Throughout this book you will find Lessons that will take you through procedures to manipulate and analyze given data using the statistical software application IBM® SPSS® Statistics software (referred to more simply as “SPSS“)

The history of SPSS Statistics goes back to the 1960s, and for many years it has been a standard for students and researchers working in the social sciences (SPSS, in fact, originally stood for Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, but was later changed to Statistical Product and Service Solutions). It is still an extremely popular and commonly-used package, and one that you are likely to find is used in labs and workplaces when you start to search for research and employment positions. For this reason, it is still essential for psychology graduates to have a solid grasp of how to use this program.

Accessing SPSS Through Your School

See the page University of Saskatchewan: Software Access for more details on how to do this.

Downloading SPSS

SPSS Statistics is not a free program.

A trial version of SPSS can be downloaded at: https://www.ibm.com/analytics/spss-trials

If you really want to download the program (not in a trial version), see some information on student rates at: https://www.ibm.com/analytics/academic-statistical-software; however, consider carefully how necessary this is before you spend any of your own money, and look carefully at any terms of licensing (i.e., some licenses may only give you access for a set number of months). Unless you are in a position where you can get an employer or research supervisor to pay for it, you may want to stick with the cost-free options available to you.