Chapter 1
Introducing SPSS
In This Chapter
Considering the quality of your data
Communicating with SPSS
Seeing how SPSS works
Finding help when you’re stuck
A statistic is a number. A raw statistic is a measurement of some sort. It’s fundamentally a count of something — occurrences, speed, amount, or whatever. A statistic is calculated using a sample. In a sense, a sample is the keyhole you have to peer through to the population, which is what you’re trying to understand. The value at the population level — the average height of an American male, for instance — is called a parameter. Unless you’ve got all the data there is, and you’ve collected a census of the population, you have to make do with the data in your sample. The job of SPSS is to calculate. Your job is to provide a good sample.
In this chapter, we discuss the importance of having accurate, reliable data, and some of the implications when this is not the case. We also talk about how best to organize your data in SPSS and the different kinds of files that SPSS creates. We take a trip down memory lane and discuss the origins ...
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