Computer Analysis with SPSS

Computer Analysis with SPSS

This activity involves computing descriptive statistics and correlations using the NCA survey, "How America Communicates." You may complete the assignment by using either SPSS or Excel. If you wish to use Excel do not use this page, but go to the page Computer Analysis with Excel.

As a starting point, we need a data set for analysis.

	If you have not already done so, go to the Data Sets location and download the file nca.sav under the category, "NCA Study of 'How Americans Communicate.'" If this source no longer is available from the NCA website, then, download the file nca.sav from the "SPSS Files" category on the "Data Sets" webpage.
	Start your SPSS program. From the "File" menu load the data file "nca.sav" from the location where the you saved it.

Of all the elements in the survey, we will examine two variables of interest: amount of education and comfort giving a public speech. The amount of education question is "Q18" and involved asking the respondents "What was the last level of education you have completed?" (responses range from 1=less than high school graduate to 7=Ph.D or equivalent). The comfort giving a public speech question is "Q6speech" and asks "How comfortable do you feel giving a presentation or speech?" (responses range from 1=not at all comfortable to 4=very comfortable).

Some data definition is required. Click on the "Variable View" tab at the bottom of the SPSS page and scroll down to variable "q6speech." Then click on the cell in the "Type" Column. This variable currently is a string variable though we wish to treat it as a numeric variable for data analysis. When clicking on the "…" button in this cell, the "Variable Type" dialog box emerges. Select "Numeric" and click "OK." "

Then go to the column for "Missing" and click on the "…" button in this cell to bring up the "Missing Values" dialog box. Select "Discrete missing values," enter 0 (zero) in the first cell, and click "OK" (the zero will have changed to .00, but the impact is the same.

Scroll down to variable "q18," go to the column for "Missing" and click on the "…" button in this cell to bring up the "Missing Values" dialog box. Select "Discrete missing values," enter 8 in the first cell, and click "OK"

To complete this descriptive output, click on the "Analyze" menu, and on subsequent menus that appear, click on "Descriptive Statistics" and then "Frequencies." In the dialog box titled "Frequencies" place "Q18" and "Q6speech" on the variable list. Click the "Statistics" button. In the "Frequencies: Statistics" dialog box click on "Mean," "Std. deviation," and "S.E. mean." Click "Continue" and then click "OK" in the "Frequencies" dialog box.

To complete a correlation, on the "Analyze" menu, and on subsequent menus that appear, click on "Correlate" and then "Bivariate." In the dialog box titled "Bivariate Correlations" place "Q18" and "Q6speech" on the variable list. Click the "Statistics" button. In the "Frequencies: Statistics" dialog box click on "Mean," "Std. deviation," and "S.E. mean." Click "Continue" and then click "OK"

Save your output or print it out for submission.