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RESEARCH II
QUARTER 3 – MODULE 3
Week 5 and 6

Descriptive Stats and

Frequency Tables
Reminders in using this module:
1. Use the module with care. Do not put unnecessary mark/s on any part of
the module. Use a separate sheet of paper in answering the exercises.
2. Don’t forget to answer What I Know before moving on to the other activities
included in the module.
3. Read the instructions carefully before doing each task.
4. Check your answers on an activity using the answer key.
5. Observe honesty and integrity in doing the tasks and checking your answers.
6. Finish the task at hand before proceeding to the next.
7. Submit your answers at the given date and time.
If you encounter any difficulty in answering the tasks in this module, do not
hesitate to consult your teacher or facilitator. Always bear in mind that you are
not alone.

We hope that through this material, you will experience meaningful learning and
gain deep understanding of the relevant competencies. You can do it!
This module was designed and written with you in mind. This module will help you
understand the different data collection methods and tools in your research work.
The scope of this module permits it to be used in many different learning situations.
The language used recognizes the diverse vocabulary level of students. The lessons
are arranged to follow the standard sequence of the course.

What I Need to Know

Week 5-6 (Module 3)

• Lesson 1 – Descriptive Stats
• Lesson 2 - Frequency Tables

After going through this module, you are expected to:

1. execute descriptive stats for one numeric variable, many numeric variables
and by group.
2. create and interpret frequency tables and charts using SPSS.
 What I Know

Multiple Choice. Before you study the lessons of this module, answer the following
to test your existing knowledge. Write the capital letter of the correct answer on
your answer sheet.
___1. To run a create a frequency table, which of the following should be click
sequentially in the data view of SPSS.
A. Analyze > Descriptive Statistics > Frequencies
B. Analyze > Descriptive Statistics > Descriptives
C. Analyze > Descriptive Statistics > Crosstabs
D. Analyze > Compare Means > Means

___2. What statistical measure is being answered by the question “What is the
"shape" of the distribution?”?
A. Mean C. Skewness
B. Variance D. Standard deviation

___3. Which of the following is the correct procedure in running frequencies

procedure in comparing percentiles for more that two variables?
1. Uncheck the box for Display frequency tables. When finished, click OK.
2. Click Statistics. Click the Cut points check box, and specify 5 equal
groups. Click Continue when finished.
3. Open the Frequencies window (Analyze > Descriptive Statistics >
Frequencies).
4. Highlight the four test score variables (click variable English, then hold
down Shift and click variable Writing) in the left-hand column. Then click
the arrow button to move them to the Variables box.
5. Click Format. In the Multiple Variables area, make sure that Compare
variables is selected. Then click Continue.
A. 43251 C. 43125
B. 34521 D. 34251

___4. In SPSS, frequencies procedure can compute the following statistics for one
or more continuous variables except __________.
A. N valid response C. Variance
B. Differences D. Range

___5. In SPSS frequencies window, what does the “statistics” button contains or
displays when clicked.
A. frequency tables will be printed
B. contains various graphical options
C. contains various descriptive statistics
D. contains options for how to sort and organize the table output

___6.
The figure above displays what type of window in frequencies procedure?
A. Charts window C. Statistics window
B. Format window D. Style window
___7. Which of the following is NOT displayed in the format window of frequencies
procedure?
A. Multiple Variable options C. Order options
B. Organize output options D. Charts

___8. In making charts, which of the following is the appropriate option for
continuous variables?
A. Bar chart C. Histograms
B. Pie chart D. none

___9. By default, the descriptives procedure computes the following measures

except __________.
A. mean C. standard deviation
B. range D. minimum of variable

___10. Which of the following is the correct entry for using the syntax window in
running descriptive stat for mean, standard deviation and minimum and
maximum of the variables
A. DESCRIPTIVES VARIABLES=/STATISTICS=MEAN STDDEV MIN MAX.
B. DESCRIPTIVES VARIABLES=/FREQ=MEAN STDDEV MIN MAX.
C. FREQUENCY VARIABLES=/STATISTICS=MEAN STDDEV MIN MAX.
D. FREQUENCY VARIABLES=/DESC=MEAN STDDEV MIN MAX.

___11.
Based form the table above, which of the following statement is correct?
A. Writing has the highest average
B. Math has the highest standard deviation of scores
C. Reading has the lowest standard deviation of scores
D. The averages of English and Math scores were very close

___12. The descriptive procedure in SPSS can compute __________ as new variables
in the dataset.
A. differences C. standard deviations
B. correlations D. z scores

___13. In the descriptive window, you can print the variables in the same order
that they are specified when you choose __________.
A. Variable list
B. Alphabetically
C. Ascending Means
D. Descending means

___14. Which SPSS procedure is useful when you want to summarize and
compare differences in descriptive statistics across one or more factors, or
categorical variables?

