SPSS stands for Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. It was developed in 1968, by three young men from disparate professional backgrounds. Norman H. Nie, C. Hadlai (Tex) Hull and Dale H. Bent developed SPSS out of the need to quickly analyze volumes of social science data gathered through various methods of research.

The initial work was done at Stanford University with the intent to make it only available locally, and not for international distribution. Nie, a social scientist and Stanford doctoral candidate, represented the target audience and set the requirements; Bent, a Stanford University doctoral candidate in operations research, had the analysis expertise and designed the SPSS system file structure; and Hull, who had recently graduated from Stanford with a master of business administration degree, programmed SPSS.

The primary use of SPSS in educational settings is for data analysis about people, their attitudes and behaviors. SPSS is mainly used by Political Science, Communication, Sociology, Social Work and Psychology departments.