KEY POINTS IN SPSS

1. The four windows of SPSS are:

 Data Editor
 Output Viewer
 Syntax Editor
 Script Window

2. The two tabs in the Data Editor are:

 Variable View
 Data View

3. The variable view tab is the tab where the characteristics of the variable are
defined.

4. Data view tab is the tab where the individual cases for each variable are
entered. The column represents variables and the row represents the
individual cases.

5. The data editor is a spreadsheet-like where data are entered and viewed.
The saved extension is .sav

6. The output viewer is the window where the result for any work performed
in SPSS is seen. The saved extension is .spv

7. The column ‘name’ in the variable view tab gives you the name of the
variable. It has the following characteristics:
 It should be unique. No two variables should have the same name.
 It should not start with a number.
 It should not end with a special character; for example, full stop (.)
 It should not contain space. Instead, you should use underscore
 The cases, lower or upper, are not important.
8. The column ‘type’ in the variable view tab gives you the type of data that
SPSS should accept for the variable.
 ‘String’ is for alphanumeric data, especially data that deal with
letters. Example is name of student.
 ‘Numeric’ is for numeric data: data that deal with numbers. Example
is ID no.

9. The column ‘width’ in the variable view tab gives you the number of
character SPSS should accept for the variable.

10. The column ‘decimal’ in the variable view gives how the number of figures
should be after the decimal point. For string variable, it is 0.

11. In the column ‘value’ you enter what each response represents; the values
are assigned for each representative; in this column, you assign labels to all
the possible values. For example, 1 for male, 2 for female. To do this, click
on the three dots that appear. This will take you to the dialog box. In the
dialog box, enter the value—example 1, 2 etc.—in the value box, and enter
what the value represents—example, male, female etc.—in the label box.
Click on add. After you have done, click on OK.

12. The clause “variable name duplicates an existing variable name” means the
two variable names are the same. Already there is another variable name
that is the same as the other variable name you wanted to enter. To fix this
problem, change the other variable name to a name that is unique.

13. The clause “the variable contains an illegal last character” means that the
variable name ended with a full stop (.); to fix this problem, remove the
special character—full stop, for example.

14. The clause “the variable contains an illegal first character” means that the
variable name might have started with a number or special character. To fix
this problem, you remove the number. The variable name should not start
with a number.
15. Failing to correctly state the variable type means no matter how long you
enter the individual cases for that variable, it won’t stay. The data for that
variable will be erased. For example, if you mistakenly state numeric as a
variable type for data that deal with letter, SPSS will not allow you to use
letters later for that variable—except you change the variable to string.

16. Failing to correctly state the variable width means that SPSS will not allow
you to enter more than the number of characters you stated for the
variable, except you change the width to suit the number of characters you
need.

17. To change the variable type, for example, from string to numeric, click on
the three dots that appear in the variable type column; a dialogue box will
open, click on the variable type—string or numeric; click on OK.

18. To change the width, click on the arrows; the upper one is used to increase
the width and the lower one is used to decrease the width. Besides, the
width can be changed by manually typing the number you want to be the
width. Also, this is the same way you can do to change the decimal.

19. All statistical procedures are run from the Analyse Menu.

20. Before you enter the data, the variables are first created in the variable
view. The data is entered now in the data view.

21. To define the properties or characteristics of the variable, state:

 The name of the variable
 The variable type—string or numeric
 The width
 The decimal
 The label
 The values, if needed
STEPS INVOLVED IN SPSS
1. To save a work, you:
 Click on ‘file’
 Click on ‘save as’
 Enter the name of the file in the ‘file name’ box
 Click on ‘OK’.

2. To sort or arrange the data in order—ascending or descending, you:

 Click on ‘Data’
 Click on ‘sort cases’
 Click on the variable to be sorted
 Click on the arrow to transfer the variable
 Click on the ‘sort order’—ascending or descending
 Click on ‘OK’.

3. To create a target variable, you:

 Click on ‘Transform’
 Click on ‘Compute variable’. This will take you to a dialog box.
 In the dialog box, enter the variable you want to create in the ‘target
variable’ box.
 In the ‘numeric expression’ box, enter how the individual cases for
the variable will be gotten
 Click on ‘OK’.

4. To create a frequency table, you:

 Click on ‘Analyse’
 Click on ‘Descriptive Statistics’
 Click on ‘Frequencies’
 Click on the variable you want to create frequency table for
 Click on the arrow to transfer the variable
 Click on ‘OK’.
5. To create a bar chart, pie chart or histogram—you:
 Click on ‘Analyse’
 Click on ‘Descriptive Statistics’
 Click on ‘Frequencies’
 Click on the variable you want to create bar chart, pie chart or
histogram for
 Click on the arrow to transfer the variable
 Click on ‘chart’
 Click on the chart—bar chart, pie chart or histogram
 Click on continue
 Click on ‘0K’

6. To create cross tabulation or cross tab or contingency table, you:

 Click on ‘Analyse’
 Click on ‘Descriptive Statistics’
 Click on ‘cross tab’
 Click on one variable and sent it in the column box
 Click on the other variable and sent it in the row box
 Click on ‘OK’.

7. To get the mean, mode, median, standard deviation, range, variance etc.--
you:
 Click on ‘Analyse’
 Click on ‘Descriptive Statistics’
 Click on ‘Frequencies’
 Click on the variable
 Click on the arrow to transfer the variable
 Click on statistics. A dialog box will be opened
 Click on mean, mode, median etc.
 Click on continue
 Click on ok.
WHEN TO CREATE A FREQUENCY TABLE
 When the question has only one variable
 When the question asks, for example, how many people are male or how
many people are Limba etc

WHEN TO CREATE A CROSS TABULATION

 When the question has two or more variables
 When the question seeks to know the relationship between two or more
variables.
 When the question asks, for example, how many female are Mende or how
many male are single etc.

 Mode or Modal means the item that appears the highest or the most. It is
found when the question has:
 Most common
 Most prevailing
 Most preferred
 Most popular
 Most frequent
 Modal value
 The favourite
 Occurs most often
When you see such phrases, it means the mode. So, you should write the steps
involved to get the mode.
 Mean is known as the average. It is calculated as the:
Add up all the numbers, and then divide by how many numbers there are.
Synonyms are
 Arithmetic mean
 Average mean
 Range is the different between the highest value and the lowest value.
 QUESTIONS THAT CALL FOR CROSS TABULATION
 Female students who are overweight
 Male students belong to blood group A
 The youngest female who is a Temne

QUESTIONS THAT CALL FOR FREQUENCY TABLE

 The number of male students
 The number of students who are Limba
 How many students are single

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS

 FROM THE FREQUENCY TABLE
 The frequency column gives you the number of items for each
category
 The individual percentage is calculated as: total percent (100)
divided by the total number of items.
 The highest number in the frequency column is the mode
 The mean is calculated as the sum of all the items divided by the
total number of items.

 FROM THE CROSS TABULATION

 Calculation for the percentage with respect to the rows is different
from the calculation with respect to the column
 Row percentage is calculated as: the number for each row or the
cell divided by the row margin and multiply by 100
 Column percentage is calculated as the cell divided by the column
margin and multiply by 100.
 Column percentages tell you what percent of the column variable is
in each of the row variables.
 Row percentages tell you what percent of each row variable that is
in each column variable.
 Know that how many females are LImbas is not the same as how
many limbas are females.
 The total is calculated as by adding either the column margins or the
row margins.