Understanding SPSS
Brandon Aragon, Research Technician
Eric Cazares, Graduate Assistant
Claudia Alvarado, Graduate Assistant
2015-16 Workshop Series
October 20, 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 Technicians
• Allan Taing and Brandon Aragon
• Administrative Support Coordinator
• Monica Villarruel
• Graduate Research Assistants
• Eric Cazares, Claudia Alvarado , Lesley Quinonez, Keiry Borruel
What is SPSS?
• Statistical analysis software
• Descriptive statistics and frequencies
• T-Tests, ANOVA, correlations, etc.
• Tabulated reports, graphs, and charts.
• Can also be used for data management
SPSS or Excel?
• Some benefits of using SPSS over Excel include:
• Quick and easy access to descriptives
• Variety of charts and graphs
• Flexible pivot tables
• Easy to create subsets
• Easy value labeling
• User friendly with output that is easy to understand
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
• No decimals for ID
• Label:
• Full Name from Excel
Variable View: Describing your Data (cont’d)
• Value Labels
• Gives a label to simple values
• Gender: 1 = Male, 2 = Female
• Missing Values
• Force SPSS to exclude a value
• EX: GPA = 99, Class Level missing value
• 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
Search (case/variable)
• Data View
• Click GPA -> Ctrl+F
• Variable View
• Click Name/Label -> Ctrl+F
Frequencies and Descriptives
• Frequencies
•
•
•
•
Analyze -> Descriptive Statistics -> Frequencies
Class level, GPA, Gender, Program
Statistics and Charts buttons
Interpret (Frequency, Percent, Missing ClassLevel)
• Descriptives
•
•
•
•
•
•
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 (values)
• 1 = Participant, 2 = non-Participant
• Add variable values
• Check the characteristics of the variable to make sure 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
Crosstabs
• Analyze -> Descriptive Statistics -> Crosstabs
• Select and drag row/column variables
• Statistics
• Cells - Percentages
• Create separate tables to analyze:
• Class Level by Program Participants
• Gender by Program Participants
Custom Tables
• Analyze -> Tables -> Custom Tables
• Select and drag row variable(s)
• Select and drag column variables(s)
• Summary Statistics
• Adjust counts and percentages
• Add Column N%
• Add Table N%
• Categories and Tables
• Totals
• Category order
• Create separate tables to analyze:
• Class Level by Program Participants
• Gender by Program Participants
Computing New Variables/Recoding
• Transform -> Compute Variable
• Target Variable – New Variable
• Compute Honors if GPA >= 3.5
• Recode Missing Value
• Tranform -> Recode into Same Var.
• Old & New Values
• Old Value = System-missing
• New Value = 0
• Click Add
Custom Tables (Part II)
• Create a custom table to analyze Class Level by Honors and Gender
• Versatility of customs tables allows
for multiple layers to be added
• A more complex example - Analyze
Program and Class Level by
Honors and Gender
Thank You!
• Questions/comments?
• Contact Us
• AD-170
• 909-537-5052
• institutional_research@csusb.edu