1st Edition
Understanding Statistics for the Social Sciences with IBM SPSS
Modern statistical software provides the ability to compute statistics in a timely, orderly fashion. This introductory statistics textbook presents clear explanations of basic statistical concepts and introduces students to the IBM SPSS program to demonstrate how to conduct statistical analyses via the popular point-and-click and the "syntax file" methods. The focal point is to show students how easy it is to analyse data using SPSS once they have learned the basics.
- Provides clear explanation of basic statistical concepts that provides the foundation for the beginner students’ statistical journey.
- Introduces the SPSS software program.
- Gives clear explanation of the purpose of specific statistical procedures (e.g., frequency distributions, measures of central tendencies, measures of variability, etc.).
- Avoids the conventional cookbook approach that contributes very little to students’ understanding of the rationale of how the correct results were obtained.
The advantage of learning the IBM SPSS software package at the introductory class level is that most social sciences students will employ this program in their later years of study. This is because SPSS is one of the most popular of the many statistical packages currently available. Learning how to use this program at the very start not only familiarizes students with the utility of this program but also provides them with the experience to employ the program to conduct more complex analyses in their later years.
Preface
About the author
Introduction to the Scientific Methodology of Research
Introduction
The scientific approach versus the layperson’s approach
to knowledge
Sampling
Research designs
Between-groups design
The univariate approach
The multivariate approach
Correlational design
Hypothesis testing and probability theory
Probability
Statistics and scientific research
Definition of statistics
Descriptive statistics
Inferential statistics
Introduction to SPSS
Learning how to use the SPSS software program
.Introduction to SPSS
Setting up a data file
Preparing a code-book
Data set
Creating SPSS data file
Data entry
Saving and editing data file
SPSS analysis: Windows method versus syntax method
SPSS analysis: Windows method
SPSS analysis: Syntax method
SPSS output
Results and interpretation
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
Basic mathematical concepts and measurement
Basic mathematical concepts
Mathematical notations
Measurement scales (levels of measurement)
Nominal scales
Ordinal scales
Interval scales
Ratio scales
Types of variables
Independent and dependent variables
Continuous and discrete variables
Real limits of continuous variables
Rounding
Frequency distributions
Ungrouped frequency distributions
SPSS: Data entry format
SPSS Windows method
SPSS syntax method
SPSS output
Results and interpretation
Grouped frequency distributions
Grouping scores into class intervals
Computing a frequency distribution of grouped scores
SPSS method
SPSS Windows method
SPSS syntax method
SPSS output
Percentiles and percentile ranks
Percentiles
Computation of percentiles (finding the score below which a specified percentage of scores will fall)
SPSS syntax method
Data entry format
SPSS syntax method
SPSS output
Another example
Data entry format
SPSS syntax method
SPSS output
Percentile rank
Computation of percentile ranks (finding the percentage of scores that fall below a given score)
Data entry format
SPSS syntax method
SPSS output
Another example
Data Entry Format
SPSS Syntax Method
SPSS Output
Graphing
Graphing frequency distributions
Bar graph
An example
Data entry format
SPSS Windows method
SPSS syntax method
SPSS bar graph output
Histogram
An example
SPSS Windows method
SPSS syntax method
SPSS histogram output
Frequency polygon
An example
SPSS Windows method
SPSS syntax method
SPSS frequency polygon output
Cumulative percentage curve
An example
SPSS Windows method
SPSS syntax method
SPSS Cumulative percentage Output
Measures of central tendency
Why is central tendency important?
Measures of central tendency
The arithmetic mean
How to calculate the arithmetic mean
SPSS Window method
SPSS syntax method
SPSS output
How to calculate the mean from a grouped frequency distribution
An example
Calculating the mean from grouped frequency distribution using SPSS
Data entry format
SPSS syntax method
SPSS output
The overall mean
An example
How to calculate the overall mean
using SPSS
Data entry format
SPSS syntax method
SPSS output
Properties of the mean
The median
Calculating the median for ungrouped scores
Calculating the median for grouped scores
Properties of the median
The mode
SPSS windows method
SPSS syntax method
SPSS histogram output
The mode for grouped scores
Comparison of the mean, median and mode
Measures of central tendency: symmetry and skewness
Measures of variability/dispersion
What is variability?
