Below is a list of common inferential statistics for testing and comparing means. The test links open to Kent State University's SPSS guide informational page on each test.
One sample t tests (Analyze > Compare Means > One Sample T Test) are used to test if the mean of a continuous numeric variable is equal to a hypothesized value of the population mean.
Paired t tests (Analyze > Compare Means > Paired-Samples T Test) are used to test if the means of two paired measurements, such as pretest/posttest scores, are significantly different.
Independent samples t tests (Analyze > Compare Means > Independent-Samples T Test) are used to test if the means of two independent groups are significantly different.
One-way ANOVA is used to test if the means of two or more groups are significantly different.
Data Creation
Upon opening SPSS, you will see a blank spreadsheet in the Data View.
There are columns labeled "var" that represent the variables in your dataset. Each row is labeled with a number, which represents the cases that are also part of your dataset.
UCLA Learning Modules
UCLA's SPSS guide includes Learning Moduleson the SPSS software.