Basic Statistics for Social Research
Video Demonstrations
Most people who do statistical analyses use computer software for managing their data and
making calculations. There are quite a few packages of programs available – including some
free ones – that can perform most numerical and graphical tasks. In this text, we’ve used,
primarily, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, or “SPSS.” Collecting and preparing
data for analysis is probably more often done using spreadsheet software. And it is possible to
do most basic statistical analyses fairly easily with a spreadsheet. In this text, we’ve mostly
used Microsoft’s Excel.
We’ve prepared a number of short video tutorials on how to use SPSS and/or Excel to perform
many of the statistical analyses discussed in the text. The tutorials don’t cover every topic in
the text, but we hope that you find them helpful. One word of warning: statistical and
productivity software is constantly being changed and improved. The videos should be a good
guide, but may not correspond exactly to the versions of SPSS and/or Excel that you have.
Chapter 1: Using Statistics
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Formula use & the Analysis Tool Pack in Excel
This clip shows the basic layout of Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet. It also discusses the
pre-packaged statistical tools (the “tool pack”), and how to access them. And, it shows
how to use these functions to perform basic analyses in Excel. 01chap_Intro_to_Excel
A basic introduction to SPSS; simple recoding
The basic screen layout and use of SPSS is shown in this video. Some tools for managing
and making common kinds of changes to data using SPSS are also demonstrated.
01chap_Intro_to_SPSS
A word or two about using SAS
Another of the most widely used commercial computer software packages for statistical
analysis is the Statistical Analysis System or “SAS.” While we don’t discuss SAS much in
the text, this short video explains the basics of using SAS – which can perform all of the
procedures, discussed in the text, and may be the software of choice at your institution.
01chap_Using_SAS
Drawing random sample of cases in SPSS
Sometimes it is useful to select one or more random sub-samples from our data. We
might, for example, use part of the data to “explore” and develop hypotheses, and then
use a separate sample to test the hypotheses we developed. This short video discusses
how one can select samples of cases from a SPSS dataset. 01chap_Sampling_cases
Chapter 2: Displaying One Distribution
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Creating a frequency chart in Excel using the dcount function
The starting point for all statistical analysis is the frequency chart. This video shows a
basic tool for creating frequency charts with Excel. 02chap_Excel_dcount_frequencies
An easier frequency chart in Excel, using the Analysis Toolpack
The Excel toolpack also provides a good tool for creating frequency charts.
02chap_Excel_frequencies
Creating a frequency chart in SPSS
A video on creating frequency charts with SPSS, including a few tricks for creating better
charts. 02chap_SPSS_frequencies
Using SAS to create a frequency chart
SAS also has some flexible ways of building customized frequency charts.
02chap_SAS_frequencies
Using Excel to create a bar chart, line chart, and cumulative frequency chart
The Excel spreadsheet has good graphical tools for basic statistics. This video shows
how to create some customized graphics and charts. 02chap_Excel_chart_graphics
Using SPSS to create bar, line, and cumulative frequency graphs
SPSS has a sweet suite of built-in tools for graphical displays of frequency data. This
video demonstrates the basics, and a few of the optional features.
02chap_SPSS_chart_graphics
Chapter 3: Central Tendency and Chapter 4: Dispersion
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Finding mean, standard deviation, and median with Excel; sorting
The basic measures of central tendency discussed in chapter 3, and the measures of
dispersion discussed in chapter 4, are (mostly) fairly easy to calculate in a spreadsheet.
This video demonstrates easy ways to do these tasks.
03_04chap_Excel_for_central_tendency_and_dispersion
Descriptive statistics in SPSS
SPSS has several ways of obtaining measures of central tendency, dispersion, and
distributional shape (see also chapter 5).
03_04chap_SPSS_for_central_tendency_and_dispersion
Chapter 5: Describing the Shape of a Distribution
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Creating box & whisker plots in SPSS
Box and whiskers plots are a particularly useful graphic way of describing the
distribution of interval-ratio variables. This video shows how to use SPSS to create these
kinds of graphics. 05chap_Box_and_whiskers
Chapter 6: The Normal Distribution
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Finding Z-scores using Excel
Although it is often easier to find Z-scores by hand, or using a table of printed values,
Excel has easy tools for finding Z-scores. 06chap_Excel_for_Z-scores
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Calculating cumulative normal probabilities for Z using Excel
Excel also has ways to look up the probability values (p or alpha) associated with Zscores. Here’s a demonstration. 06chap_Excel_Z-probabilities
Creating Z-score variables in SPSS
Transforming interval-ratio variable’s scores from their original form to Z-scores is often
helpful for creating indexes or comparing variables. SPSS can do this easily.
