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How is SPSS Useful for Analysing Questionnaires Data? 7 Steps to Follow

Uneeb Khan , ,

Finding the best method of data analysis that can help you summarise even millions of entries within a fraction of time is a common dream of almost all data analysts. There are tons of automated tools that are quite efficient in turning such dreams into reality; SPSS is one of them. No matter whether you have structured, copied, and spread thousands of questionnaires to collect data from participants, SPPS, after data input, takes only a few seconds to give you results either in graphical or tabular form. This article is all about giving you an overview of how SPSS can help you in analysing questionnaires data in a few simple steps.

SPSS – A Brief Introduction:

SPSS stands for the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. It is an analytical tool used by numerous academic as well as commercial research analysts. It is an excellent tool that helps them in making a decision by observing the statistical differences between the variables involved in a study. Also, it offers advanced statistical procedure features and visualisation that provide users with an opportunity to understand and solve complex research problems. It has four core functions that include:

  1. Statistical program
  2. Modeller Program
  3. Text analytics for the survey program
  4. Visualisation designer

These core functions help students to apply descriptive statistics and bivariate statistics (correlation, mean, ANOVA, and nonparametric tests). Additionally, making predictions by using linear regression, factor analysis, and cluster analysis are also important functions of SPSS that students can use to analyse the quantitative data.

SPPS Is A Tool Used For Analysing Quantitative Data:

SPSS is the tool for analysing quantitative data or simply the numerical or digital form of data. Quantitative data comprises lots of useful information about the process under study, but without applying any statistical test such as ANOVA, T-test, F-test, or Chi-square test, it cannot provide any valuable information to solve a scientific query. Thus, SPSS is an ideal option to consider so the data can be summarised or reduced to provide valuable insights. 

Collection Of Quantitative Data By Using Varying Tools:

Basically, the selection of the best tool to collect quantitative data depends on the aims and objectives of a study. Typically, life or social sciences students design experiments to collect quantitative data as it allows them to easily manipulate one or two variables to see their effect on the overall process. Likewise, business management students need to construct fixed-end questionnaires and surveys to collect opinions, experience, and review for the betterment of existing or formulation of new strategies. As explained in these two examples, to attain different research goals especially when working on PhD dissertation writing, researchers use different methods for collecting quantitative data. Thus, we can conclude that defining the goals of a research must be the first step, followed by a selection of data analysis tests in order to make valid conclusions.

Uses Of SPSS For Analysing Questionnaires Data:

The questionnaire design of the study is a most sought-after method of analysis in social sciences, where the main aim of a researcher is to explore human behaviours. It contains questions that investigate a particular situation from multiple aspects to make concrete assertions. However, it is only the fixed-ended type of questions that will allow you to grab the quantitative data, so SPPS software as a statistical analytical platform can be used. In case it is mandatory for you to collect data from open-ended questions, you must first transform it into digital form before entering it into the SPSS data entry sheet. Furthermore, while entering data into SPSS for analysing questionnaires data, you just need to keep the following points in mind;

  1. Each of the participant’s data must have an individual row in the SPPS data entry sheet
  2. Each question must also have one column
  3. Respondents’ information  must be entered in the form of numerical values
  4. If some of the questions in your questionnaires have the ranking option, then appropriate variables must be given to them. To describe the meaning of each variable, you can use the ‘Variable View’ option in the SPPS. It will help you in labelling your variables so that you can easily understand them in later stages while final making decisions.

Analysing The Data:

Once you enter the data and set the variables, the next step must be to analyse the data and apply an appropriate test to find the trends. For analysing questionnaires data, you must first go to the ‘analyse’ button on the top ribbon and select any option from the broad categories of analysis. For example, if you want to analyse the data by descriptive statistics, then you must click on the ‘Descriptive’ from the drop-off menu that opens after clicking the ‘Analyse’ option. However, from this ‘descriptive’ drop-off menu, you can also select the P-P plot, Q-Q plot, ratio, or frequency option for analysing questionnaires data. In this way, SPSS help you in finding the frequency, ratio, or any other type of descriptive statistics to extract information gathered by even thousands of questionnaire.  

To develop a better understanding of the use of SPSS for analysing questionnaires data, you can follow the following seven brief steps:

  1. Collect data by questionnaire
  2. Convert the data into quantitative form if gathered in qualitative form
  3. Enter the data into the SPSS spreadsheet
  4. Click on ‘Variable view’ to label or give values to your variables
  5. Explore the ‘Analyze’ option and select the option that you found valuable as per your research goals
  6. Do not forget to tick on the ‘Screen plot’ option to graphically interpret the trends in your data
  7. Describe what you have found to make the final decision about your problem statement

These seven steps provide a basic overview of the use of SPSS for analysing questionnaires data, but if you feel confused at any point in the dissertation analysis chapter (chapter #4), you can get a complete SPSS guide by seeking dissertation help online.  

Final Thoughts:

After all is said and done, we can say that SPPS is indeed a blessing for social sciences students. It aims to catalyse the data analysis phases both in the dissertation and market research. To learn it, you must spend time on SPSS and play with its menu. Spending time on an automated tool is the best way to learn from mistakes and achieve excellence.