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 A. Frequency procedure C. Compare Means procedure
B. Descriptive procedure D. Correlation procedure

___15. In frequency procedure format window, which of the following order options
should you click to arrange the rows of the frequency table in decreasing order
with respect to the category values?
A. ascending values C. ascending counts
B. descending values D. descending counts

___16. In the output view of the frequency table, which of the following column
displays the percentage of observations in the category out of the total number
of nonmissing responses?
A. percent C. valid percent
B. frequency D. cumulative percent

___17.
In the frequency table above the value 59.9 in the last column indicates ______.
A. cumulative percentage of freshman, andsophomore
B. cumulative percentage of all grade level
C. frequency of freshman and sophomore
D. percentage of junior and senior

___18. In comparing means, these are the categorical variable(s) that will be used
to subset the dependent variables.
A. Dependent list C. Variable list
B. Independent list D. Data list

___19. Which of the following charts displays the categories on the graph's x-axis,
and either the frequencies or the percentages on the y-axis?
A. Pie chart
B. Bar chart
C. Histogram
D. Scatter plot

___20. In frequencies procedure format window, the frequency tables for all of the
variables will appear first, and all of the graphs for the variables will appear
after when __________ is selected.
A. Compare variables
B. Organize output by variables
C. Suppress tables
D. Chart type

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 Lesson 1 Descriptive Stats

You have learned from the previous modules how to use statistical softwares
especially SPSS for your research work particularly on how to analyze your data.
You have also learned how to compute and interpret your statistical analysis using
t test, analysis of variance and correlations. In this module, you will study how to
run descriptive statistics and compare means.

What’s In

Before we proceed in to our lesson proper, we will going to recall statistical

tool that you have studied. Fill up the table below on when do we utilized the
following statistical tools.

Independent Samples t Test One-way ANOVA Pearson Correlation

At this moment, you have already mastered common statistical tools in

research Continue studying this module for you to learn how to further utilized
statistical software in data analysis.

What’s New

Before doing any kind of statistical testing or model building, you should
always examine your data using summary statistics and graphs. This process is
called exploratory data analysis, and it's a crucial part of every research project.
Exploratory data analysis is about "getting to know" your data: which values are
typical, which values are unusual; where is it centered, how spread out is it; what
are its extremes. More importantly, it's an opportunity to identify and correct any
problems in your data that would affect the conclusions you draw from your
analysis.

How do we "get to know" our data? The answer is different depending on

whether our variables are numeric or categorical. In this section, we'll demonstrate
which statistics and SPSS procedures to use for both types of data.

What is It

DESCRIPTIVE STATS FOR ONE NUMERIC VARIABLE (FREQUENCIES)

When applied to scale variables, the Frequencies procedure in SPSS can
compute quartiles, percentiles, and other summary statistics. It can also create
histograms with an estimated normal distribution overlaid on the graph.
When summarizing quantitative (continuous/interval/ratio) variables, we
are typically interested in questions like:
What is the "center" of the data? (Mean, median)
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 How spread out is the data? (Standard deviation/variance)
What are the extremes of the data? (Minimum, maximum; Outliers)
What is the "shape" of the distribution? Is it symmetric or asymmetric? Are
the values mostly clustered about the mean, or are there many values in the "tails"
of the distribution? (Skewness, kurtosis)
In SPSS, the Frequencies procedure is typically used on categorical variables,
but it also has special settings that can be applied for continuous numeric
variables. In particular, the Frequencies procedure can compute percentiles that
are not otherwise included in the Descriptives, Compare Means, or Explore
procedures. In all, the Frequencies procedure can compute the following statistics
for one or more continuous variables: N valid responses, N missing responses,
Mean, Standard deviation, Variance, Sum, Minimum, Maximum, Range, Skewness,
Kurtosis, Median, Quartiles (25th, 50th, 75th percentiles), Percentiles, Mode
The Frequencies procedure can also produce histograms with or without a
normal distribution overlaid on the graph.

Using the Frequencies Procedure with Scale Variables

To call the Frequencies procedure, click Analyze > Descriptive Statistics >
Frequencies.

A Variable(s): The variables to analyze with the Frequencies procedure. To include

a variable for analysis, double-click on its name to move it to the Variables box. You
can add several variables to this box to obtain statistics for each variable.

B Statistics: Opens the Frequencies: Statistics window, which contains various

descriptive statistics, most of which are suitable for continuous numeric variables.

