Accessing Help from Output in IBM SPSS Statistics

To improve your experience using IBM SPSS Statistics, the Version 1 SPSS experts have created various Tech Tips. This Tech Tip looks at accessing help from Output in IBM SPSS Statistics.

In IBM SPSS Statistics, you can work inside a single, integrated interface to run descriptive statistics, regression, advanced statistics and machine learning models. You can create publication-ready charts, tables, and decision trees in one tool. IBM SPSS Statistics is easy to use, provides analysis automation, comprehensive statistical tools, integration with open source, and help at your fingertips.

IBM SPSS Statistics provides help throughout the tool. Help is available in dialog boxes, the Help menu, and your output. Users can quickly access help in output by opening the output table, clicking on the test or item, and asking ‘What’s This?’.

An excellent example of this is an independent samples t-test. This test compares means for two groups of cases. Before running this test, assumptions should be checked. One of the assumptions to check is the homogeneity of variance assumption, which assumes that the variance of the dependent variable is the same for each subgroup. Under the null hypothesis, we assume the variation in sample means is due to the variation of individual scores. If different groups show disparate individual variation, it is difficult to interpret the ratio between-group to within-group variation.

IBM SPSS Statistics performs a formal test – Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances to test this assumption. The Levene’s test appears in the output. You can double-click and open the table to learn more about this test. Click on the test, right-click, and select ‘What’s This?’. You will receive a description of the test. Accessing help from output provides support while you are working and is quick and easy in IBM SPSS Statistics.