SPSS Statistics Workbook For Dummies

Chapter 6

Using Descriptive Statistics

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding level of measurement

Summarizing data using frequencies

Describing data with Descriptives

Calculating z-scores

After you have collected data and input it into SPSS Statistics, your next task is to perform preliminary analyses so that you can check the quality of your data, as well as describe the sample. Knowing the level of measurement of your variables is crucial to requesting the appropriate summary statistics. In this chapter, we discuss level of measurement, as well as three techniques for summarizing your data — frequencies, Descriptives, and z-scores — so that you can determine whether the data has discrepancies.

Level of Measurement

The level of measurement of a variable, or how data is coded, is important because it determines the appropriate summary statistics, tables, and graphs to describe data. Statistical measures of central tendency are used to summarize the distribution of a variable. Measures of central tendency are often referred to as the average. There are three main central tendency measures: ...