Range
Standard deviation
Calculating the standard deviation using the deviation scores method
Calculating the standard deviation using the raw scores method
Variance
Using SPSS to calculate the range, the standard deviation, and the variance
SPSS Windows method
SPSS syntax method
SPSS output
The normal distribution and standard scores
The normal distribution
Areas contained under the standard normal distribution
Standard scores (z scores) and the normal curve
Calculating the percentile rank with z scores
SPSS Windows method
SPSS syntax method
SPSS data file containing the first 0
computed z scores
Calculating the percentage of scores that fall between
two known scores
Calculating the percentile point with z scores
SPSS Windows method
SPSS syntax method
Table showing the 90th percentile for the set
of 0 exam scores
Calculating the scores that bound a specified area of the
distribution
SPSS Windows method
SPSS syntax method
Table showing the approximate lower and upper bound scores that bound the middle 70% of the statistics exam’s distribution
Using z scores to compare performance between different distributions
Correlation
The concept of correlation
Linear and non-linear relationships
Characteristics of correlation
Magnitude (strength) of relationships
Direction of relationships
Correlation coefficient and z scores
Scatter plot (SPSS Windows method)
Scatter plot (SPSS syntax method)
Scatter plot
Converting raw scores into z scores (SPSS Windows method)
Converting raw scores into z scores (SPSS syntax method)
SPSS data file containing the pairs of computed z scores
Pearson r and the linear correlation coefficient
Example of the Pearson r calculation
SPSS Windows method
SPSS syntax method
The calculated Pearson r
Some issues with correlation
Can correlation show causality?
Spurious correlation
Linear Regression
What is linear regression?
Linear regression and imperfect relationships
Scatter plot and the line of best fit
SPSS Windows method (scatter plot and line of best fit)
SPSS syntax method (scatter plot)
Scatter plot with line of best fit
Least-squares regression (line of best fit): Predicting Y from X
How to construct the least-squares regression line: Predicting Y from X
SPSS Windows method (constructing the least-squares regression line equation)
SPSS syntax method (constructing the least-squares regression line equation)
SPSS output
Results and interpretation
INFERENTIAL STATISTICS
Statistical inference and probability
Introduction to inferential statistics
Probability
The classical approach to probability
The empirical approach to probability
Expressing probability values
Computing probability: The addition rule and the multiplication rule
The addition rule
The multiplication rule
Using the multiplication and addition rules together
Computing probability for continuous variables
Sampling
Simple random sampling
Stratified proportionate random sampling
Cluster sampling
Non-random sampling techniques: Systematic sampling; quota sampling
Sampling with or without replacement
Confidence interval and confidence level
How to calculate the confidence interval
SPSS Windows method
SPSS syntax method
Introduction to hypothesis testing
Introduction to hypothesis testing .
Types of hypotheses
Research/alternative hypothesis
Null hypothesis
Hypotheses: Non-directional or directional
Testing hypotheses
Level of significance
Two-tailed and one-tailed test of significance
Type I and Type II errors
Hypothesis testing: t test for independent and correlated groups
Introduction to the t test
Independent t test
SPSS Windows method: Independent t test
SPSS syntax method
SPSS output
Results and interpretation
Dependent/correlated t test
SPSS Windows Method: Dependent t test
SPSS syntax method
SPSS output
Results and interpretation
Hypothesis testing: One-way analysis of variance
One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)
An example
Scheffé post hoc test
SPSS Windows method: One-way ANOVA
SPSS syntax method
SPSS output
Results and interpretation
Post hoc comparisons
Hypothesis testing: Chi-square test
Non-parametric tests
Chi-square (²) test
Chi-square goodness-of-fit test
SPSS Windows method
SPSS syntax method
SPSS output
Results and interpretation
Chi-square (²) test of independence between two variables
SPSS Windows method
SPSS syntax method
SPSS output
Results and interpretation
Appendices
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Doctor Robert Ho, now deceased, received his DPhil from Waikato University, New Zealand.. He retired from Central Queensland University in Australia in 2007 and was an affiliate of the Graduate School of Psychology at the Assumption University of Thailand.