Understanding SPSS Michael Rose, Graduate Assistant David Dysart, Graduate Assistant Salena Soria, IR Casual Worker Workshop Series October 10, 2014

Office of Institutional Research (IR) Accountability Internal External Assessment Continual Improvement Support Surveys and Measures Planning Enrollment Management/Resource Allocation Decision-making and Policy Formation Research Qualitative and Quantitative Research Dissemination Visit us at:

IR Staff AVP for Institutional Effectiveness and Director of IR Muriel Lopez-Wagner Assistant Director Tanner Carollo Institutional Effectiveness Associate Joanna Oxendine Research Technician Allan Taing Administrative Support Coordinator Yamira Murga Student Assistants Lauren Albrecht, Eric Cazares, David Dysart, Michael Rose, Salena Soria

Opening Excel Files Open SPSS Opening Window Recent Files Open a dataset File -> Open -> Data File Type: SPSS Statistics (*.sav) Excel (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm) Read Variable names from the first row of data Save File

Data View Each row is a different case Each column is a different variable Can drag and move variables (unlike Excel) Variables can be used to group participants (ex. “program”) Change to Variable View Click Variable View tab Double-click variable

Variable View: Describing your Data Edit Variables Each row is a variable Name Edit variable names No special characters (spaces, $, /, etc.) First character has to be a letter Type (String = alphanumeric, Numeric = numbers only) Width Change GPA to 2 decimal places Label: Full Name from Excel

Variable View: Describing your Data (cont’d) Value Labels Gives a label to simple values Label program Missing Values Force SPSS to exclude a value EX: GPA = 0 (may want to use 99) Align Similar to Excel Measure Nominal – Gender Ordinal – Level Scale – GPA Can copy/paste Labels, Values, and Missing Change to Data View Click Data View tab Double-click variable number

Frequencies and Descriptives Frequencies Analyze -> Descriptive Statistics -> Frequencies Class level, GPA, Gender, Program Statistics and Charts buttons Interpret (Frequency, Percent, Missing ClassLevel) Descriptives Analyze -> Descriptive Statistics -> Descriptives GPA, Gender Interpret (N, Minimum, Maximum, Mean, Gender) Remove Missing value from GPA Right click variable -> Descriptives Interpret (Different way to get information, different mean because of Missing)

Program Exercise Rename the “Program” variable so that it represents a program that is relevant to your area of expertise. Enter a number for each case 1 = participating, 2 = Not participating Check the characteristics of the variable to make sure teat they are appropriate.

Select/Split Cases Data -> Split Files Move program into the box, check ‘Compare groups’ Obtain the Descriptives of GPA Data -> Select Cases If condition is satisfied Gender = 1 AND ClassLevel = Freshman‘ Filter out unselected cases Copy Selected cases to a new dataset Delete unselected cases Descriptives of GPA

Search (case/variable) Data View Click GPA -> Ctrl+F Variable View Click Name/Label -> Ctrl+F

Thank You! Questions/comments? Upcoming Workshops: November 14: SPSS Basics, Part 2 January 15: Adobe Illustrator Contact Us AD