m38 problem set STATISTICS

So, how can you calculate lambda and gamma, using SPSS?

Here are the instructions:

Lambda and Gamma:

Analyze, Descriptive Statistics, Crosstabs

Dependent variable as the Row variable (Mneumonic suggestion: remember DR, dependent belongs on the row)

Independent variable as the column variable

Statistics: Lambda or Gamma,

Continue, OK

Now, let’s try one of each of these. Let’s go back to our original comparison of gender and happiness. If you go back after you take the first 3 steps, your screen should look like this:

Now we want to calculate the measure of association statistic. SEX is a nominal variable and HAPPY is an ordinal variable. Since you always use the statistic that is associated with the lowest level of measurement, we will use lambda. Click on to statistics and then check lambda. Your statistics screen should look like this:

Now click continue and then OK. Your screen should look like this:

How do you interpret this output? You’ve already seen the crosstab. Now let’s look at the directional measures. Go to the Value of lambda, with General Happiness as dependent variable. The value of lambda is .000. What does that mean? There is absolutely no association between gender and happiness!

Go back and check out the association between number of children and happiness. You follow the same procedures as above but instead of selecting lambda, select gamma. Your output should look like this:

Look at the value of gamma: -.061. What does this mean? It means that there is a very weak association between the number of children and happiness. What does the negative sign mean? It means that there is an indirect association. Let’s think about this. Happiness is measured Very happy = 1, pretty happy = 2, and not too happy =3. So if the association is indirect, that means as the value of one goes up, the other goes down. So, as the number of children increase, happiness attributes decrease. What does that mean? Well, it means that you are becoming happier (because 3 is not too happy, 2 is pretty happy, and 1 is very happy). Does this make sense? Therefore, more children equal happier people!