week 2 stats

Preparing a Data File in SPSS Simply follow the steps below to create your first SPSS data file:

1. Open SPSS. 2. A dialog box will open, press cancel since we are creating a new file.

Setting Up Your Data File – Variable View 1. The first step in creating your data set is to create the variables. Click on the Variable

View tab on the bottom. Next you will type in your variable names. 2. The first column is where we will name our variables ('Variable Name'). Be sure the

variable names match (Respond, Exer1, Exer2, Exer3, and Exer4). 3. The second column ('Type') lets SPSS know the format of the variable (e.g., number or

string of text). Only Exer4 is a string variable, the others should be numeric. Because RESPOND may start with a 0, this variable should be Restricted Numeric.

4. The 'Label' column allows us to provide a longer description of the variable. Be sure to enter the exact questions in the label column (e.g., What are the last four digits of your phone number?).

5. The 'Value Labels' column tells SPSS what certain values mean. This is used only when you have a nominal or categorical variable. Click on the values in the appropriate row to add category specification (e.g., 0 = No, 1 = Yes). Please be sure to “add” each category before pressing OK.

6. The 'Measure' column describes the scale of measurement for the variable. Here is where you specify whether the variable is continuous (SPSS calls this “scale”), nominal, or ordinal.

7. As the numeric variables are using whole numbers, you can change decimals to 0. The default width of 8 works for all variables except EXER4, which should be changed to a width of 20 to allow for longer responses (e.g., gymnastics).

8. Save the file (Under “File” select “Save As” to specify the file name and where you would like to save the file). Save the data with your name (e.g., Smith_exercise.sav). Be sure to save it to a location you have access to.

Entering Data – Data View 1. Click on the ‘Data view’ tab on the bottom and now you will see your variable names at

the top of the columns in your spreadsheet. You can now enter your responses to the 5 questions. You should have 5 rows of data.

2. After you enter your data, “save” your file again to be sure you keep all the changes!