SPSS Statistics Workbook For Dummies

Introduction

Do you need to use IBM SPSS Statistics for school or work and you feel that you need more practice to become proficient? Maybe you eventually get the results you need when you work in SPSS, but it feels like you aren’t doing so efficiently. Maybe you're about to embark on an important assignment or research project, and you feel like some more practice (with carefully presented solutions) is just what you need.

Not to worry. Help has arrived. SPSS Statistics Workbook For Dummies is a collection of exercises and solutions to move you towards mastery with SPSS. It is a companion book to SPSS Statistics For Dummies, 4th Edition, but you don't need to read both. (You see more about how the books work together later in this introduction.)

We (Keith and Jesus) have trained tens of thousands of students during in-person workshops for SPSS Inc. (before IBM acquired SPSS). That experience, over many years, means we’ve looked over the shoulders of attendees as they’ve attempted exercises just like these. We can anticipate possible mistakes before you make them — and if you practice the examples in this workbook, you won’t make them at all. We’ve used that experience, along with the topics that IBM has identified as important for certification, to keep you focused on the critical skills for using SPSS efficiently.

About This Book

This workbook is designed to develop your ability to perform the most common and important tasks in the efficient use of SPSS Statistics. Like all books in the Dummies series, it features easy-access organization and doesn’t bog you down in unnecessary details. We carefully listed, discussed, debated, and narrowed the topics to maximize an efficient investment of your time.

We understand and value academic pursuits, but this is not an academic book. This is an eminently practical book written by two authors who have spent decades leading software training workshops. However, if you're a student, a researcher, or an academic, we have you covered. We explain critical statistical concepts, choosing the right technique, and interpreting your results. All that and more is explained from a practical point of view.

So why choose this workbook?

Dozens of practical examples with step by step solutions

Advice from two lifelong users of SPSS Statistics

Topics carefully chosen and prioritized for the tasks you will encounter most often

Tips and tricks to avoid the most common mistakes from two authors who have observed (and made) every mistake that is possible to make in SPSS

We follow a few conventions in this workbook:

Most chapters in this workbook will have the following repeating structure: explanation, example, questions, and answers. The answers are found at the end of each chapter. While skipping around chapters and sections to find what you need is encouraged, you’ll probably have the best luck reading each section, as indicated with a major heading, in its entirety.

Most of the exercises use the menus and dialogs, so when we show you a series of mouse clicks to access a specific area of the menus, we list the steps like this: choose File ⇒ Open ⇒ Data and load the GSS2018.sav file.

Two chapters 15 and 16, focus on using SPSS Syntax. SPSS Syntax programming code appears in monofont to help differentiate it from other text.

You are encouraged to write directly in this workbook when trying interpretive questions. When the questions prompt for an interpretation like Describe your result, space is provided for you to write your answer.

Foolish Assumptions

This book is for you if you have IBM SPSS Statistics and want to practice. Because it's a workbook, you get dozens of examples to help you prepare data, create variables, produce statistical analyses, and even write SPSS Syntax. You can even check out practice questions for IBM's certification exam in the final section of the book.

This workbook has been written as a companion to the book SPSS Statistics For Dummies, 4th Edition. That book, which is written for first-time users of SPSS, has more theory, overview, and initial setup. You aren’t required to have both books, but they make a perfect pair. SPSS Statistics For Dummies is the best place to start if you are at ground zero. You can start there, and then try the exercises in this one. Or, and we like this option even better, use them side by side.

This book is about IBM SPSS Statistics. We sometimes call it SPSS Statistics, or even just SPSS. You may encounter something called IBM SPSS Modeler. That is different software, and this book will not discuss SPSS Modeler at all (except just now).

Icons Used in This Book

Tip The tip icon marks tips and shortcuts to make working in SPSS Statistics quicker and easier.

Remember Remember icons highlight information that’s especially important to know. These reminders represent best practices in using SPSS.

Technical Stuff The technical stuff icon indicates information of a highly technical nature that provides helpful context. You can skip this info to complete a practice example, but it will help you more fully understand SPSS.

Warning The warning icon tells you to watch out! It notifies you of important information that may save you headaches when using SPSS.

Example The example icon presents a fully worked-out solution as a reference to assist you with the practice problems.

Beyond the Book

This workbook is just one part of the support we provide for mastering SPSS. For details about significant updates or changes that occur between editions of this workbook, go to www.dummies.com, type SPSS Statistics Workbook For Dummies in the Search box, and open the Download tab on this book’s dedicated page.

