IBM SPSS Essentials, 2nd Edition

3Introduction to Data

Chapter Menu

• Chapter Learning Objectives
• Understanding Your Data
• The SPSS Data Perspective
• Your Data in SPSS – Think Matrices
• Summary

Chapter Learning Objectives

1. Understanding your data types
   1. Independent and Dependent variables
   2. Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, and Ratio
   3. Continuous versus Discrete
   4. Numeric and String data
2. Structure of SPSS data organization
   1. People organized as rows
   2. Variables organized as columns

This book is intended to prepare you for your first experience working within SPSS. However, before you use the program, it is essential that you understand your data (outside of SPSS). If you understand your data independent of SPSS, it'll make the process of learning how it integrates with SPSS a lot easier. This chapter, therefore, first ensures that we're all in agreement on “what data is” before we delve into inputting that data into SPSS.

Understanding Your Data

Data is quite a broad term that can include any informative piece of information. For statistical analyses, data are most often organized into variables, which refer to anything that can take on more than one value. For example, pets can be a variable since it can take on the value of dog, cat, or any other (typically) domesticated animal.

Independent Versus Dependent Variables

Considering methodological/experimental concepts as we discuss variables, data can also be ...