question 4

Soc 202 - Social Statistics

Problem Set #2: Descriptive Statistics

Introduction: You have been asked to evaluate anxiety levels in a random sample of students who visit the

Curry Health Center during finals week. You collect anxiety scores from 15 UM students. In

order to complete the analysis, the problem set requires the following:

1. Compute descriptive statistics on the anxiety scores. From the output, identify the mean,

median, mode and the standard deviation.

2. Compute percentile ranks on the anxiety scores. What are the scores associate with the

percentile ranks of 12, 27, 38, 72, and 88?

3. Construct a histogram. Impose a normal curve onto the histogram.

4. Write a brief summary that describes the shape of the distribution based on the descriptive

statistics that you have conducted. Are the data normally distributed?

Directions: Opening the data set:

S1: Save Problem Set #2 data.sav on your computer

S2: Open SPSS, click open, then click data, and find Problem Set #2 data.sav

Mean, median, mode, and standard deviation:

S1: Descriptives

Click: Analyze; Descriptive Statistics; Frequencies; click on anxiety scores and press

arrow to bring into the variable window; click statistics and select mean, median, mode

and standard deviation; press OK.

Computing percentile ranks:

S1: Percentile ranks

Click: Analyze; Descriptive Statistics; Frequencies; click on anxiety scores and press

arrow to bring into the variable window; click statistics and then click percentiles;

enter 12 in the percentiles box, then click add; do these for 27, 38, 72, and 88;

click continue, then click OK..

**remember to unselect the mean, median, mode and standard deviation**

Creating a histogram:

S1: Frequencies

Click: Analyze; Descriptive Statistics; Frequencies; click on anxiety scores and

press arrow to bring into the variable window; click the chart box and then select

histogram; select with normal curve, then click OK.

continue; then press OK.