tests, from the very basic to the much more advanced. For each statistical test, we take you through the complete procedure that you will use in SPSS Statistics, assuming you have little or no knowledge of SPSS Statistics or statistics. All guides include large screenshots and step-by-step instructions, as well as tips and notes that will help you to understand what is happening to your data along the way. With a wide range of statistical tests covered, use Laerd Statistics as your definitive SPSS Statistics guide. See what our users' say below, or learn more about our Step-by-Step Guides, Examples, Options, Advanced Tips and Guides, and the Statistical Tests that we currently cover.

I love your simple step-by-step explanation of SPSS.Paul, USA
Your SPSS tutorials are absolutely fantastic. Really helped me get to grips with SPSS and explain things in a very easily understood manner. Keep up the good work!Jamal, UK
Your guides are very good; better than any textbook I have read.Meysam, Canada

Each of our guides shows you how to carry out a different statistical test using SPSS Statistics. We start by explaining what the test is, when you should use it, and what you will be able to conclude from it. We then guide you through the SPSS Statistics procedure with comprehensive, step-by-step instructions with large SPSS Statistics screenshots. Along the way, we include important notes and explanation so that you don't simply know what buttons to click and options to select within SPSS Statistics, but also how the specifics of your data may influence what choices you should make. Again, all guides have been written assuming that you have little or no knowledge of SPSS Statistics or statistics.

When we show you how to use SPSS Statistics to carry out a particular statistical test, we do this using an example. If you want to practice before analysing your own data, you can download the SPSS Statistics data file for each example. You'll quickly be able to check that you get the same results that we do.

Since there can be different numerical and graphical ways to approach the analysis of your data in SPSS Statistics, we show you what these are, and when/why you should use these different options. In addition, SPSS Statistics now has many new methods of presenting data using its Model Viewer. We explain how to use this new type of procedure and output, and what the advantages are.

If you are a doctoral student or researcher, you may be required to have a more advanced understand of the statistical methods underpinning SPSS Statistics (e.g., how SPSS Statistics calculates confidence intervals when using different commands for the same statistical test). We help you to understand some of these features and their implications, using straightforward language, without the need for a deep understanding of mathematics. In addition, you may need to run more advanced statistical tests (e.g., mixed ANOVA, principal components analysis, logistic regression, etc.), including statistical tests where you have to insert syntax into SPSS Statistics rather than simply using the normal dialogue boxes (e.g., factorial ANOVA and within-within-subjects ANOVA). In such cases, we include the syntax in our guides and show you where and what you need to insert to make the process easier. With a growing list of advanced SPSS Statistics guides, use our guides to feel confident that you are carrying out the correct data analysis.

We have a wide range of SPSS Statistics guides to help you analyse your data. These are:

Differences between groups

Independent-samples t-test
Paired-samples t-test
One-way ANOVA
Repeated measures ANOVA
Two-way ANOVA
Factorial (three-way) ANOVA
Within-within-subjects ANOVA
Three-way repeated measures ANOVA
Three-way mixed ANOVA
Mixed ANOVA
Hotelling's T2
One-way MANOVA
Two-way MANOVA
One-way MANCOVA
One-way ANCOVA
Two-way ANCOVA
Mann-Whitney U test
Wilcoxon signed-rank test
Kruskal-Wallis H test
Jonckheere-Terpstra test
Friedman test
McNemar's test
Cochran's Q test
Sign test
Test of two proportions
Chi-square test of homogeneity (2 x C)
Chi-square test of homogeneity (R x 2)

One sample

One-sample t-test
Chi-square goodness-of-fit

Survival analysis

Kaplan-Meier

Reliability

Cronbach's Alpha
Cohen's kappa
Fleiss' kappa
Weighted kappa
Kendall's W
Predicting scores

Linear regression
Multiple regression
Hierarchical multiple regression
Logistic regression
Ordinal regression

Associations

Pearson's correlation
Point-biserial correlation
Pearson's partial correlation
Spearman's correlation
Kendall's τb (tau-b)
Goodman and Kruskal's γ (gamma)
Somers' d
Mantel-Haenszel test of trend
Cochran-Armitage test of trend
Chi-square test for association (2x2)
Chi-square test of independence (RxC)
Fisher's exact test (2x2) for independence
Relative risk (2 x 2)
Odds ratio (2 x 2)
Goodman and Kruskal's λ (lambda)
Loglinear analysis

Data reduction

Principal components analysis

Assumptions

Testing for normality
Transforming data

Moderation

Dichotomous moderator analysis
Graphs and charts

Bar chart
Clustered bar chart
Simple error bar chart
Simple 3-D bar chart
Simple line graph
Multiple line graph
Simple area chart
Stacked area chart
Simple scatterplot
Grouped scatterplot
Scatterplot matrix
Simple dot plot
Simple 3-D scatterplot
Simple histogram
Stacked histogram
Frequency polygon
Boxplot
Clustered boxplot
1-D boxplot
Pie chart
Population pyramid

Getting to know SPSS

Creating a new file
Opening a file
Data setup in SPSS
Reverse coding in SPSS
Selecting cases in SPSS
Splitting a file
Weighting cases
Mean centring continuous variables
Creating dummy variables
Calculating a total score
Calculating a mean score
Creating an ID variable
Recoding a continuous to an ordinal variable
Recoding a continuous to a dichotomous variable
Calculating a z-score (standard score)

We are adding guides all the time, and have a schedule of new SPSS Statistics guides that we will be adding in June 2024 and beyond. We also maintain a "wishlist" from our users, which forms the basis of our schedule. Therefore, if there is a particular guide you want that you don't see below, please contact us. We can let you know when we will be able to add a suitable guide to the site.