Frequency Distributions and Descriptive Statistics in SPSS

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Frequency Distributions and Descriptive Statistics in SPS

Fall 2013

Frequency Distributions and Descriptive Statistics in SPSS

In this tutorial, we're going to work through a sample problem and construct frequency distributions and view some basic descriptive statistics. We will then generate a histogram based on the results.

Sample Problem: Ten men and ten women participated in a three-point shootout basketball competition. Each participant got 10 attempts. Their scores reflect the number of 3-point shots made out of 10. We're interested in the variables gender and shots-made, although for this tutorial gender won't be affecting the data. For gender: 1 represents male and 2 represents female.

Participant 1

2 3

4 5

6 7 8

9 10

11 12

13 14 15

16 17

18 19 20

Gender 1

1 1

1 1

1 1 1

1 1

2 2

2 2 2

2 2

2 2 2

Shots_made 5

9 4

8 9

10 4 2

1 5

3 4

7 8 9

10 3

2 5 8

So, as you can see we need three variables (columns). In order to set up three different variables, open SPSS and click on the Variable View tab located in the bottom left corner, next to the Data View tab. The Data View tab is automatically selected when you first open SPSS.

This will change your view where each row will represent a variable. Here you can name the variables and make any other changes that are necessary. The only thing we're going to change is the name for each variable and the number of decimals; each variable will need to be changed to 0 in the drop down menu in the decimal column.

Once entered, the variables on your variable view should look like the above picture. If everything is entered correctly, navigate back to the Data View by clicking on the tab in the bottom left corner. *If you want the values for 1 and 2 in the Gender variable to be displayed with their corresponding category in the output (1 for male, 2 for female) then you can do this by clicking on the Value cell in the Gender column. A button will appear that contains "..." Click this button to open another dialog box. Here you can assign labels to certain values. Simple put "1" in the Value box and Male in the Label and click Add. Repeat with the appropriate information for the female label, then click OK.

If your variables are set up correctly then you can go ahead and enter the data presented on the first page of this tutorial. Once entered, your spreadsheet should look like the image to the left.

Now, we're ready to construct the frequency distribution and obtain some basic descriptive statistics. You'll need click Analyze > Descriptives Statistics > Frequencies

Once you click Descriptives, the following dialog box will pop up:

Initially, all variables will appear in the left side. You will need to click on Gender and then click the center arrow to move it to the right side (Variables box). Both Gender and Shots_made need to be in the right box, just like the image above. Once you've added both variables to the right side, click on the Statistics button located in the upper-right corner.

Once here, you will want to select the button next to Histograms. You can then hit Continue to close the Charts dialog box and then Continue on the main Frequencies dialog box to compute the statistics.

Initially, all boxes will be unchecked. You will need to manually check all of the boxes that are checked in the image to the left.

Once you have completed this, you can click the Continue button.

This will close the dialog box and you will be back at the Frequencies dialog box. Now click on the Charts button located on the right side.

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