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 Most of the statistics in the Central Tendency, Dispersion,
and Distribution groups are valid for continuous variables; the only exception is
the Mode, which very rarely has a useful interpretation for situations involving
continuous variables. Most of these statistics are identical to the ones that can be
obtained with Descriptives, Compare Means, or Explore. One noticeable exception
to this is the Percentile Values group, which is unique to the Frequencies
procedure:
The Quartiles option produces the first, second, and third quartiles (i.e., the
25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles, respectively).
The Cut points for n equal groups option will divide the dataset
into n equally sized groups and report the percentiles. For example, if the user
specifies n=5, then the output will report the 20th, 40th, 60th, and 80th percentiles.
Or, if the user specifies n=10, then the output will report the 10th, 20th, 30th, ...,
90th percentiles.
The Percentiles option allows the user to specify the exact percentiles to
report. The percentiles should be entered as whole numbers.
You can select more than one option in the Percentile Values group. If your
selections request overlapping information, that information will not be printed
twice.
Note: The Values are group midpoints check box should only be selected
when your data values represent the midpoint of a range. For example, this would
be the case if you had coded anyone between the ages of 30 and 39 as 35
(source: IBM SPSS Statistics Information Center). This situation is more often
associated with ordinal categorical variables.

C Charts: Opens the Frequencies: Charts window, which contains various

graphical options. Options include bar charts, pie charts, and
histograms. Histograms are the only appropriate option for continuous variables;
bar charts and pie charts should never be used with continuous variables. If
requesting a histogram, the optional Show normal curve on histogram option will
overlay a normal curve on top of your histogram, which can be useful when
assessing the normality of a variable.

Note that the options in the Chart Values area apply only to bar charts. These
buttons will be greyed out if the radio button for Histograms is selected.

D Format: Opens the Frequencies: Format window, which contains options for how
to sort and organize the table output.

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The Order by options are not relevant to continuous variables, but the Multiple
Variables options allow for customization of output when two or more continuous
variables are specified.
Compare variables places the descriptive statistics for the numeric variables side-
by-side
Organize output by variables creates separate summary tables for each numeric
variable.

E Display frequency tables: When checked, frequency tables will be printed. (This
box is checked by default.) If this check box is not checked, no frequency tables will
be produced, and the only output will come from supplementary options
from Statistics or Charts. You will want to uncheck this box if using the
Frequencies procedure on a continuous numeric variable. (If this box is left
checked, a frequency table will be produced where each unique number is treated
as its own category. This could lead to a table with 100+ categories, depending on
the number of observations in your dataset.)

Example: Comparing Percentiles for More Than Two Variables

PROBLEM STATEMENT
For variables with skewed distributions, it is often more useful to look at
percentiles than it is to look at means. This is because means are more susceptible
to outliers: a single strongly outlying value can "pull" the mean up or down from
where it would be otherwise. By comparison, percentiles (including the median) are
relatively robust to outliers - that is, percentiles generally do not change much when
outliers are present compared to when there aren't outliers present.
When reporting placement or achievement test scores, it's often more useful
(and more descriptive) to report the percentiles than it is to report the means. For
example, we may want to know the 80th percentile: the score that 80% of students
scored below. The sample dataset has placement test scores (out of 100 points) for
four subject areas: English, Reading, Math, and Writing. Let's use the Frequencies
procedure to obtain the quintiles (i.e., the 20th, 40th, 60th, and 80th percentiles)
of the scores.

RUNNING THE PROCEDURE

Using the Frequencies Dialog Window
1. Open the Frequencies window (Analyze > Descriptive Statistics >
Frequencies).
2. Highlight the four test score variables (click variable English, then hold
down Shift and click variable Writing) in the left-hand column. Then click
the arrow button to move them to the Variables box.
3. Click Statistics. Click the Cut points check box, and specify 5 equal groups.
Click Continue when finished.

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 4. Click Format. In the Multiple Variables area, make sure that Compare
variables is selected. Then click Continue.
5. Uncheck the box for Display frequency tables. When finished, click OK.
Using Syntax
FREQUENCIES VARIABLES=English Reading Math Writing
/FORMAT=NOTABLE
/NTILES=5
/ORDER=ANALYSIS.

OUTPUT
There is only one box, Statistics, that will print to the Output window. This box will
contain the number of valid and missing values for each variable, as well as any
additional statistics we requested (in this case, the quintiles).

Note that, by default, SPSS will determine how many decimal places to use
for the percentiles based on the variable's number of decimal places. For this
screenshot, we have shortened the output to one decimal place for readability.
The "Compare Groups" option we selected told SPSS to put the results for all
four variables in a single table, side-by-side. From this, we can quickly make several
observations about the data:
Writing had the most missing test scores (31), while Reading had the fewest
(10).The Math test had the lowest scores in general. The bottom 20% of students
scored below 59.3; the top 20% scored above 72.1. Contrast with the English test
scores, where the bottom 20% scored below 77.1, and the top 20% scored above
88.2.

