F2021 Great Experiments PSY203 MPart 4 – Descriptive Statistics I: Creating Variables

F2021 Great Experiments PSY203

MPart 4 – Descriptive Statistics

I: Creating Variables & Typing in Data in SPSS

1) Go to one of the computers in the computer labs or log into vlab.stetson.edu. (use html) Search for SPSS (IBM SPSS v.26 Statistics)

2) When it opens, click the “Type in data” button on the right hand side.

3) Look for the “Variable View” & “Data View” tabs at the lower left corner of the spreadsheet.

4) Click on the “Variable View” tab to type in our variables.

EACH ROW is a separate variable.

Each COLUMN represents information for that particular variable.

Name

Type

Width

Decimals

Labels

Value

Missing

Columns

Align

Measure

Role

Name: Type in the name of each of our variables (All other columns will “autofill”). Here are the names of our variables

Participant

Age

Gender

SchoolYear

Race

Happiness

LOC

Type: Do not change (Should say “Numeric”)

Width: Do not change

Decimals: For Participant, Gender, SchoolYear, and Race change to 0.

Label: Retype (or copy) what you wrote in the first column—the ‘Name’ column

Valuesa: Do not change

Missing: Do not change

Columns: Do not change

Align: Do not change

Measure: Click on the correct type of data (Scale, Ordinal, or Nominal) from the dropdown menu.

This variable is Scale: Age

These variables are Ordinal: Happiness and LOC

These variables are Nominal: Participant, Gender, SchoolYear, Race

Role: Do not change (should read INPUT)

IMPORTANT – Values Column – when you click on value column for variable, a dialogue box will appear, add the following values and labels!!!!

For Gender: 1 = Female, 2 = Male

For SchoolYear: 1 = Freshman, 2 = Sophomore, 3 = Junior, 4 = Senior.

For Race: 5 = Caucasian, 6 = Other (Others included African American/Black, Latino, or any mixed race reported)

Name

Type

Width

Decimals

Labels

Value

Missing

Columns

Align

Measure

Role

Participant

Numeric

8

0

Participant

None

None

8

Right

Nominal

Input

One Completed Example (for ‘Participant’):

AFTER YOU HAVE TYPED IN ALL THE VARIABLE VIEW information…..

5) Click on the “Data View” and you will see the variables you just created in the “Variable View”. These variables will be listed across the top of the spreadsheet. You are now ready to type in the data included on the data sheet I have given you. EACH ROW will include ALL the data for one participant.

Participant

Age

Gender

SchoolYear

Race

Happiness

LOC

1

Example for Participant 1:

**Be sure to save your data FREQUENTLY. NAME YOUR .sav FILE w/ YOUR LAST NAME, Semester, & year!**

For example, my data file would be KissaneDataF21.sav

II: Descriptive Statistics in SPSS

Descriptive statistics summarize the data. Typically, both a measure of central tendency (e.g., mean) is reported along with a measure of variability (e.g., standard deviation or standard error). You need to ‘summarize’ the data as follows:

A. For ALL subjects combined (N= 50), you will conduct descriptive analyses

For Age – mean and standard deviation

Happiness – mean and standard deviation

LOC – mean and standard deviation

School Year – frequency distribution

Race – frequency distribution

B. For Gender, you will conduct separate descriptive analyses for FEMALES (n = 25) and MALES (n = 25), for the following variables:

Happiness – mean and standard deviation

LOC – mean and standard deviation

C. For Race, you will conduct separate descriptive analyses for Caucasian (n = 32) and Others (n = 18) for the following variables:

Happiness – mean and standard deviation

LOC – mean and standard deviation

To accomplish A: For all subjects combined (N= 50)

For AGE, Happiness, & LOC (mean & SD)

– In Data View, Click on DATA at the top of the page. Then, click on Select Cases. A new window will pop up.

– In that new window, make sure the circle next to “All cases” is selected. Then click “OK” at bottom of box.

– In the Data View, click on Analyze, then on Descriptive Statistics, then Descriptives. A new window will pop up.

– Scroll down and Click on Age being sure to click the arrow after you click on the variable.

– Now click on Happiness and click the arrow

– Now then click on LOC and click the arrow

– Check to be sure that Age, Happiness, and LOC appear in the Variable(s) box. Click OK and wait.

– IN the output window, you will see your Descriptive Statistics. This is the start of what will be your output file.

Next, For SchoolYear and Race Frequencies in our sample:

– In the DataView, click on Analyze, then on Descriptive Statistics, then Frequencies. A new window will pop up.

– Scroll down and Click on SchoolYear and then the click the arrow to move “SchoolYear” into the Variables Box.

–Click on Race and click the arrow to move “Race” into the Variables Box.

–Click OK and wait.

