Hunter College > Social Sciences Lab > SPSS FAQ

SPSS FAQ

Where else can I find SPSS at Hunter other than the SSCL?
IBM SPSS is available on most "public" computers at Hunter, including the Main Library and the Hunter PCS Labs on the 10th Floor of Hunter North.

ALSO, there is now free off campus access to SPSS Version 23 for students and faculty at Hunter via the “CUNY Virtual Desktop”. All the details can be found at: http://www2.cuny.edu/about/administration/offices/cis/virtual-desktop/

Where can I purchase SPSS?
IBM SPSS Statistics Base GradPack 25 is available for purchase via e-academy.com (as of 04/13/2018, the prices are $42.99 and $65.99, students only) for license periods of six and twelve months, respectively.

Will SPSS work on a Mac?

ASSUMING you have a Mac with an Intel processor:
SPSS is a Java application. Depending on which Java version is supported by any given OS X release largely determines which version of SPSS will run on it.

A) Apple Macintosh MacOS High Sierra (10.13)

Support for IBM SPSS Statistics 25 only. Please note that no other SPSS release will be officially supported on High Sierra, but older versions like SPSS Statistics 24 may run as well on High Sierra.

B) Apple Macintosh MacOS Sierra (10.12)

Support for IBM SPSS Statistics 25 and 24 only. For release 24 It is also recommended to install the latest FixPack 2 for release 24 on Mac.

No older SPSS Statistics releases are supported on Sierra.

C) Apple Macintosh OSX El Capitan (10.11)

Support for IBM SPSS Statistics 24 and 23.

D) Apple Macintosh OSX Yosemite (10.10)

Support for IBM SPSS Statistics 24, 23, and 22

See the following IBM web page for more MAC support information:
https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21507587

How do I add my name to a printout from SPSS?

Put your names on your output: double-click on output title; edit text, adding name.

How do I switch between Value Labels and the actual data values?

The icon to perform this action looks like this:

How do I open an ".spo" file?

The ".spo" file format is discontinued after SPSS 15.0. In order to open a ".spo" file, you can use SPSS SmartViewer, which is installed on the instructor's computer.

Which SPSS modules are licensed and available in the SSCL?

SPSS Statistics
SPSS Regression
SPSS Advanced Statistics
SPSS Categories***
SPSS Custom Tables***
SPSS Complex Samples***
SPSS Forecasting***
SPSS Statistics Base

*** Until 2011, the noted modules were available in the SSCL, but due to licensing changes, this is no longer the case.

Has SPSS changed its name?

In March 2009 SPSS changed the name of the SPSS software package to PASW (Predictive Analytics SoftWare.)
In 2010, they renamed it yet again, and it is currently called IBM SPSS Statistics. While the name has changed repeatedly, the program remains fundamentally the same.

The company itself, rather than the software, has always been named SPSS. In 2009, IBM purchased the SPSS company and it now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of IBM, retaining the SPSS name.

This page was last updated on April 13, 2018