DESCRIPTIVE STATS FOR MANY NUMERIC VARIABLES (DESCRIPTIVES)

Descriptives is best to obtain quick summaries of numeric variables, or to
compare several numeric variables side-by-side.
Introduction
When summarizing quantitative (continuous/interval/ratio) variables, we
are typically interested in questions like:
What is the "center" of the data? (Mean, median)
How spread out is the data? (Standard deviation/variance)
What are the extremes of the data? (Minimum, maximum; Outliers)
What is the "shape" of the distribution? Is it symmetric or
asymmetric? Are the values mostly clustered about the mean, or are there
many values in the "tails" of the distribution? (Skewness, kurtosis)
In SPSS, the Descriptives procedure computes a select set of basic
descriptive statistics for one or more continuous numeric variables. In all, the
statistics it can produce are:N valid responses, Mean, Sum, Standard deviation,
Variance, Minimum, Maximum, Range, Standard error of the mean (or S.E.
mean),Skewness, Kurtosis

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Additionally, the Descriptives procedure can optionally compute Z scores as new
variables in your dataset.

Descriptives

To run the Descriptives procedure, select Analyze > Descriptive Statistics >
Descriptives.

The Descriptives window lists all of the variables in your dataset in the left
column. To select variables for analysis, click on the variable name to highlight it,
then click on the arrow button to move the variable to the column on the right.
Alternatively, you can double-click on the name of a variable to move it to the
column on the right.

Selecting the Save standardized values as variables check box will

compute new variables containing the standardized values (also known as Z scores)
of each of the input variables. Recall that the standardized value of a variable is
computed by subtracting its mean and then dividing that difference by the standard
deviation:
Z=X−μσZ=X−μσ

By default, the Descriptives procedure computes the mean, standard deviation,

minimum, and maximum of the variable. Clicking Options will allow you to disable
any of the aforementioned statistics, or enable sum, variance, range, standard error
of the mean (S.E. mean), kurtosis, and skewness. You can also choose how you
want the output to be organized:
• Variable list will print the variables in the same order that they are
specified in the Descriptives window.
• Alphabetically will arrange the variables in alphabetical order.
• Ascending means will order the output so that the variables with the
smallest means are first and the variables with the largest means last.
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 • Descending means will order the output so that the variables with the
largest means are first and the variables with the smallest means are last.

Example: Comparing average test scores side-by-side

PROBLEM STATEMENT
The sample dataset has test scores (out of 100) on four placement tests: English,
Reading, Math, and Writing. We want to compare the summary statistics of these
four tests so we can determine which tests the students tended to do the best and
the worst on.

RUNNING THE PROCEDURE

Using the Descriptives Dialog Window
1. Click Analyze > Descriptive Statistics > Descriptives.
2. Double click on the variables English, Reading, Math, and Writing in the left
column to move them to the Variables box.
3. Click OK when finished.
Using Syntax

DESCRIPTIVES VARIABLES=English Reading Math Writing

/STATISTICS=MEAN STDDEV MIN MAX.

OUTPUT

Here we see a side-by-side comparison of the descriptive statistics for the four
numeric variables. This allows us to quickly make the following observations about
the data:
• Some students were missing scores for the English test.
• The maximum scores observed on the English and the Reading tests exceed
100 points, which was supposed to be the maximum possible score. This
could indicate a problem with data entry, or could indicate an issue with the

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 scoring method. Before proceeding with any other data analysis, we would
need to resolve the issues with these measurements.
• The minimum Math score was far lower than the minimum scores for the
other sections of the test.
• The averages of the English and Reading scores were very close.
• Math had the lowest average score of the four sections, but the highest
standard deviation in scores.

SPSS TUTORIALS: DESCRIPTIVE STATS BY GROUP (COMPARE MEANS)

Compare Means is best used when you want to compare several numeric
variables with respect to one or more categorical variables. It is especially useful for
summarizing numeric variables simultaneously across categories.
Compare Means
The Compare Means procedure is useful when you want to summarize and
compare differences in descriptive statistics across one or more factors, or
categorical variables.
To open the Compare Means procedure, click Analyze > Compare Means > Means.

A Dependent List: The continuous numeric variables to be analyzed. You must

enter at least one variable in this box before you can run the Compare Means
procedure.
B Independent List: The categorical variable(s) that will be used to subset the
dependent variables. Specifying multiple values in the "Layer 1 of 1" box will
produce several tables, each with one layer variable. You can specify several layers
for a single table by clicking Next and then entering other categorical variables; this
will produce a table that looks like a hybrid of a crosstab and the Descriptives
procedure.
C Options: Opens the Means: Options window, where you can specify the summary
statistics to produce, and what order they should be listed in.

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 The Statistics column on the left shows what statistics are available.
Summary statistics available include: mean, number of cases, standard deviation,
median, grouped median, standard error of mean, sum, minimum, maximum,
range, first, last, variance, kurtosis, standard error of kurtosis, skewness, standard
error of skewness, harmonic mean, geometric mean, percent of total sum, and
percent of total N. The Cell Statistics column on the right are the statistics that
will be produced in the output. By default, the mean, number of cases, standard
deviation will be computed. You can add additional statistics by clicking and
dragging them from the Statistics column to the Cell Statistics column. You can
also click and drag items in the Cell Statistics column to change the order they
appear in the output.
The Statistics for First Layer area includes options that will perform one-
way ANOVA and compute linear fit statistics (R, R2, Eta, and Eta Squared),
respectively.

