Sociology 357—SPSS Survey Analysis Instructions

When you have collected your survey data, you are required to do four sets of tasks using SPSS.
The introduction to SPSS given in class as a starting point; it should provide you with a general
familiarity with how to use the software. Below are specific instructions for how to carry out the
analyses required in the assignment.

You can use the computers in 3218 Social Science and 4218 Social Science in order to do these
analyses.

Disclaimer: This is very time-consuming! You will all think to yourself at some point, “Oh crap,
this is taking so long just to input my data, I’m never going to finish it! I hate this assignment,
and I especially hate that jerk that is making me do this!” But don’t despair. The majority of the
time you spend on the computer will be on Step 1. Steps 2, 3, 4, and 5 can be done very quickly
(assuming you will actually spend more time later interpreting the output).

1. Construct dataset

• Before you start, make sure you have already constructed your codebook.

• Log in to one of the terminals. Your user name is typically the first letter of your first
name and your last name. Your initial password is “soc357student.”

• Open the application “SPSS for Windows.”

• Start a new dataset by clicking “Type in data.” When you do this, you will see two
windows pop up: the Data Editor and the Output window.

• Go to the Data Editor. You should see two tabs at the bottom: “Data View” and
“VariableView.” You will use the Variable View to tell the computer what your variables
are. You will use the Data View to input your answers from your questionnaires.

• Start with the Variable View. In Variable View, use your codebook to enter the following
pieces of information for each of your variables. (Hint: It is wise to start with a variable
called “ID,” which is simply a number (1, 2, 3…) that you give to each questionnaire.
That way, you won’t get confused later about which data lines go with which
questionnaires. For this, you can just enter “ID” in the “Name” column and hit enter. You
don’t have to change anything else for this variable.)
o Name—The name you gave to your variable on your codebook. (e.g. My
dependent variable is “opinion about abortion.” I have a question that asks people
to respond to the statement, “I think a woman should be able to get an abortion on
demand.” I’ll name this variable “ondemand.”)
o Type—Every variable you enter should be “Numeric,” because you have already
assigned numbers to each answer on your questionnaire.
 o Label—Here, you can give a longer, more descriptive title for your variable name
if you want. The Label, not the variable Name, will appear on your output when
you do the analysis. (e.g. “Abortion on Demand”)
o Values—For each of your response categories, enter the number you assigned to
it (“Value”) and the qualitative answer on the response category (“Label”). For a
variable like age or income, where the number is self-explanatory, you don’t have
to do this step. (e.g. 1 = Strongly Disagree; 2 = Disagree; 3 = Neither Agree nor
Disagree; 4 = Agree; 5 = Strongly Agree; 9 = Don’t Know)
o Missing—If you included a category like “Don’t Know” that you wouldn’t know
how to interpret in your analysis, you can tell SPSS to ignore that answer when it
is analyzing the variable. You do that here. If you leave this blank so that it says
“None,” it will treat empty cells in your Data View as missing. (e.g. Because I
assigned “Don’t Know” the number 9, I will enter 9 in this column. Now, if a
respondent either skipped the question or marked “Don’t Know,” SPSS will not
include those when it analyzes this variable.)
o Measure—Select “Nominal,” “Ordinal,” or “Scale” for each variable. Even
though Doug said that software doesn’t really need to know this information,
YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION! Notice that each of these three
labels gives you an icon that illustrates the type of variable it is. When you do
your analysis, whether your variables are nominal, ordinal, or scale will affect
what procedures you use. When you specify this Measure correctly, the little icon
will help you make sure that you are doing the right kind of analysis. Note:
“Scale” means the same thing as “Ratio.” (e.g. “Gender” or “Race” are Nominal
variables. “Age” or “Income” are Scale variables. My dependent variable,
“ondemand,” is an Ordinal variable because they are qualitative response
categories with a logical, hierarchical order to them.

• After you have done this for each variable, switch to the “Data View.” Now, you can
enter the responses from each questionnaire. Each questionnaire gets its own row. Enter
the numbers that correspond to each answer that each respondent gave. (“Hey, this is
time-consuming and tedious!” Yes, it is. Imagine doing this for a questionnaire that
contains 100 questions and was given to 3000 people, and be thankful!)

• Save your dataset! The most secure place to save the data is on the (U:) drive. It should
display your username (e.g. pbrinson). Put it in a logical folder on the U: drive, and save
it as a “.sav” file. No matter which computer you use in the Social Science building,
when you log in, you will automatically get access to your U: drive. All the files on your
U: drive are stored remotely on a server and backed up daily. About the only thing that
would cause you to lose this file is the destruction of the world, so it’s pretty safe. And if
you think the destruction of the world is immanent, then what the hell are you doing
sitting in front of a computer?

