m38 problem set STATISTICS

SPSS

SPSS: Getting Started

Prior to attempting to work through the examples in the content guides or working on the problem set, you will need to install SPSS. Once you have installed SPSS on your computer, you can simply click on a GSS file and it will automatically open in SPSS.

SPSS is a statistical software package that was first released in 1968 and continues to be a premier software for analysis of quantitative data. Originally used with large mainframe computers and data punch cards, SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), SPSS revolutionized quantitative data analysis. SPSS gives the researcher the tools for describing variable statistics, analyzing two variables together, predicting numerical outcomes, and predicting identifying groups. We will learn how to use SPSS in this course to describe variable statistics and bivariate analysis. (Note: you can download a MS Word document containing the information given below by clicking here .)

Load SPSS onto your computer before beginning this segment. Then save your GSS student database onto the hard drive of your computer. Open the GSS program and click on the first icon that says “gss08_1500cases.sav”. As long as you open this on the computer, you should have a screen that looks like this (click on image to view a larger version):

When you open SPSS, you open the Data Editor. The Data Editor is composed of the Data View and the Variable View. Note the tabs at the bottom of the screen. The Data View is where your data is held; the Variable View allows you to establish value labels and describes the attributes of each variable in your data file. Let's examine the variable view first. Click on that tab.

Variable View holds ten columns of information about each variable:

Name: abbreviated name of the variable	Values: the values you have assigned to the labels (for example, 1=yes, 2=no, 8= K, 9=NA
Data Type: you will most likely use "numeric" for your projects	Missing: values designated as missing
Width: the number of digits or characters in the variable view	Columns: Width of Column in Data View
Decimals: the number of decimal places that the variable requires	Align: alignment of data in Data View: right, left or center
Labels: the description or label for your variable	Measure: level of measurement: Nominal, Ordinal, Scale (SPSS designates both Interval and Ratio measures as Scale)

Now, let's examine the data view. Click on the tab at the bottom of the screen.

Once you click on the button that says Data View, your screen should look like this (click here to view a larger version)

Data View

Each row of the Data View represents a respondent or case. If you have 350 respondents, you will note that you have 350 rows (identified by the record numbers on the left). Each column of the Data View represents a variable. You can identify the variables by clicking to the variable view. You can also find out information about the variables in the Data View window:

1. Variables Dialog Box: go to Utilities, click on Variables. The left portion of the window lists all variables…highlight the variable that you would like to examine and you will see the information about that variable on the right side of the window.

2. Numeric Values and Value Labels: to determine what a numeric value represents, go to View and click on Value Labels. This will change numeric values to value labels. To convert back to Numeric values again, just click on Value Labels again.

3. “Value Labels” button on tool bar: find the button that looks like a price tag: click it and you will see value labels; another click reverts the data to numeric values.

Important Information!

Setting options:

1. In order to make your data analysis easier, you will want to have your variables listed alphabetically. Open a data file and go to Edit, then Options and General. You will see the variable lists option. Choose Display names and Alphabetical and click OK. This will tell SPSS to display your variables alphabetically whenever it lists the variables.

2. In order to set your options for your output window, you will want to go to Edit, Options, and click on Output Labels. You will see an area that says Pivot Table Labeling. Click on the arrow for “variables in labels shown as” and select the Names and Labels. Then click on the arrow for “variable values in labels shown as” and select Values and Labels and then click OK.

The SPSS Viewer is the window that provides your output. There are two panels in the viewer:

1. Outline panel: provides a complete listing of everything that SPSS has done in that session.

2. Contents panel: results (charts, tables, graphs, etc.) are displayed here. 

You will see the SPSS viewer when you perform an analysis (we will do this in the next content guide). When you close the SPSS viewer window, SPSS reverts back to the data editor.