Example: Comparing averages across related demographic variables

PROBLEM STATEMENT
Running speed and ability is known to be correlated with both physical sex and
with a person's general level of athleticism.
In the sample dataset, there are several variables relating to this question:
• Gender - The person's physical sex (Male or Female)
• Athlete - Are you an athlete? (Yes/No)
• MileMinDur - Time to run a mile (as a duration variable, hh:mm:ss)
Let's use the Compare Means procedure to summarize the relationship between
running ability, athletics, and gender.

COMPARE MEANS: BASIC REPORT, NO LAYERS

First, we will summarize the mile times without the grouping variables using the
mean, standard deviation, sample size, minimum, and maximum.

Running the Procedure

Using the Compare Means Dialog Window
1. Open Compare Means (Analyze > Compare Means > Means).
2. Double-click on variable MileMinDur to move it to the Dependent List area.
3. Click Options to open the Means: Options window, where you can select
what statistics you want to see. Mean, Number of Cases, and Standard
Deviation are included by default. Click and drag Minimum and Maximum
to the Cell Statistics box. You can also drag the items within the Cell
Statistics box to change the order that the statistics are displayed in the
output. Click Continue when finished.
4. Click OK.
Using Syntax

MEANS TABLES=MileMinDur
/CELLS=MEAN COUNT STDDEV MIN MAX.

Output
The Compare Means procedure will report two tables: the Case Processing
Summary, which contain information about the number of valid cases that the
statistics are based on, and the Report table, which contains the descriptive
statistics themselves.

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The average mile time overall was 8 minutes, 9 seconds, with a standard deviation
of about 2 minutes. The fastest mile time was about 5 minutes; the slowest was
about 14 minutes.

What’s More

Activity 1
Directions. Given the data below (study on the core subjects academic performance
of different curricular program students of Tayug NHS), execute or run a descriptive
stat to COMPARE MEANS using the SPSS software on these variables-gender,
program and grades. Submit your Data Editor and Output View file with
interpretation to your research teacher.
Student Gender Age Program Final Grades
ID No. Filipino English Math Science A. P.
36312 M 15 SPS 96 91 88 93 94
36311 F 16 SSC 91 92 91 96 91
36315 F 16 SPA 94 91 86 94 92
36378 F 15 SPM 97 93 91 89 93
36324 F 14 SPM 92 92 94 88 91
36359 F 15 SSC 93 95 90 98 95
36323 M 15 SSC 94 95 93 94 96
36345 M 16 SPS 92 93 91 90 91
36302 M 15 SPS 90 94 94 86 89
36308 F 16 SPS 91 92 91 92 97
36329 F 17 SPS 93 97 93 91 92
36307 M 16 SSC 96 95 92 93 91
36399 F 16 SSC 94 96 95 91 91
36381 M 16 SPM 93 95 92 89 90
36322 F 15 SPM 94 92 98 90 92
36368 M 15 SPM 97 94 97 91 92
36378 M 17 SPA 95 95 93 94 93
36309 F 14 SPA 95 92 91 93 94
36337 M 16 SPA 95 93 89 97 91
36392 M 15 SPA 96 91 89 92 88
Criteria for Scoring
Accuracy of Execution of the descriptive stat - 15 points
Clear and Concise output view of the stat- 10 points
Interpretation of results- 5 points
Total 30 points

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 Lesson
Frequency Tables
2

What is It

FREQUENCY TABLES
In SPSS, the Frequencies procedure is primarily used to create frequency tables,
bar charts, and pie charts for categorical variables.
Create a Frequency Table in SPSS
In SPSS, the Frequencies procedure can produce summary measures for categorical
variables in the form of frequency tables, bar charts, or pie charts.
To run the Frequencies procedure, click Analyze > Descriptive Statistics >
Frequencies.

A Variable(s): The variables to produce Frequencies output for. To include a

variable for analysis, double-click on its name to move it to the Variables box.
Moving several variables to this box will create several frequency tables at once.

B Statistics: Opens the Frequencies: Statistics window, which contains various

descriptive statistics.

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 The vast majority of the descriptive statistics available in the Frequencies:
Statistics window are never appropriate for nominal variables, and are rarely
appropriate for ordinal variables in most situations. There are two exceptions to
this:
• The Mode (which is the most frequent response) has a clear interpretation
when applied to most nominal and ordinal categorical variables.
• The Values are group midpoints option can be applied to certain ordinal
variables that have been coded in such a way that their value takes on the
midpoint of a range. For example, this would be the case if you had measured
subjects' ages and had coded anyone between the ages of 20 and 29 as 25,
or between the 30 and 39 as 35 (source: IBM SPSS Statistics Information
Center).
If your categorical variables are coded numerically, it is very easy to mis-use
measures like the mean and standard deviation. SPSS will compute those statistics
if they are requested, regardless of whether or not they are meaningful. It is up to
the researcher to determine if these measures are appropriate for their data. In
general, you should never use any of these statistics for dichotomous variables or
nominal variables, and should only use these statistics with caution for ordinal
variables.