2. Univariate Analysis of Independent Variables

• Now, you are ready to analyze your responses. First, you want to describe your
respondents. Recall that I asked you to choose at least 6 independent variables:
 characteristics of your respondents that you think might affect how they answer questions
about your dependent variable. In your paper, you should describe these respondents by
giving me either a mean, median, mode, or frequency distribution for each variable. This
is very easy to do in SPSS.

• First, leave the Data Editor and move to your “Output” window.

• Click on the menu “Analyze””Descriptive Statistics””Frequencies.”

• A box pops up that gives you a list of all your variables. (Notice how nice it is to have the
little icons next to each variable name that shows you whether or not each variable is
nominal, ordinal, or scale!) Select each of the six or more independent variables that you
want to describe and push the arrow button to move the variables into the other box.

• Don’t click “OK” yet!!!! Click on the button that says “Statistics.” Put a check in the
boxes next to “Mean,” “Median,” and “Mode.” Then click “Continue,” and now click
“OK.”

• In your output, the first table will give you the mean, median, and mode for each variable.
Each table after that gives you the frequency distribution for one variable. So you should
have at least 7 tables in your output.

• At this point, you can decide which of two routes you want to take:
o If you don’t like spending time in the computer lab, you can keep plowing ahead
with the instructions that follow. That way, you can do all the necessary work on
SPSS and then go somewhere else more comfortable to decide how to interpret
and report your results. You can always go back to SPSS later to create
histograms or do further analyses.
o If you think fiddling with this statistical software is kind of fun, take some time
now to look at each variable and decide how you want to report these results in
your report. Take some notes in a notebook or a text document. Jot down the
median income, the # of men and women in your sample, etc. so you can simply
type it in to your report later. If you have a variable that would be best conveyed
graphically, you can take this time to make a histogram or something that will
easily convey this information (this is most logical in the case of ordinal variables
or nominal variables with a lot of response categories). Or you can use one of the
tables it gives you. You can simply copy and paste these graphics out of the
Output window and into your report.

3. Correlation

• Next, you want to look at correlations among these independent variables. This is also
very easy to do in SPSS.

• Click on the menu “Analyze””Correlate””Bivariate.”

 • A box pops up that gives you a list of all your variables. Select the same six or more
variables that you used for the previous analysis and move them into the empty box.
Make sure there are checks in the boxes that say “Pearson,” “Two-tailed,” and “Flag
significant correlations.” Then click “OK.”

• One table should appear in the Output window. That’s it. You will include this table in
your report. All that is left to do is interpret it.

4. Univariate Analysis of Dependent Variable

• Now, you want to describe the answers you got to the questionnaire items intended to
measure your dependent variable. Remember, you are measuring your dependent variable
in at least 2 ways (so in your dataset, you have at least two separate variable names that
are intended to be measures of the same concept). That means that you will choose the
two or more variables that are intended to do this and repeat the steps in Section 2. (You
will have to push the “Reset” button in the dialogue box that pops up after you select
“Analyze””Descriptive Statistics” ”Frequencies” in order to move all the
independent variables back into the other box.) You will have at least 3 tables in the
Output window.

5. Bivariate Analysis

• Look at the results of this univariate analysis, and select one of the measures of your
dependent variable for your final analysis.

• With the last analysis, you are testing your hypothesis about the relationship between
your chosen independent variable and your dependent variable. The exact analytic
procedure you use will depend upon the types of variables that you have chosen. Look at
the table below. Locate your type of independent variable across the top row, and locate
your type of dependent variable on the left column. The cell that corresponds to this
row/column tells you the kind of analysis you should do. Each one of these procedures is
described below. (Note: Notice that I put a bunch of X’s in the top right cell. It is unlikely
that you will have chosen a nominal variable as your dependent variable and a ratio/scale
variable as your independent variable. If you have, I urge you to change one or the other.
These analyses can be done, but they are advanced, and I don’t want you to worry about
them.)