–In the output window, your Frequencies will appear (below the descriptive stats from above)

To accomplish B: Gender Descriptive Statistics

1) You will work with the FEMALE data first. So, to select ONLY the FEMALES’ data

– In Data View, Click on DATA at the top of the page. Then, click on Select Cases. A new window will pop up

– In that new window, click the circle next to “If condition is satisfied”, Then click the “IF” box under that statement.

– Another new window will pop up.

– In that new window, click on Gender in the window to the left, then click on the curved arrow.

“Gender” should appear in the window on the top. Click on “=” then click on “1”.

– Then click on “Continue” at the bottom of the window.

– Then you will need to click “OK” when a new box appears.

– Then, go to Data View—Check to be sure the MALE data are crossed off (only in the very 1st column will you see the crossed off boxes”. Also, you will see a new column labeled “filter_$”. Each FEMALE will now have a ‘1’ in the that column and each MALE will now have a zero 0—It’s just the way the computer identifies which data have been selected.

NOW, you are ready to calculate the means & standard deviations for the FEMALE scores:

In the Data View, click on Analyze, then on Descriptive Statistics, then Descriptives.

A new window will pop up. Clear anything in the Variables Box.

Scroll down and Click on the Happiness variable being sure to click the arrow after you click on the variable.

Then, click on LOC being sure to click the arrow after you click on the variable. Check to be sure that the Happiness variable and the LOC variable appear in the “Variables Box.” Click OK and wait.

Then, a new window (an “output” window will appear).

– In it, you will see the Descriptive Statistics for the females.

2) Now, do the same (mean & SD for the MALE data! (use “2”, not “1” in the “Gender” step above where you ‘select’ the data for the computer to analyze.)

To accomplish C: Race Descriptive Statistics

You will conduct separately descriptive analyses (on the Happiness & LOC variables) for ‘Whites’ and ‘Others’. You will need to ‘select data’ as you did above for the males and females, but this time be sure “Race” is in the box and that you use ‘5’ for “Whites” and ‘6’ for “Others”.

1) You will work with the Caucasian data first. So, to select ONLY the Caucasians’ data

– In Data View, Click on DATA at the top of the page. Then, click on Select Cases. A new window will pop up

– In that new window, click the circle next to “If condition is satisfied”, Then click the “IF” box under that statement. Another new window will pop up.

– In that new window, click on Race in the window to the left, then click on the curved arrow.

“Race” should appear in the window on the top. Click on “=” then click on “5”. (White = 5 in our coding system)

– Then click on “Continue” at the bottom of the window.

– Then you will need to click “OK” when a new box appears.

– Then, go to Data View—Check to be sure the Other Race data are crossed off (only in the very 1st column will you see the crossed off boxes”.

NOW, you are ready to calculate the means & standard deviations for the Caucasian scores:

In the Data View, click on Analyze, then on Descriptive Statistics, then Descriptives.

– A new window will pop up. Clear anything that’s in the “Variable’s Box”.

– Scroll down and Click on the LoC variable being sure to click the arrow after you click on the variable. Then, click on Happiness being sure to click the arrow after you click on the variable.

– Check to be sure that the LoC variable and the Happiness variable appear in the “Variables Box”

– Click OK and wait. Then, a new window (an “output” window will appear). In it, you will see the Descriptive Statistics for the Caucasians in our sample

2) Now, do the same (mean & SD for the Other Race data! (use “6”, not “5” in the “Race” step above where you ‘select’ the data for the computer to analyze.)

NOW—SAVE THIS OUTPUT FILE (the window with all the results in it)! Click ‘Save As’ – and save the output file with your name, semester + ‘des1’ after it (e.g. my output file name is “KissaneF21des.spv). Later, you will be able to identify it as the file with your descriptive results in it. So, RIGHT NOW you should have ONE .sav file with your data in it and ONE .spv file with the descriptive stats “output” from above.

************************************************************************************************************

You can click in the output the file and write in the actual output. Label your tables and analyses, so you keep everything organized!

Print the output (if you can), so we can discuss results in class.

Review checklist, and email both files to me!

Checklist:

Time to check your FIRST output file:

BE SURE you have (for all participants) a Descriptives Box for AGE, Happiness, & LOC

BE SURE you have (for all participants) a Frequencies Box for School Year & Race

BE SURE you have a ‘Descriptives Box’ with Happiness & LOC Scores for the Females (Gender = 1)

BE SURE you have a Descriptives Box’ with Happiness & LOC Scores for the Males (Gender = 2)

BE SURE you have a ‘Descriptives Box’ with Happiness & LOC Scores for “Whites” (Race = 5)

BE SURE you have a ‘Descriptives Box’ with Happiness & LOC Scores “Others” (Race = 6)

You will submit BOTH files, the data file (.sav) and the descriptive statistics output file (.spv)

I will check them for accuracy and let you know how you did.

DUE BY 9/28