Type Bryman
Alan
author names here
Social Research Methods
Chapter 16: Using IBM SPSS for
Windows (part 1)
Slides authored by Tom Owens
What is SPSS?
• A “statistical package for the social sciences”;
• A computer programme written for personal
computers;
• An intelligent database with built-in formulas for
calculating correlations and degrees of significance;
• A report generator for graphs, charts and tables.
See page 354
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
Why bother with SPSS?
Because..........................
• Most professional researchers use it;
• You learn a valuable transferable skill;
• Otherwise, you would need to master the
underlying formula for each analytic technique.
See page 354
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
You should use SPSS......
When............
• Your sample has been randomly drawn;
• You have used a structured questionnaire;
• You have around 100 cases, or more;
• You need to test for complex correlations
between variables.
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
What could you use instead of SPSS?
• A notepad and a calculator, if you have a small
number of cases;
• Excel or a similar spreadsheet programme, if
you have only a few variables to examine and
simple statistical calculations to perform;
• Access or a similar database programme, if you
want to be able to locate data in lots of different
ways without numerical significance.
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
The essential elements of SPSS:
1. Recording Data
2. Coding Variables:
(Naming, Assigning Values, Giving Labels to Variables and
to their Values)
3.Recoding Variables:
(Arranging Data in a new format, Computing new variables)
4.Analysis: (Univariate, Bivariate, Multivariate)
5.Generating Graphs
Tips and skills pages 354,355
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
The steps to take to get the maximum
benefit from this presentation:
1. Load SPSS (if you have never done so before, click:
start
All Programs
SPSS Inc.
followed by your SPSS version.)
2. Go to the on-line resources for the book.
3. Navigate to „datasets” and download the SPSS dataset.
4. The dataset will load automatically.
5. Save the file immediately (on your own media, like a flash-drive,
memory stick etc).
See page 355
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
The first screen you see is the Data Editor, in Data View:
Plate 16.1, page 356
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
Download gym.sav or open the file......
Plate 16.2 page357
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
Click the Variable View tab and code the variables
Type in the variable names:
change var00001 to gender;
var00002 to age; and so on
Plate 16.3, page 358
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
Coding variables:
1. For your own research, start here. In fact, start thinking about this
before you finalise your questionnaire!!
2. The name can only have 8 characters, no spaces.
3. The variable label can be called anything you like – this is what will
appear on any table or graph you make.
4. Each variable can have many values, each of which can have its own
label.
5. Questions might not be answered for various reasons, so you should
give a special value for missing answers (see slide 15, where ‘0’ is
used for non-responses) to make sure SPSS knows about them.
See pages 357-359
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
Coding Question 3: “Reasons”
Enter 1, etc
then relaxation, etc
then Add
Plate 16.4, page 358
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
Coding for missing answers:
You can give codes for
unwillingness to respond, or
inapplicability e.g.
Plate 16.5, page 359
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
Recoding variables keeps the original data intact
while reorganizing the data in a new way:
Plate 16.6, page 360
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
Recoding age data (ordinal) as age
groups (interval/ratio):
Make sure to avoid
overlaps
Plate 16.7, page 360
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
Recoding variables to compute new
variables:
A new variable (totalmins)
is computed from the addition of
cardmins, weimins and othmins.
Plate 16.8,
page 361
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
Starting your analysis: Univariate
analysis of Reasons
Click Analyse on the toolbar, then Descriptive
Statistics on the drop-down menu for the
possibilities, including Frequencies.....
Click OK
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
Plate 16.9, page 362
The result will appear like this:
No respondent ticked
Meet Others for Q3!!
Plate 15.10,
Page 369
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
Generating charts: A Bar Chart –
Follow the sequence.....
Plate 16.11,
page 364
4:
1:
Click
Gallery
Drag and
drop your
variable
3:
2:
Click Bar
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition
Drag and
drop the
design you
want