PSYC 354
SPSS HOMEWORK: FREQUENCY TABLES, HISTOGRAMS, AND BAR
CHARTS
Problem Set 1: A social psychologist is interested in attitudes toward technology among people
over 65 years of age. She develops a scale where a lower score indicates a less positive attitude
and administers it to 15 people over 65. The results appear in the table below. Remember to put
your initials within any and all variable names.
1. Using the data in the table above, set up a data file in SPSS and create a frequency table
to show the frequency of each score on the scale. Paste the frequency table here: (8 pts)
AttitudesKS
Frequency Percent Valid Percent
Cumulative
Percent
Valid 5 2 12.5 13.3 13.3
74 25.0 26.7 40.0
92 12.5 13.3 53.3
11 1 6.3 6.7 60.0
12 3 18.8 20.0 80.0
14 2 12.5 13.3 93.3
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Attitudes Toward
Technology Scale Scores
11
20
7
7
12
12
5
9
14
7
5
7
9
14
12
PSYC 354
20 1 6.3 6.7 100.0
Total 15 93.8 100.0
Missing System 1 6.3
Total 16 100.0
2. How many people have a score of 14? (5 pts)
2 people
3. What percent of people have a score of 12? (5 pts)
18.8 percent
4. Which score has the highest frequency in the table? (5 pts)
7 has the highest frequency.
5. Using the same data, create a histogram in SPSS to show the distribution of the scores.
Paste the histogram here: (7 pts)
Problem Set 2: An undergraduate Psychology student wants to examine the number of
applications to doctoral programs in different subfields of Psychology. He collects data from a
sample of schools in the US. He compiles the chart below. (The data here are based on real data
taken from the web site of the American Psychological Association
(https://www.apa.org/education/grad/survey-data/2016-report.pdf).
Enter the data in a new SPSS file. When creating the Program variable, be sure that the type is
set to “String” in the Variable View so that the names will show up on the graph. Remember to
put your initials within any and all variable names.
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Subfield Number of Applications
Clinical
Cognitive
Counseling
Developmental
Experimental
I/O
Neuropsychology
School
Social
Other
297
123
91
101
80
67
83
59
194
33
PSYC 354
1. Using the data in the table above, set up a data file in SPSS and create a bar chart that
shows the number of applications for each subfield. (8 pts)
Clinical
Cognitive
Counseling
Developmental
Experimental
I/O
Neuropsychology
School
Social
Other
0.00
50.00
100.00
150.00
200.00
250.00
300.00
350.00
SubfieldKS
Value ApplicationsKS
2. Which three subfileds have the highest number of applications according to the graph? (5
pts)
The three subfields that have the highest number of applications is:
Clinical, Social, and then Cognitive
3. Which level of measurement (nominal/ordinal/interval/ratio) is the variable “Subfield?
Support your answer with information from the course materials (textbook or
presentations). (5 pts)
Nominal. According to the text using this measurement has to do with names. “The
measurements on a nominal scale is more about classifying individuals into different
areas with names but aren’t related to each other because of the quantitative or it
numerical values” (Gravetter, et al, 2021).
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PSYC 354
4. Which level of measurement is the variable “Number of Applications”? Support your
answer with information from the course materials (textbook or presentations). (5 pts)
Ratio because has zero points.
Integration: Answer the following question based on Problems 1 and 2 above and what you
have learned from readings and presentations this week.
1. Explain why it is appropriate to create a histogram for the Attitudes Toward Technology
data, but a bar chart for the number of applications per subfield. (7 pts)
A histogram is used for Attitudes Toward Technology because the data are interval-level
and it is a continuous scale. A bar chart is use in the Number of Applications, data as the
subfields are more discrete, and the nominal categories are without a natural order
(Gravetter, et al, 2021).
References
Gravetter, F. J., Wallnau, L. B., Foranzo, L. B., & Witnauer J. E. (2021). Essentials of Statistics
for the Behavioral Sciences 10th ed. Cengage Learning, Inc.
https://ng.cengage.com/static/nb/ui/evo/index.html?
deploymentId=59939224560837217934024887&eISBN=9780357035542&id=19964396
03&snapshotId=3812908&dockAppUid=16&nbId=3812908&
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