Using SPSS in quantitative research

Week 7: Descriptive Statistics

Introduction

As a researcher, you must learn how to bridge the gap between the data you gather, the results you generate, and the audience you intend to inform with your findings. Your audience may or may not be familiar with quantitative terms, scales, t tests, and the like, so your challenge is to put data into meaningful forms. Descriptive statistics enables researchers to condense information into an understandable form.

This week also marks the beginning of the second half of this course, which puts more attention on using SPSS for Application Assignments. As you work with SPSS and statistics starting this week and going forward, you should ask yourself, "How do these statistical tests apply to my Final Project?" If a test applies to your project, why does it apply? If the test is not appropriate for your topic, why is it not appropriate? Keeping these questions in mind and answering them each week will help you understand more about statistical tests and their application to research.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this week, you should be able to:

· Calculate and interpret measures of central tendency and dispersion, and produce a write-up in APA format

Required Resources

This page contains the Learning Resources for this week. Be sure to scroll down the page to see all of this week's assigned Learning Resources. To access select media resources, please select the links below.

Course Text: Research Methods in the Social Sciences

Chapter 15, "The Univariate Distribution"

Chapter 15 explains frequency distributions, measures of central tendency, and measures of dispersion. This chapter will be used in this week's Application.

Appendix E, "Areas Under the Normal Curve"

Appendix E is a table of areas under the normal curve, corresponding to distances between the mean and ordinates of different standard deviation units from the mean. This resource will be used in this week's Application.

Course Text: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

Chapter 5, "Displaying Results"

Chapter 5 presents the purposes of displaying data and provides guidance on designing and preparing data displays to communicate information effectively. This chapter will be useful as you write your Application.

Course Text: Using SPSS for Windows and Macintosh: Analyzing and Understanding Data

Lesson 20, " Univariate Descriptive Statistics for Qualitative Variables "

Lesson 21, "Univariate Descriptive Statistics for Quantitative Variables"

Lessons 20 and 21 introduce use of descriptive statistics through the SPSS software package. You are encouraged to engage in the sample activities in the lessons using the SPSS files listed in each lesson; however, you are not required to complete the exercises at the end of each lesson. These lessons will be used in this week's Application.

Data Sets and SPSS Files

Select one of the data sets from the GSS data disk that came with the course text Research Methods in the Social Sciences. This is required for the Application.

Sample data files to accompany the course text Using SPSS for Windows and Macintosh: Analyzing and Understanding Data

Lesson 19 Data File 1

Lesson 20 Data File 1

These are the files you need to complete the lesson activities. These activities are encouraged but not required for the Application.

Media:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2014c). Frequency distributions. Baltimore: Author.

Course Text: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

Chapter 3, "Writing Clearly and Concisely"

Chapter 4, "The Mechanics of Style"

Chapter 6, "Crediting Sources"

Chapter 7, "Reference Examples"

Course Text from RSCH 8100: Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches

Chapter 7, "Research Questions and Hypotheses"

Chapter 7 serves as a reminder of how to design and write both qualitative and quantitative research questions, objectives, and hypotheses that will be useful as you prepare your Final Project.

Chapter 8, "Quantitative Methods"

Chapter 8 presents the steps for designing quantitative methods for a research study, focusing on survey and experimental designs. This chapter will be useful as you craft your Final Project.

Application

Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion with SPSS

The statistics for this week become the basis for several other tests you may do. These are the foundational concepts of statistics.

To prepare for this Application:

Review Chapter 15 and Appendix E in the course text Research Methods in the Social Sciences.

Review the video programs for this week, located in the Learning Resources.

Review Lessons 20 and 21 in the course text Using SPSS for Windows and Macintosh: Analyzing and Understanding Data.

Access the gss04student_corrected dataset in the Course Information area of the classroom to use for this Application.

Select one variable that is measured as a continuous or metric variable (age, Likert scale item, etc.) and one that is measured on a nominal scale (marital status, ethnicity, etc.).

The assignment:

State the statistical assumptions of this test.

Using the data set and variables you have selected, use SPSS to calculate the following:

Mean

Median

Mode

Range

Minimum

Maximum

Standard deviation

Generate syntax and output files in SPSS. You will need to copy and paste these into your Application document.

Use one kind of chart (any kind) to describe the data.

Based on your SPSS analysis, craft up to a one page double-spaced write up of the statistical results (include any additional pages needed for any APA tables or graphs and the SPSS syntax and output). Your report should include:

SPSS syntax and output files

1 chart