C Charts: Opens the Frequencies: Charts window, which contains various

graphical options. Options include bar charts, pie charts, and histograms. For
categorical variables, bar charts and pie charts are appropriate. Histograms should
only be used for continuous variables; they should not be used for ordinal variables,
and should never be used with nominal variables.

• Bar chart displays the categories on the graph's x-axis, and either the
frequencies or the percentages on the y-axis
• Pie chart depicts the categories of a variable as "slices" of a circular "pie".
Note that the options in the Chart Values area apply only to bar charts and pie
charts. In particular, these options affect whether the labeling for the pie slices or
the y-axis of the bar chart uses counts or percentages. This setting will greyed out
if Histograms is selected.

D Format: Opens the Frequencies: Format window, which contains options for
how to sort and organize the table output.

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The Order by options affect only categorical variables:
• Ascending values arranges the rows of the frequency table in increasing
order with respect to the category values: (alphabetically if string, or by
numeric code if numeric)
• Descending values arranges the rows of the frequency table in decreasing
order with respect to the category values.
• Note: If your categorical variable is coded numerically as 0, 1, 2, ...,
sorting by ascending or descending value will arrange the rows with
respect to the numeric code, not with respect to any assigned labels.)
• Ascending counts orders the rows of the frequency table from least frequent
(lowest count) to most frequent (highest count).
• Descending counts orders the rows of the frequency table from most
frequent (highest count) to least frequent (lowest count).
When working with two or more categorical variables, the Multiple
Variables options only affects the order of the output. If Compare variables is
selected, then the frequency tables for all of the variables will appear first, and all
of the graphs for the variables will appear after. If Organize output by variables is
selected, then the frequency table and graph for the first variable will appear
together; then the frequency table and graph for the second variable will appear
together; etc.

E Display frequency tables: When checked, frequency tables will be printed. (This
box is checked by default.) If this check box is not checked, no frequency tables will
be produced, and the only output will come from supplementary options
from Statistics or Charts. For categorical variables, you will usually want to
leave this box checked.

What should I do if I create a frequency table in SPSS and one of the rows is
blank?If you are creating a frequency table using a string variable and notice that
the first row has a blank category label, similar to this example:

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 This particular issue is specific to frequency tables created from string
variables. The blank row represents observations with missing values. SPSS
does not automatically recognize blank (i.e., empty) strings as missing values, so
the blank values appear as one of the "Valid" (i.e., non-missing) categories.

This issue should not be ignored! When missing values are treated as valid
values, it causes the "Valid Percent" columns to be calculated incorrectly. If the
blank values were correctly treated as missing values, the valid, non-missing
sample size for this table would be 314 + 94 = 408 -- not 435! -- and the valid
percent values would change to 314/408 = 76.9% and 94/408 = 23.0%. Depending
on the number of missing values in your sample, the differences could be even more
dramatic.

To fix this problem: To get SPSS to recognize blank strings as missing

values, you'll need to run the variable through the Automatic Recode procedure.
This procedure takes a string variable and converts it to a new, coded numeric
variable with value labels attached. During this process, blank string values are
recoded to a special missing value code.

Example: Summarizing a Categorical Variable

Using the sample dataset, let's a create a frequency table and a corresponding bar
chart for the class rank (variable Rank), and let's also request the Mode statistic for
this variable.
RUNNING THE PROCEDURE
Using the Frequencies Dialog Window
1. Open the Frequencies window (Analyze > Descriptive Statistics >
Frequencies) and double-click on variable Rank.
2. To request the mode statistic, click Statistics. Check the box next
to Mode, then click Continue.
3. To turn on the bar chart option, click Charts. Select the radio button
for Bar Charts. Then click Continue.
4. When finished, click OK.
Using Syntax

FREQUENCIES VARIABLES=Rank
/STATISTICS=MODE
/BARCHART FREQ
/ORDER=ANALYSIS.

OUTPUT
Two tables appear in the output: Statistics, which reports the number of missing
and nonmissing observations in the dataset, plus any requested statistics; and
the frequency table for variable Rank. The table title for the frequency table is
determined by the variable's label (or the variable name, if a label is not assigned).

Here, the Statistics table shows that there are 406 valid and 29 missing values. It
also shows the Mode statistic: here, the mode value is "1", which is the numeric
code for the category Freshman. Notice that the Mode statistic isn't displaying the
value labels, even though they have been assigned. (For this reason, we
recommend not requesting the mode statistic; instead, determine the mode from
the frequency table.)