Indep. Nominal Indep. Ordinal Indep. Ratio/Scale

Dependent Nominal Crosstabs w/ Chi- Crosstabs w/ Chi- XXXXXXXXXXX
Square Square
Dependent Ordinal Comparison of means Comparison of means Linear Regression
w/ one-way ANOVA w/ one-way ANOVA
Dependent Comparison of means Linear Regression Linear Regression
Ratio/Scale w/ one-way ANOVA
•
• Crosstabs w/Chi-Square—If your dependent variable is nominal, use this procedure.
o Select “Analyze””Descriptive Statistics””Crosstabs”
o Select your independent variable and move it with the arrow into the box that says
“Row(s)”
o Select your dependent variable and move it with the arrow into the box that says
“Column(s)”
o Click on the box that says “Statistics” and put a check in the box that says “Chi-
square.” Click “Continue.”
o Click on the box that says “Cells” and put a check in the box that says “Row.”
Click “Continue.”
o Click “OK.”
o Three tables should appear. You should include the second and third tables in
the text of your report.
o The second table will be a table exactly like the ones you prepared for the
Observation Assignment. The percentages have been computed along the rows
(along the categories of your independent variable), so you read the table by
comparing percentages within each column.
o The third table contains the Chi-square test. You want to look at the first row,
called “Pearson Chi-Square.” The column that says “Asymp. Sig.” tells you your
p-value.
o In addition to including the second and third tables in your report, you also want
to describe whether or not the tables suggest a statistically significant or
substantively significant relationship between your two variables.
o Statistical significance: If the p-value is less than .05, you can say that there is a
statistically significant relationship between your two variables. If it is higher than
.05, you can say that there is no evidence that there is a statistically significant
relationship between the two variables.
o Substantive significance: You should also describe whether or not there appear
to be substantively interesting differences across categories of the independent
variable. Looking at the second table, compare the percentages within each
column in order to explain whether or not there are substantive differences in the
ways different kinds of people responded to the dependent variable question.

• Comparison of means w/ one-way ANOVA

o Select “Analyze””Compare Means”“Means”
o Select your dependent variable and move it with the arrow into the box that says
“Dependent List”
o Select your independent variable and move it with the arrow into the box that says
“Independent List”
o Click on the box that says “Options” and put a check in the box that says “Anova
table and eta.” Click “Continue.”
o Click “OK.”
o Four tables should appear. You should include the second and third tables in
the text of your report.
o The second table will provide you with means of your dependent variable for each
category of your independent variable.
 o The third table contains the ANOVA test. The test statistic is in the second-to-last
column, and the last column, titled “Sig,” contains the p-value.
o In addition to including the second and third tables in your report, you also want
to describe whether or not the tables suggest a statistically significant or
substantively significant relationship between your two variables.
o Statistical significance: If the p-value is less than .05, you can say that there is a
statistically significant relationship between your two variables. If it is higher than
.05, you can say that there is no evidence that there is a statistically significant
relationship between the two variables.
o Substantive significance: You should also describe whether or not there appear
to be substantively interesting differences across categories of the independent
variable. Looking at the second table, compare whether there appear to be
important differences in the mean responses among each category of the
independent variable.

• Linear Regression
o Select “Analyze””Regression”“Linear”
o Select your dependent variable and move it with the arrow into the box that says
“Dependent”
o Select your independent variable and move it with the arrow into the box that says
“Independent”
o Click “OK”
o Four tables should appear. You should include the second and fourth tables in
the text of your report.
o The second table gives you the R-square, which is interpreted as the “proportion
of overall variation in the dependent variable that is explained by changes in the
independent variable.”
o The fourth table tells you what is the specific relationship of the two variables.
You want to read the bottom line of the table. The “Unstandardized Coefficient
B” is the slope of the line: “a one unit increase in the independent variable results
in a B unit increase in the dependent variable.” The number in the last column,
“Sig,” is the p-value.
o In addition to including the second and fourth tables in your report, you also want
to describe whether or not the tables suggest a statistically significant or
substantively significant relationship between your two variables.
o Statistical significance: If the p-value is less than .05, you can say that there is a
statistically significant relationship between your two variables. If it is higher than
.05, you can say that there is no evidence that there is a statistically significant
relationship between the two variables.
o Substantive significance: You should also describe whether or not there appear
to be substantively interesting relationship between the two variables. Interpret
the “Unstandardized Coefficient B” as described above to make a judgment about
whether the relationship between the two variables is substantively significant.
Congratulations! You have analyzed your survey data. Before you leave the computer lab, you
need to do two things.

First, you need to print your output. This will be Appendix B in your final report. Select “Print”
from the File menu, and check that the name of the printer includes the room number that you
are in (e.g. \\sscwinnt2\TS4218). Make sure your print range includes “All visible output.”

Second, you should save your output and make sure that you have everything you need to
include in your report (including tables for your correlations, your binary analysis, and any tables
or graphics that you want to report for your univariate analyses). Select “Export” from the File
menu. You should make sure “Output Document” is in the top field; choose a location to export
your file (either a folder on the U: drive or a flash drive or disk); make sure “All visible objects”
is selected; and choose an appropriate file type.

From that document, you can take all the results you need for your report.