06chap_SPSS_Z_scores
Extended example: Hanging out in a fast food joint (Flash file; Flash player required)
The ideas of Z-scores and how they can be helpful might be more fully understood by an
in-depth example. This video walks you through the process with an applied problem.
06chap_Z-score_example
Chapter 7: Basic Ideas of Statistical Inference
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Calculating standard errors with SPSS
As the text discusses, the standard errors of measures of central tendency (means, or
means of dummy variables for proportions) are an important measure of how much
confidence we have in our sample statistics. It is easy to get SPSS to produce standard
errors. 07chap_standard_errors
Chapter 8: Hypothesis Testing for One Sample
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Creating dummy variables in SPSS
Many statistics are easier to calculate and interpret when the values of a variable have
been turned into “dummy” (i.e. dichotomous zero-one) variables. These two videos
show how to create dummy variables, and an example.
08chap_SPSS_creating_dummies and 08chap_SPSS_dummy_variables_example
Performing the single sample t-test in SPSS
Hypothesis tests about a single mean or proportion are very easy to obtain using SPSS.
This video shows how. 08chap_SPSS_single_sample_tests
Chapter 9: Hypothesis Testing for Two Samples
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Independent two-sample tests in SPSS
Comparing the means of a variable between two groups is a very common inferential
statistics task. This video shows the process using SPSS for independent samples.
09chap_SPSS_two_independent_samples
Paired, or non-independent t-tests in SPSS
Sometimes the cases in one group (e.g. a treatment group) may be matched with similar
cases in another group (e.g. a control group). This video shows how to get SPSS to
calculate hypothesis tests for the difference between two non-independent samples.
09chap_SPSS_two_dependent_samples
Chapter 10: Multiple Sample Tests of Proportions: Chi-Square
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The chi-square test of independence in SPSS
The Pearson independence Chi-square test is a real workhorse in the analysis of
categorical variables. Unfortunately, it is pretty tedious to calculate by hand. This video
shows how to get SPSS to do the work. 10chap_SPSS_chi-square
Chapter 11 Multiple Sample Tests for Means with Analysis of Variance
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One-way ANOVA with Scheffé in SPSS
Calculating analysis of variance statistics by hand is tedious and error-prone. This video
shows how to get SPSS to do the calculations, including post-hoc tests for multiplegroup differences. 11chap_SPSS_ANOVA
Chapter 12: Association with Categorical Variables
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Displaying measures of nominal association in SPSS
SPSS can easily calculate the most commonly used measures of association between
two nominal variables. The output also includes standard errors and probability levels.
12chap_SPSS_nominal_association
Displaying measures of ordinal association in SPSS
SPSS can easily calculate the most commonly used measures of association between
two grouped ordinal variables. The output also includes standard errors and probability
levels. 12chap_SPSS_ordinal_association
Spearman rank-order correlation in SPSS
SPSS calculates a variety of measures of association, including various kinds of
correlation coefficients, including Spearman’s and Pearson’s. This video shows how to
get SPSS to give you what you need. 12chap_correlation
Chapter 13: Association of Interval/Ratio Variables
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Creating scatter graphs in Excel
In studying association between interval-ratio variables, it is very important to visually
examine the relationships, in addition to calculating Pearson’s correlation. Excel has
graphics tools that are quite useful for looking at scatter graphs.
13chap_Excel_scatter_graph
Creating scatter graphs in SPSS
SPSS also has some powerful tools for visualizing the relationship between two intervalratio variables in a scattergraph. This video shows the basics. After you master these,
explore some of the optional things SPSS can do. 13chap_SPSS_scatter_graph
Chapter 14: Regression Analysis
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Simple linear regression in SPSS
Linear regression analysis is a powerful tool, as we show in the text. But, the
calculations are tedious, and there are many regression statistics that should be
examined. This video shows the basics of doing regression analysis with SPSS.
14chap_SPSS_regression
Chapter 15, Logistic Regression Analysis
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There are no videos available for this chapter