1, about SPSS software

SPSS is the abbreviation of "Social Science Statistics Software Package", which is an integrated computer data processing application software. 1968 three college students, including H.Nie of Stanford University in the United States, developed the earliest SPSS statistical software, and 1975 established SPSS company in Chicago. It has a growth history of more than 30 years, and there are about 250,000 product users in the world, which are widely distributed in communication, medical care, banking, securities, insurance, manufacturing, commerce, market research, scientific research and other fields. SPSS is recognized as one of the three data analysis softwares in the world (SAS, SPSS and SYSTAT). During the period from 1994 to 1998, SPSS successively acquired SYSTAT Company and BMDP Company, which changed from single statistical product development to providing comprehensive information statistical decision support services for enterprises, education, scientific research and government agencies. With the expansion and deepening of the service field of SPSS, SPSS decided to change the full name to statistical products and service solutions.

At present, the most famous data analysis software in the world is SAS and SPSS. Because SAS is designed for professional statistical analysts, it is powerful and flexible, and is deeply loved by professionals. SPSS is designed for most non-professionals. Simple operation, easy to learn and understand, simple and practical, so it is very popular with non-professionals. In addition, compared with SAS software, SPSS is mainly developed for social science research, so it is more suitable for educational science research and is an essential research tool for foreign educational researchers. 1988, China Higher Education Society popularized this software for the first time, and it has become the most commonly used tool for domestic educational researchers since then.

2. Features of 2.SPSS software

① It integrates data entry, data editing, data management, statistical analysis, report making and graphic drawing. Theoretically, as long as the computer hard disk and memory are large enough, SPSS can handle data files of any size, no matter how many variables and cases are contained in the files.

② Statistical functions include all items in educational statistics, including routine concentration and variance, correlation analysis, regression analysis, variance analysis, chi-square test, t-test and nonparametric test; It also includes the recently developed multivariate statistical techniques, such as multivariate regression analysis, cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, principal component analysis, factor analysis, etc., and can display (print) various statistical charts such as normal distribution chart, histogram and scatter chart on the screen (or printer). In a sense, SPSS software can also help users with insufficient mathematical ability learn to use modern statistical techniques. Users only need to care about what statistical methods should be used for a certain problem and have a preliminary understanding of the interpretation of the calculation results, without knowing the specific operation process, and may quantitatively analyze the data with the help of manuals.

③ Since 1995 SPSS cooperated with Microsoft, the interface of SPSS has become more and more friendly and easy to operate. Users who are familiar with Microsoft products can easily learn to operate SPSS. The interface of SPSS for Windows is completely menu-based. Generally, after three days of training, people with a little statistical foundation can use SPSS to do simple data analysis, including drawing charts, simple regression, correlation analysis and so on. The key is how to analyze and explain the results. On the one hand, they need to learn some basic knowledge of mathematical statistics, on the other hand, they need more practice to understand the practical significance of various statistical results in practice.