Evaluation of computer based tools for research --- SPSS

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Contents

• Introduction of SPSS

• Strength

• Weaknesses

• Summary

• Further improvement

• Reference

What is SPSS

• Statistical Package for the Social Sciences• Data management and analysis • Presentation functions, including

statistical analyses and graphical presentation of data

• Uncover key facts, patterns and trends• Help for decisions making

http://www.spss.com/

Use SPSS in different areas

• Survey and market research and direct marketing • Academia • Administrative research, human resources, and

resource planning • Medical, scientific, clinical, and social science

research • Planning and forecasting • Quality improvement • Reporting and ad hoc decision making • Enterprise-level analytic application

development

SPSS is a modular product

• Base System module

• Other modules (typically Advanced Statistics and Professional Statistics)

http://www.spss.com/spss/family.cfm

Base System• Required to run SPSS. Reads data files; • Data and file manipulation• Procedures for report writing• Descriptive statistics• Cross-tabulation tables and analysis• T-tests• Correlation• Analysis of variance• Regression• Cluster analysis• Factor analysis• Nonparametric statistics

Add-on Modules

• Professional Statistics

• Advanced Statistics

• Categories

• Tables

• Trends

• Reports

• etc.

The Analytical

process

Strength of SPSS

• Ease of use particularly with the Windows releases – A "point and click" interface that allows you to use

pull down menus to select commands that you wish to perform

Strength of SPSS

• Support a variety of charts and graphs – Categorical charts, Quality control charts,

Scatterplots, Density charts, Diagnostic and exploratory plots, Probability plots, Autocorrelation and partial autocorrelation function plots, Cross-correlation function plots, Multiple use charts, Custom charts

Strength of SPSS

• The ability to manage a complex data set

• To create new variables from existing information

• To provide many types of analysis which are not available in other package programs

Strength of SPSS

• Data Management – SPSS has a friendly data editor that resembles

Excel that allows you to enter your data and attributes of your data (missing values, value labels, etc.)

Strength of SPSS

• Analysis of variance (SPSS allows you to perform many kinds of tests of specific effects) and

• multivariate analysis (e.g. manova, factor analysis, discriminant analysis) and

• SPSS 11 has added some capabilities for analyzing mixed models

Strength of SPSS

• Rich resources of reference – on web or training course is available at any

time when compared with say, SAS

Strength of SPSS

• Data manipulation – data input with 5-point Likert Scale can be

changed to 3-point scale when needed.

Weaknesses

• Problems in positioning graphics precisely on the pages, difficulties in editing graphs, limited graphical capabilities in early releases.

Weaknesses

• Need to have some of the newer graphs - dot plots, mosaic plots, comparative bar charts with central base line

Weaknesses

• The graphic editor is not very versatile.

Weaknesses

• Automatic scaling: makes it difficult to present different charts using the same scale for comparisons.

• Need for fast processor for work with charts

• Lacks many regression analysis techniques.

• Difficult to edit output.

Weaknesses

• Problems with importing and exporting data in a variety of formats,

• Poor error messages on occasion - not always easy to associate with correction needed to the code.

• Limited functionality for complex analysis • In batch mode one error holts the whole file

running.

Weakness

• Can be slow at times if not using the latest hardware

• Difficulties running SPSS across the networks in relation to the large temporary data files it creates

• You need a knowledge of statistical terminology to operate the software, some of the language is specific to SPSS

Weakness

• All standard release versions of SPSS for microcomputers require an IBM-compatible microcomputer with at least one diskette drive and a hard disk, preferably of large capacity

• SPSS does not have very strong data management tools

Weakness

• The absence of robust methods, it is unable to perform robust regression or to obtain robust standard errors.

• All data must be entered at one time, otherwise ‘Recode’ is unable to update the latest data with the previously entered data.

Weakness

• It is good for ‘Exploratory Factor Analysis’, whilst it is unable to perform ‘Confirmatory Factor Analysis’ which is good to identify the validity of the model.

• No indication for significant figures for partial correlation.

Summary

• SPSS focuses on ease of use (their motto is "real stats, real easy"), and it succeeds in this area. But if you intend to use SPSS as a power user, you may outgrow it over time. SPSS is strong in the area of graphics, but weak in more cutting edge statistical procedures lacking in robust methods and survey methods.

Summary

• If you were performing analyses using mixed models you might choose SAS,

• but if you were doing logistic regression you might choose Stata,

• and if you were doing analysis of variance you might choose SPSS.

Further development

• More flexible editing of graphs including the ability to click and drag graph elements.

• Enhanced graphical capability would be an advantage to many

• More graph types and specifically better Stem and leaf charts

• Improved export facilities.

Further development

• Manuals could be much more user friendly • Improvements to syntax window • Easier repeat procedures for analysis are

required. Maybe some macro or learn feature, so that new data can easily be processed quickly using the same sequence of analysis commands applied to previous data sets.

References

• http://www.qub.ac.uk/cdda/visual/spss.html • http://www.bioon.com/biology/

sas82/85874.shtml• http://demography.anu.edu.au/

Publications/SDA-course-notes/secc.htm (A good link to set up SPSS)

• http://www.bioon.com/biology/sas82/85874.shtml