That page is also where you'll find the book's cheat sheet, which contains advice for exploring a new data set, identifying which menu to use to perform various important data preparation operations, and finding the correct graph type for your data by utilizing level of measurement.

You can find a wealth of related information at the companion book’s Dummies page by going to www.dummies.com and typing SPSS Statistics For Dummies in the Search box. Videos describing the topics covered in SPSS Statistics For Dummies, 4th Edition and ten SPSS gotchas can be found at https://keithmccormick.com/SPSS4Dummies.

Where to Go from Here

We wrote this book in a nonlinear way. You can skip around. It’s okay. We skipped around when we wrote it, too. But it does have a structure. If you have a deep interest in a broad topic, you might want to complete an entire part of the book.

If you need practice getting your data in and set up, check out Part 1. Part 2 is all about creating variables with the Compute dialog and by using other transformations. If you need to apply a formula or modify a variable, check out the dozens of examples in this part.

If you need practice producing statistical analyses and interpreting them, you need Part 3. Part 4 is all about graphing, providing lots of practice making nearly every graph type that SPSS Statistics supports. You also learn about editing output.

If you are intrigued with Syntax but have been afraid to dive in, see Part 5. You get a chance to try Syntax and then check your work. Many of the tasks are similar to those in Part 2, except you work in the Syntax window in Part 5.

In the final section, Part 6, we warn you about skills that are particularly tricky and then offer some practice questions to help you decide if the IBM SPSS Statistics certification exam is something you’d like to try.

Part 1

Getting Data into and out of SPSS

IN THIS PART …

Bring data into SPSS and show results in other applications.

Define data properties.

Chapter 1

Working Through Import and Export Challenges

IN THIS CHAPTER

Bullet Resolving trouble with delimiters on import

Bullet Exporting output

In this chapter you learn about ways to transfer data into and out of SPSS. Getting data into SPSS is the first step before any analysis can be done. If the data is available in an SPSS data file (.sav file extension), bringing that data into SPSS is easy. If your data comes from another program such as Excel or is in the txt, CSV, or SAS format, you can import that data into SPSS with just a little more work. The examples in this chapter demonstrate some complications that arise when importing these types of files.

After SPSS analyzes your data and displays results in easy-to-understand tables and graphs, you might want to use the results in another application to share your findings with others. This might involve

Formatting tables as cleanly as possible for clarity of presentation and ease of viewing

Exporting output to a file format that can be read by any user, such as Portable Document Format (pdf)

Doing post-processing on pivot tables in another application, such as Microsoft Excel

Applications such as Microsoft's PowerPoint or Word can display the results of your analyses as plain text, as rich text, or as a metafile, which is a graphical representation of the output. Pivot tables can be pasted or exported to Microsoft Excel with each cell of the pivot table in a separate Excel cell.

In this chapter, you both copy and paste as well as export your SPSS output to another application.

Importing Data

This section contains an example of a procedure you can follow to read data from Excel files into SPSS. Along the way, SPSS keeps you informed about what’s going on so there won’t be any big surprises at the end. Here are a few things to consider to make the import process a little easier:

When reading the Excel file into SPSS, the file must not be open in Excel.

Variable names are read from the first row of the Excel spreadsheet. However, the blank spaces in the variable names are removed because blanks are not allowed in SPSS variable names.

The measurement levels of variables are assigned based on the criterion defined in Data options. Variables with a small number of values are set to nominal. Variables with many values are set to scale.

SPSS reads only the values in the cells of the spreadsheet. Formulas in the spreadsheet will be computed and these computed values imported to SPSS.

The formulas and other spreadsheet characteristics associated with the cells are not imported to SPSS.

Tip We strongly recommend opening the original file in the software where it is stored so you can see how the file is structured.

In the following example, the Excel workbook has two worksheets: The first is the title page and the second contains the data. Do the following to read this data into SPSS:

Choose File ⇒ Import Data ⇒ Excel.

Select the GSS2018 Title.xlsx file and then click Open.

You can download the file from the book’s companion website at www.dummies.com/go/spssstatisticsworkbookfd.

In the Worksheet drop-down list, select the GSS2018 worksheet.

An Excel file can contain more than one worksheet, and you can choose the worksheet you want from the drop-down list, as shown in Figure 1-1.

Also, if you’ve elected to read only part of the data, use the Range drop-down list to specify the range of Excel cells that you want to import. Use the five check boxes, as needed, to specify whether the names of variables appear in the first row, the percentage of data to use to determine the variable type, and how to handle leading or trailing spaces.

Tip Inspect the data preview to make sure the variables and data will be read properly.

