Understanding SPSS
Michael Rose, Graduate Assistant
David Dysart, Graduate Assistant
Salena Soria, IR Casual Worker
2014-15 Workshop Series
October 10, 2014
Office of Institutional Research (IR)
• Accountability
• Internal
• External
• Assessment
• Continual Improvement Support
• Surveys and Measures
• Planning
• Enrollment Management/Resource
Allocation
• Decision-making and Policy
Formation
• Research
• Qualitative and Quantitative Research
• Dissemination
• Visit us at: http://ir.csusb.edu
IR Staff
• AVP for Institutional Effectiveness and Director of IR
• Muriel Lopez-Wagner
• Assistant Director
• Tanner Carollo
• Institutional Effectiveness Associate
• Joanna Oxendine
• Research Technician
• Allan Taing
• Administrative Support Coordinator
• Yamira Murga
• Student Assistants
• Lauren Albrecht, Eric Cazares, David Dysart, Michael Rose, Salena Soria
Opening Excel Files
• Open SPSS
• Opening Window
• Recent Files
• Open a dataset
• File -> Open -> Data
• File Type:
• SPSS Statistics (*.sav)
• Excel (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm)
• Read Variable names from the first row of data
• Save File
Data View
• Data View
• Each row is a different case
• Each column is a different variable
• Can drag and move variables (unlike Excel)
• Variables can be used to group participants
• (ex. “program”)
• Change to Variable View
• Click Variable View tab
• Double-click variable
Variable View: Describing your Data
• Edit Variables
• Each row is a variable
• Name
• Edit variable names
• No special characters (spaces, $, /, etc.)
• First character has to be a letter
• Type (String = alphanumeric, Numeric = numbers only)
• Width
• Change GPA to 2 decimal places
• Label:
• Full Name from Excel
Variable View: Describing your Data (cont’d)
• Value Labels
• Gives a label to simple values
• Label program
• Missing Values
• Force SPSS to exclude a value
• EX: GPA = 0 (may want to use 99)
• Align
• Similar to Excel
• Measure
• Nominal – Gender
• Ordinal – Level
• Scale – GPA
• Can copy/paste Labels, Values, and Missing
• Change to Data View
• Click Data View tab
• Double-click variable number
Frequencies and Descriptives
• Frequencies
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Analyze -> Descriptive Statistics -> Frequencies
Class level, GPA, Gender, Program
Statistics and Charts buttons
Interpret (Frequency, Percent, Missing ClassLevel)
• Descriptives
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Analyze -> Descriptive Statistics -> Descriptives
GPA, Gender
Interpret (N, Minimum, Maximum, Mean, Gender)
Remove Missing value from GPA
Right click variable -> Descriptives
Interpret (Different way to get information, different mean because of Missing)
Program Exercise
• Rename the “Program” variable so that it represents a program that is
relevant to your area of expertise.
• Enter a number for each case
• 1 = participating, 2 = Not participating
• Check the characteristics of the variable to make sure teat they are
appropriate.
Select/Split Cases
• Data -> Split Files
• Move program into the box, check ‘Compare groups’
• Obtain the Descriptives of GPA
• Data -> Select Cases
• If condition is satisfied
• Gender = 1 AND ClassLevel = Freshman‘
• Filter out unselected cases
• Copy Selected cases to a new dataset
• Delete unselected cases
• Descriptives of GPA
Search (case/variable)
• Data View
• Click GPA -> Ctrl+F
• Variable View
• Click Name/Label -> Ctrl+F
Thank You!
• Questions/comments?
• Upcoming Workshops:
• November 14: SPSS Basics, Part 2
• January 15: Adobe Illustrator
• Contact Us
• AD-170
• 909-537-5052
• institutional_research@csusb.edu