International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue X, October 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

SPSS: An Imperative Quantitative Data Analysis Tool for Social Science Research

 Arifa Rahman¹, Md. Golam Muktadir^2
1Ph.D. Research Fellow, Dr. Wazed Research and Training Institute, Begum Rokeya University, Bangladesh
²Independent Researcher

Abstract:- The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the importance of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, widely known as SPSS in the field of social sciences as an effective tool for quantitative data analysis. This paper includes the broader aspects of SPSS from its foundation as a statistical analysis tool to how it has advanced as a major choice for researchers from different fields of study. It is necessary for researchers, especially new researchers to know the ins and outs of SPSS as to why they should use it. This study expressed the arguments from personal experiences of using SPSS and what other SPSS users have described in various pieces of literature. Different works of literature related to SPSS and social sciences have been discussed throughout the paper. The most relevant ones have been talked about. The features and major advantages are portrayed in such a way that anyone can relate the tool with their research works. In the end, it has been evident that SPSS is considered one of the most important and influential statistical tools for quantitative data analysis.

Key words: SPSS, Quantitative Data Analysis Tool, Data Analysis Tool, Statistical Tool for Data Analysis, Research Tool

I. INTRODUCTION

Technology has taken an important place in social science research. Earlier researchers had to do a lot of analytical jobs for analyzing quantitative data. With the same thing in mind, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences widely known as SPSS was initially developed by Norman H. Nie, a Social Scientist himself, along with his two fellows, Dale H. Bent and C. Hadlai Hull in 1968 at the Stanford University (McCormick et al., 2016). The software program was later acquired by IBM in 2009 and is now called IBM SPSS (Horber, n.d.). With the ease of use features of statistical analysis for ordinary researchers in mind, the initial manual for SPSS written by the developers themselves has been described as one of the most influential books of the sociology of all time (Wellman, 1998). Other significant features of SPSS include data management and data documentation. SPSS is a powerful and user-friendly software package for all sorts of statistical analysis of data (Levesque, 2007). This program is mostly used by students and researchers from the fields of sociology, psychology, economics, business studies, medicine, engineering, and other disciplines. Apart from that, various public, private, and non-government organizations also use SPSS for their various projects. SPSS is a strong choice for marketing and survey companies for analyzing consumer behavior and forecasting (Vorhies, 2017).