1st Edition

Understanding Statistics for the Social Sciences with IBM SPSS

By Robert Ho Copyright 2018
    296 Pages
    by Chapman & Hall

    296 Pages
    by Chapman & Hall

    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.