One Sample t-test in SPSS

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This tutorial shows how you can do one sample t-test in SPSS. One sample t-test is to compare a sample to a fixed value.

For instance, you can compare whether the average score of students’ reading is different from 45. In the following, I am going to show how you can do that in SPSS. You can download the data hsbdemo.sav.

1. Steps of One sample t-test in SPSS

  1. Click Analyze -> Compare Means and Proportions, then One-Sample T Test.
    SPSS – screenshot - One Sample t-test – Step 1
  2. Select from left and click the right arrow button into Test Variable(s) window on the right.
    SPSS – screenshot - One Sample t-test – Step 2
  3. After appears in the Test Variable(s) window, type “45” into “Test Value.” Then click .
    SPSS – screenshot - One Sample t-test – Step 3

2. Interpret Output of One Sample t-test in SPSS

The following are the null and alternative hypotheses for one sample t-test:

  • Null Hypothesis: The mean of reading scores is not different from 45.
  • Alternative Hypothesis: The mean of reading scores is different from 45.

The following is the output. We can see that the mean is 52.23. Further, the p-value is smaller than 0.001. Thus, we reject the null hypothesis and conclude that the mean of reading scores (i.e., 52.23) is significantly different from 45.

SPSS – screenshot - One Sample t-test – results

Further Reading

This tutorial is about one sample t-test in SPSS. There are two types of other t-test, namely two sample t-test and paired sample t-test. You can check the tutorial below, which discusses the relationship and difference between these three types of t-test.

The following includes tutorials for another two types of t-test in SPSS.