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 Notice how the rows are grouped into "Valid" and "Missing" sections. This
grouping allows for easy comparison of missing versus nonmissing observations.
Note that "System" missing responses are observations that use SPSS's default
symbol -- a period (.) -- for indicating missing values. If a user has assigned special
codes for missing values in the Variable View window, those codes would appear
here.
The frequency table contains four columns of summary measures:
• The Frequency column indicates how many observations fell into the given
category.
• The sample contained a total of 435 students. Of those students, 29
did not specify their class rank.
• The Percent column indicates the percentage of observations in that
category out of all observations (both missing and nonmissing). You can
verify the proportions for each group by dividing its count in the "frequency"
column by the value in the last row of the table (435):
• Freshman: 147/435 = 33.8%
• Sophomore: 96/435 = 22.1%
• Junior: 98/435 = 22.5%
• Senior: 65/435 = 14.9%
• Valid Total: 406/435 = 93.3%
• Missing: 29/435 = 6.7%
• The Valid Percent column displays the percentage of observations in that
category out of the total number of nonmissing responses. You can verify the
proportions for each group by dividing its count in the "frequency" column
by the value of "Total" that appears after the last valid category (406):
• Freshman: 147/406 = 36.2%
• Sophomore: 96/406 = 23.6%
• Junior: 98/406 = 24.1%
• Senior: 65/406 = 16.0%
• The Cumulative Percent column is the total percentage of the sample that
has been accounted for up to that row; it can be computed by adding all of
the numbers in the Valid Percent column above the current row:
• Freshman: 36.2% (there are no rows before this one, so the first
cumulative percent is identical to the first valid percent)
• Sophomore: 36.2 + 23.6 = 59.8%
• Junior: 36.2 + 23.6 + 24.1 = 83.9%
• Senior: 32.6 + 23.6 + 24.1 + 16.0 = 100%
The bar chart appears after the tables.

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Here, we can see that:
• Freshmen comprised the largest group
• There were approximately equal numbers of sophomores and juniors
• Seniors were the smallest group

What’s More

Activity 2

Directions. Given the same data on Activity 1 page 15 (study on the core subjects
academic performance of different curricular program students of Tayug NHS),
execute or run frequency tables using the SPSS software on these categorical
variables- program and final grades. Submit your Data Editor and Output View
file with chosen charts (bar or pie or histogram) with interpretation to your research
teacher.

Criteria for Scoring

Accuracy of Execution of frequency - 15 points
Clear and Concise output view table and charts- 10 points
Interpretation of results- 5 points
Total 30 points

What I Have Learned

Based from what you have learned, what are the importance of descriptive
stats and frequency tables in your research study? Write your main learning
insights on your notebook.
__________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
***For additional learning, you can watch the SPSS Video- Descriptive Statistics
and Frequencies in SPSS – SPSS for Beginners on this link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bapuGcjwiLQ

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 Summative Assessment

Written Work (50%) I. Multiple Choice. Direction. Write the capital letter of the
correct answer on your answer sheet.

___1. What statistical measure is being answered by the question “What is the
"center" of the data?”?
A. Mean C. Skewness
B. Variance D. Standard deviation

___2. In SPSS, frequencies procedure can compute the following statistics for one
or more continuous variables except __________.
A. Standard deviation
B. Correlation
C. Variance
D. Range

___3. In reference to the SPSS window above, what does the “statistics” button
contains or displays when clicked.
A. frequency tables will be printed
B. contains various graphical options
C. contains various descriptive statistics
D. contains options for how to sort and organize the table output

___4. Which of the following is NOT displayed in the format window of frequencies
procedure?
A. Multiple Variable options C. Order options
B. Organize output options D. Charts

___5.
The figure above displays what type of window in frequencies procedure?.
A. Charts window C. Statistics window
B. Format window D. Style window

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___6. In making charts, which of the following is the appropriate option for
continuous variables?
A. Bar chart C. Histograms
B. Pie chart D. none

___7. Which of the following is the correct procedure in running frequencies

procedure in comparing percentiles for more than two variables?
1. Uncheck the box for Display frequency tables. When finished, click OK.
2. Click Statistics. Click the Cut points check box, and specify 5 equal
groups. Click Continue when finished.
3. Open the Frequencies window (Analyze > Descriptive Statistics >
Frequencies).
4. Highlight the four test score variables (click variable English, then hold
down Shift and click variable Writing) in the left-hand column. Then click
the arrow button to move them to the Variables box.
5. Click Format. In the Multiple Variables area, make sure that Compare
variables is selected. Then click Continue.
A. 34251 C. 43251
B. 34521 D. 43125

___8. The descriptive procedure in SPSS can compute __________ as new variables
in the dataset.
A. differences C. standard deviations
B. correlations D. z scores

