1.1 Hints before you start

Each section of this course requires you to follow a series of instructions such as:

“SELECT the Independent Variable”

“CLICK HERE to continue”

“CLICK on the highlighted columns to explore what they mean”

When action is required from you, it will appear underlined and in bold.

Each activity should take approximately 20 minutes to complete. Here is a summary of the activities in this course:

Activity 1: How to start SPSS

This is recommended if you have not had any experience with SPSS and are fairly new to computers.

Activity 2: Using the Menu

This is recommended to enable you to get an interactive overview of the different menu options. This should help to put your mind at ease about learning SPSS.

Activity 3: Adding variables

If you are doing any work with SPSS, the chances are that you will be required add variables to SPSS as this constitutes the way raw data is entered into SPSS.

Activity 4: Obtaining descriptive statistics

At the most basic level of statistics we want to know what our data looks like and be able to describe it. This course will show you how to get basic descriptive statistics from your data in SPSS.

Activity 5: Correlation

This is one of the simpler statistical tests you will use. This activity shows you how to carry out a correlation.

Activity 6: Independent T-Tests

This is one of two t-test types. It is used when you have two groups of individuals and you are making a comparison between the two groups, for example through an experiment.

Activity 7: Paired Samples T-Tests

This is one of two t-test types. It is used when your design is a ‘within participants’ design. In ‘within participants’ designs, participants contribute data for the dependent variable in all conditions. You would also use this test if you adopted a matched samples design (for example when comparing twins), which is why it is also known as a ‘paired samples t-test’.