SPSS Overview k

7/28/2019 SPSS Overview k

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The following Presentation

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Session 1

SPSS Overview and Basic Operations


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Once you have installed the SPSS software you will find the SPSS

short cut in the start menu or SPSS for Windows menu in the Start/ All Programs. Clicking on SPSS 15.0 for Windows Evaluation

version opens the SPSS software.


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This is the start up screen,

which looks like the familiar

Excel worksheet.

Click on the Cancel button

to remove the start up box.


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We have a matrix with

rows and columns

The first column has

numbers 1,2,3,4.

And the first row has

var on top of each

column. The var

stands for variable.

Lets input some data

Row

Column


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O.Chandra Shekar

Aparna.A

K.Adeep

Click in the cell where you want to

type in the data. After you have

finished typing press enter to move

to next cell.

You will notice that as soon as you

complete the first data entry and

press enter the name of the variable

on the top of the column changes

(by default it is var00001).


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Case 1

Case 2

Case 3

Now, lets add some more data in the next two columns.

Notice that the variable names on top of each column

are assigned automatically.

Each row represents a case or record. Each case has

variables attached to it. For example for case 1 the

name of the respondent is O. Chandra Shekar and his

age is 17 and he is male. It would be nice to have

variable names that tell us what the variables stand for.


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If you glance at the left hand bottom

of the sheet, you will see two tabs.

Right now you are in Data View andare therefore able to view the data

that is being entered.

Clicking on the variable view data

will take you to the sheet which

holds information about the variable.

This is one of the features which

you will find different from excel.


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name

agegender

The Variable view sheet holds information about the variables.

You can change the names of the variables by simply clicking

in the cell and typing in the appropriate name.

In SPSS version 15, the length of

the variable names is limited to 8

characters and all characters are

in lower case. A space in the name

is not accepted.


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SPSS allows data type

for each variable to be

customized. The

variable type selectionbox can be popped up

by clicking in the space

to the extreme right of

the Type column. By

default all variables are

designated as numericvariables.

Some data types such as date have many formats which can be selected from a

scrollable list. The best part about SPSS is the context specific help that is available

by right clicking on the object for which you need help. For example if you right click

on string you are prompted with Whats This? Clicking on Whats This? gives

you more information about the selected object.


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Width denotes the

number of characters in

the case of string

variables or the number

of digits in the case of

numeric variables

Sometimes the limitation of eight characters

for the name of the variable leads to

gibberish names. You can give a label to

each variable using up to 256 characters.

This label can give a more elaborate

description of the variable.


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The values column in

the variable view

sheet allows us toassign different

values to the same

variable. To assign

values click in the

extreme right side of

the cell for the popup.

This is related to the codes that we use especiallywhile collecting primary data through questionnaires.

Here for example if we had coded male as 1 and

female as 2 we would input these values in the

Value Labels pop up box.

1

Male

1=Male


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The Width column decides on the number of characters or digits that

the variable can acceptwhile the Columns column specifies the width

of column to be displayed. A small number in the columns will allow

only that much portion of the variable to be seen although the variablemay contain much larger data. The visible column width can also be

adjusted by dragging the variable border in the grey area at the top of

the column much like we do in excel.

The last column titled Measure, requires some explanation.


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Statistical packages classify variables into

four types: Nominal, Ordinal, Interval and

Ratio. SPSS combines interval and ratio data

to call them scale. Clicking on the extreme

right of the measures column will drop themenu from where the data type can be

selected.

In nominal measurement each numeric value represents a

category or group identifier.

for ordinal measures the data values represent ranking

or ordering information.

In interval measurement, a unit increase in numeric value

represents the same change in quantity regardless of whereit occurs on the scale.

Ratio measures have interval scale properties with the

addition of a meaningful zero point, that is, zero indicates

complete absence of the characteristic measured.

Nominal

Ordinal

Interval

Ratio


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Very often the data required by us is

available in other formats such as excel

or text (asci) format. Or usually data is

entered by persons who may not have

knowledge of SPSS and as such it may

be easier to enter the data in a morefamiliar form such as excel.

SPSS can import data from various

popular and not so popular formats.

Click on File / Open / Data.

This pops up the Open

File dialogue box


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Clicking on the Files of type drop

down arrow gives a list of file

formats that SPSS can import.

Select Excel (*.xls) option and

choose the file to be opened from

the appropriate folder. Please note

that SPSS version 15 does notsupport to import *.xlsx file format.

You can select the worksheet and

range to be copied.


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Check the sheet number to

ensure the correct data to

import if data is distributed in

different sheets and also

check the range and correct if

it is not taken by default.

Click on ok to proceed

The data file is ready in SPSS

for editing and formatting as

shown


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Assign the Values for each

variable in the Values

Column

Assign the Labels for each

variable in the Lebel

Column

Income

Gender

Documents

SPSS Overview k