It's time to break-up with SPSS!

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Time: 11.30am - 12.30pm
Venue: Room 2025, Business School, Kingston Hill campus, Kingston Hill, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT2 7LB
Price: free

All are welcome to join this seminar, hosted by the Decision, Attitudes, Risk and Thinking research group. 

Have you ever thought SPSS (the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was 'so last century'? Have you ever wished using SPSS with point and click was friendlier? Do you think SPSS cost too much? Are you tempted to explore Bayesian statistics but are not ready to learn R?

JASP (Jeffreys's Amazing Statistics Program) is a software originally developed by a team at University of Amsterdam, as an open-source project. It is free to use and supported by funding that will allow the team to develop the software in the long term.

Speaker abstract:

'JASP is further distinct from SPSS in two ways. The user interface was developed so that it is more intuitive and user-friendly. For example, if one makes a mistake after clicking OK on their analysis, they can edit that analysis directly, instead of running it again. Secondly, JASP not only offers the main frequentist tests SPSS allows one to do, but it also often offers users to test the same hypothesis in a Bayesian framework.

Many researchers will minimize issues with SPSS by working through the syntax, and these skills should be encouraged. Where possible, I also think learning R should not be shied away from (and I very much need to remind myself this). However, I have experienced JASP as a much friendlier tool, in particular when it comes to demonstrate to students how to perform hypothesis testing. For example, where SPSS produces outputs containing information that does not need reporting, JASP will provide only what is needed in a standard report (as per psychology standards). This is also useful when considering students with learning difficulties, who may find SPSS outputs overwhelming.

This seminar intends to demonstrate the superiority of JASP over SPSS, by performing a few hypothesis tests, both with a frequentist approach and a Bayesian one. Seminar attendees are encouraged to download JASP before the seminar, and to bring their laptop in the seminar so they can practice during the presentation, if they wish to.'

For further information about this event:

Contact: Amelie Gourdon-Kanhukamwe
Email: A.Gourdon@kingston.ac.uk