USING STATVIEW 5.0 FOR ANALYSIS
This handout is intended as a quick overview of StatView for computing basic statistics and graphing
frequency distributions..
1. Double-click on the StatView 5.0 icon, which looks like this
, and appears at the bottom of the screen.
The program will next display its logo window, so one more click on the mouse key and you're ready to go.
2. Click on File (top left of menu bar) and hold down the key while dragging the mouse down until New is
darkened. (This is referred to as click-and-drag.)
3. You will now see a data window such as the one seen below:
Note that the input column is ready to take data that is real (decimal numbers). If you are entering integer data, all
you have to do is to click on “Real” in the Type box and you’ll see a range of options, including “Integer.” For
grouping variables, which we will discuss later, you will want to change the “Continuous” in the Class box to
“Nominal.” For now, treat the data as “Continuous.”
4. Enter the data (one piece at a time) with a Return or an Enter after each piece of data. If you make an error, use
the delete key to remove the error and re-enter the data. If you only detect your error after you've moved on to
other data entry, you can go back to any entry box by pointing the cursor at the box and clicking. [These data are
from G&W, Example 2.1, p. 42]
5. To compute simple descriptive statistics, click-and-drag on the Analyze menu to Descriptive Statistics, which
will open another menu with a number of options. Choose the first one (Descriptive Statistics) and you’ll next
see a window like the one below:
Click-and-drag your continuous variable “Stats Quiz” from the list on the right to the Variable(s) box on the left.
(Note that the variable must be a continuous variable, as indicated by the circled “c” to the left of the box.) Next,
click on OK and you’ll see a new analysis window containing the results seen below:
Descriptive Statistics
Stats Quiz
Mean
7.900
Std. Dev.
1.447
Std. Error
Count
Minimum
.324
20
4.000
Maximum
10.000
# Missing
0
You should see a tiny Variables window on the right. (If it’s not there, you can open it from the Windows menu.)
Note that your variable (Stats Quiz) has an X to its right, which indicates that it has been chosen as the variable for
analysis in the analyze window:
Suppose that I wanted to create a frequency distribution (as seen on p. 42) or a histogram. To do so, I would stay
in the current analysis window. Notice that on the left of the window is a menu of analytical options, including
Frequency Distribution. Click on the little triangle to the left and you’ll see the choices available under Frequency
Distribution. For our purposes, double-click on Summary Table (or click on Summary Table and then click on
the Create Analysis button). Doing so produces a window such as the one seen below:
I can vary the interval width and the initial value as I have done in the window. Why did I choose 3.5 as the initial
value instead of 4? (Read pp. 26-27 if that choice doesn’t make sense to you.) Clicking on OK will cause an
unfilled box to open in the analysis window. To get the box filled with a table requires that you choose a variable in
the tiny Variables window. Highlighting “Stats Quiz” and clicking on the Add button will yield a frequency
distribution table that looks like the one on p. 42, but stood on its head:
Frequency Distribution for Stats Quiz
From (≥)
To (<)
Count
3.500
4.500
1
4.500
5.500
0
5.500
6.500
2
6.500
7.500
3
7.500
8.500
7
8.500
9.500
5
9.500
10.500
2
Total
20
If instead of a table, you had wanted to see a histogram, the only change from the above instructions would be that
you would have chosen Histogram instead of Summary Table. Leaving everything as is from before and
clicking on Histogram now would produce the histogram seen below. StatView is inclined to use colors, so the
bars are actually vivid blue on the screen. In the absence of a color printer, however, the colors will all come out as
grays.
Histogram
8
7
Count
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
3
4
5
6
7
8
Stats Quiz
9
10
11
Note that the bars are lined up above the numbers on the x-axis just the way you’d like them to be.
If you wanted to print the bars with a texture that would show up on a black-and-white printer, you can make
changes with the Draw menu. First, click on the bars in the histogram, which will produce a dotted square around
the bars. Next, click-and-drag on the Draw menu, which will produce the choices seen below:
If you click-and-drag down to the fill box, you will open a window of choices that are available. I’ve chosen a
series of horizontal stripes for the bars. To change the fill color from blue to black, click-and-drag on the lower
colored box and you’ll open a new window of color choices. Continue holding down the mouse button and release
it when you have highlighted the black color. Now, your histogram will appear as bars with black stripes.
Histogram
8
7
Count
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
3
4
5
6
7
8
Stats Quiz
9
10
11
7. You can add typewritten comments to your page, if you want to do so (using the Draw menu and the text button
— the capital A). When you are finished with your masterpiece, you can print it to one of the two printers in TLC
206 using the Print command from the File menu.
8. When finished with StatView, click-and-drag on the File menu to choose Quit (or use ⌘Q). You’ll be asked if
you want to save your windows. Typically, you would not want to do so. Don’t bother to turn off the Mac, just
leave it and it will go into sleep mode.