Introduction to SPSS SOCI 301 Lab session

Statistics Statistiscs measure patterns of individual variables and relationships between them. Research questions, theory, testable hypotheses data, and analytic strategies are major components of doing research.

SPSS IBM SPSS 20 How to access data sets? (GSS, WVS) How to make a data set? (naming, labeling, defining variables)

Layout of SPSS Mainly 4 different windows: One that presents the data One that presents information about the data structures Another that provides the output of analyses And another called “syntax”, a command language which allows to save and automate many common tasks Data view window & Variable View Window Once you have data the Data View will display the values for each observation. With the tab at the bottom you ca move to variable view. Variable View will display information about each variable in the data set.

Layout MENU BAR commonly requested procedures such as opening files, performing statistical operations and constructing graphs File, Edit, View, Data, Transform, Analyze, Graphs, Utilities, Add-ons, Window, Help TOOL BAR (beneath the menu bar)

TYPES OF VARIABLES Constructing a data set requires entering data In data view, cases are positioned in rows, and variables are positioned in columns. Cases are units being studied, such as people, organizations or countries. Variables are characteristics or values being measured for these cases, such as age and gender for people.

Levels of Measurement In the SPSS, you can specify the level of measurement as scale (interval or ratio), ordinal or nominal NOMINAL: Values of a variale do not have mathematical interpretation (different categories) e.g. Religion, sex, political party affiliation, nationality ORDINAL: Rank order e.g. Level of education, response categories as low middle high

Levels of Measurement INTERVAL: intervals, numbers represent fixed measurement units e.g. Temperature (Fahrenheit), indexes treated as interval measures RATIO: absolute zero point e.g. Years of education, age, income Higher levels can be transformed into lower levels of measurement

String variables: written text (dates, currencies etc.) Categorical variables: Ordinal, nominal variables Scale variables: continuous variables, also called numerical variables

Defining and saving a new data set Manually save or open an already constructed data Exercise: Generate a data set about your family members. Create 4 variables indicating the person’s name, their sex, birth date and level of education. Each family member is one case in the data set. Open Variable View window and define variables. In the column labeled name, enter PERSON, SEX, BIRTHDT, EDYRS