___9. In the descriptive window, you can print the variables in the same order that
they are specified when you choose __________.
A. Variable list C. Ascending Means
B. Alphabetically D. Descending means

___10. By default, the descriptives procedure computes the following except

__________.
A. mean C. standard deviation
B. range D. minimum of variable

___11. Which of the following is the correct entry for using the syntax window in
running descriptive stat for mean, standard deviation and minimum and
maximum of the variables
A. DESCRIPTIVES VARIABLES=/STATISTICS=MEAN STDDEV MIN MAX.
B. DESCRIPTIVES VARIABLES=/FREQ=MEAN STDDEV MIN MAX.
C. FREQUENCY VARIABLES=/STATISTICS=MEAN STDDEV MIN MAX.
D. FREQUENCY VARIABLES=/DESC=MEAN STDDEV MIN MAX.

___12.
Based form the table above, which of the following statement is correct?
A. The averages of English and Math scores were very close
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 B. Writing has the lowest standard deviation of scores
C. Math has the lowest standard deviation of scores
D. Writing has the highest average

___13. Which SPSS procedure is useful when you want to summarize and
compare differences in descriptive statistics across one or more factors, or
categorical variables?
A. Frequency procedure C. Compare Means procedure
B. Descriptive procedure D. Correlation procedure

___14. In comparing means, these are the categorical variable(s) that will be used
to subset the dependent variables.
A. Dependent list C. Variable list
B. Independent list D. Data list

___15. Which of the following charts displays the categories on the graph's x-axis,
and either the frequencies or the percentages on the y-axis?
A. Pie chart C. Histogram
B. Bar chart D. Scatter plot

___16. In frequency procedure format window, which of the following order options
should you click to arrange the rows of the frequency table in decreasing order
with respect to the category values?
A. ascending values C. ascending counts
B. descending values D. descending counts

___17. In frequencies procedure format window, the frequency tables for all of the
variables will appear first, and all of the graphs for the variables will appear
after when __________ is selected.
A. Compare variables C. Suppress tables
B. Organize output by variables D. Chart type

___18. In the output view of the frequency table, which of the following column
displays the percentage of observations in the category out of the total number
of nonmissing responses?
A. percent C. valid percent
B. frequency D. cumulative percent

___19.
In the frequency table above the value 84.0 in the last column indicates ______.
A. cumulative percentage of freshman, sophomore and junior
B. cumulative percentage of all grade level
C. frequency of freshman and sophomore
D. percentage of junior and senior
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___20. To run a create a frequency table, which of the following should be click
sequentially in the data view of SPSS.
A. Analyze > Descriptive Statistics > Frequencies
B. Analyze > Descriptive Statistics > Descriptives
C. Analyze > Descriptive Statistics > Crosstabs
D. Analyze > Compare Means > Means

Performance Task (50%)

Directions. Execute or run the following statistics in SPSS on a data set which will
be given to you by your research teacher. (50 points)
1. Frequency Tables for Age, Gender, SHS Track and General Average variables
2. Pie charts for Age, Gender, SHS Track and General Average variables
3. Compare means between variables SHS Track and General Average and
make an interpretation of the table.

Criteria for Scoring

Accuracy of Execution of Statistics- 20 points
Clear and Concise output view table and charts- 20 points
Interpretation of results- 10 points
Total 50 points

Congratulations in finishing Module 3 for Quarter 3! Make sure that you have
accomplished all the activities. You can always ask your teacher if there are some
parts which you find hard to understand.

Answer Key

20. A 20. A
19. B 19. A
18. B 18. C
17. A 17. A
16. B
16. C
15. B
15. B
14. B
14. C
13. C
13. A
12. B
12. D
11. A
11. B
10. B
10. A 9. A
9. B 8. D
8. C 7. A
7. D 6. C
6. C criteria…
depending on the given 5. C
5. C Answer may vary. Check 4. D
4. B Activity 2 3. C
3. D 2. B
2. C criteria…
1. A
depending on the given
1. A Answer may vary. Check Written Task
What I Know Activity 1 Summative Test

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References

1. University Libraries-Kent State University. SPSS Tutorials: Exploring Data retrieved

from https://libguides.library.kent.edu/SPSS/ExploringData
2. Using SPSS for Descriptive Statistics retrieved from
https://academic.udayton.edu/gregelvers/psy216/spss/descript1.htm
3. University Libraries-Kent State University. SPSS Tutorials: Frequency Tables
retrieved from https://libguides.library.kent.edu/SPSS/FrequenciesCategorical
4. SPSS tutorials (2020) retrieved from https://www.spss-tutorials.com/basics/

For inquiries or feedback, please write or call:

Kristopher C. Miranda, PhD
(Module Writer)
Agency: Tayug National High School
Contact Information
Phone Number: 09204209792
Email: [email protected]
FB Name: Noli Esmeña

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