FIGURE 1-1: Select which data in the spreadsheet to include.

Click the Read Variable Names from the First Row of Data check box.

Click OK.

Your data appears in the SPSS window.

Switch to the Variable View tab to examine the variable definitions and make any changes.

SPSS makes a bunch of assumptions about your data, and some of those assumptions are probably wrong.

Save the file using your chosen SPSS name, and you’re off and running.

See the following for an example of importing data into SPSS.

Example Q. Text files are another common source of data. Many spreadsheet programs and databases can save their contents in a text file format. Commonly used delimiter characters are tabs or commas.

Import the file GSS2018.csv to SPSS. Note that the comma-separated file has variable names in the first row. The variable names are in the first row and the data begins in row 2.

A. Do the following:

Choose File ⇒ Import Data ⇒ CSV Data.

Select the GSS2018.csv file, and then click Open.

The Text Import Wizard appears, allowing you to load and format your data. Examine the input data. The screen lets you peek at the contents of the input file so you can verify that you’ve chosen the right file.

Click Advanced Options (Text Wizard). Examine the input data.

If your file uses a predefined format (it doesn’t in this example), you can select it here and skip some of the later steps.

Click Continue.

Specify that the data is delimited and the names are included.

SPSS takes a guess, but you can also specify how your data is organized. It can be divided using commas (as in this example), spaces, tabs, semicolons, or some combination. Or your data may not be divided — it may be that all the data items are jammed together and each has a fixed width. If your text file includes the names of the variables, you need to tell SPSS.

Click Continue.

Specify how SPSS should interpret the text.

You can tell SPSS something about the file and which data you want to read.

Perhaps some lines at the top of the file should be ignored — this happens when you’re reading data from text intended for printing and header information is at the top. By telling SPSS about it, those first lines can be skipped.

Also, you can have one line of text represent one case (one row of data in SPSS), or you can have SPSS count the variables to determine where each row starts.

And you don’t have to read the entire file — you can select a maximum number of lines to read starting at the beginning of the file, or you can select a percentage of the total and have lines of text randomly selected throughout the file.

Click Continue.

Specify tab as the delimiter.

SPSS can use commas, spaces, tabs, and semicolons as delimiting characters. You can even use some other character as a delimiter by selecting Other and then typing the character. You can also specify whether your text is formatted with quotes (which is common) and whether you use single or double quotes.

Remember Strings must be surrounded in quotes if they contain any of the characters being used as delimiters.

Click Continue.

If necessary, change the variable name and data format.

SPSS makes a guess for the type of each variable. To change a name, select it in the column heading at the bottom of the window, and then type the new name in the Variable Name field at the top. If you need to change the format, use the Data Format drop-down list.

Remember You can also change the data types later in the Variable View tab of the Data Editor window.

Click Continue.

In the Would You Like to Save This File Format for Future Use? section, click No.

Saving the file format for future use is something you would do if you were loading more files of this same format into SPSS — it reduces the number of questions to answer and the amount of formatting to do next time.

Click the Done button.

Look at the data, and correct the data types and formats, if necessary. Then save it all to a file by choosing File ⇒ Save As.

1 Import the GSS2018.xlsx file to SPSS. This example has one worksheet, the variable names are in the first row, and the data begins in row 2.

2 Import the GSS2018 extra title.xlsx file to SPSS. This example has two worksheets in the Excel workbook. The first worksheet is the title page. The second worksheet contains the data, with the variable names in the first row and the data beginning in row 5.

3 Import the GSS2018.dat file to SPSS. This file has a DAT format. The variable names are in the first row and the data begins in row 2.

4 Import the GSS2018 lines.txt file to SPSS. This file has a TXT format. The variable names are in the first row and the data begins in row 3.

Exporting Results

If you have a single table or a small number of tables, you can copy and paste these directly into a file opened in another application. Alternatively, SPSS provides an export facility to export large numbers of tables and charts into a file in a variety of common formats: Excel, Portable Document Format (PDF), HTML, text, Microsoft Word, and PowerPoint files.

Choose File ⇒ Open ⇒ Output and load the Chapter1Output.spv file.

Download the file at www.dummies.com/go/spssstatisticsworkbookfd.

Select the R’s highest degree frequency table.

Choose Edit ⇒ Copy.

Switch to Word or another word-processing application.

Choose Edit ⇒ Paste Special.

Tip When copying and pasting SPSS pivot tables, always use Paste Special because it provides various options for displaying the table.

Choose Formatted Text (RFT).

The table is pasted and looks like a