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Interpreting Quantitative Data with SPSS PDF

337 Pages·2003·3.63 MB·English
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3036-Prelims.qxd 10/19/02 10:19 AM Page i Interpreting Quantitative Data with SPSS 3036-Prelims.qxd 10/19/02 10:19 AM Page ii 3036-Prelims.qxd 10/19/02 10:19 AM Page iii Interpreting Quantitative Data with SPSS Rachad Antonius SAGE Publications London • Thousand Oaks • New Delhi 3036-Prelims.qxd 10/19/02 10:19 AM Page iv © Rachad Antonius 2003 First published 2003 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. SAGE Publications Ltd 6 Bonhill Street London EC2A 4PU SAGE Publications Inc 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd 32, M-Block Market Greater Kailash - I New Delhi 110 048 British Library Cataloguing in Publication data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7619 7398 2 ISBN 0 7619 7399 0 (pbk) Library of Congress Control Number: 2002 102 782 Typeset by C&M Digital (P) Ltd., Chennai, India Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall 3036-Prelims.qxd 10/19/02 10:19 AM Page v CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix FOREWORD TO THE STUDENT xi FOREWORD TO THE INSTRUCTOR xvii 1 THE BASIC LANGUAGE OF STATISTICS 1 Introduction: Social Sciences and Quantitative Methods 1 Data Files 2 The Discipline of Statistics 6 Populations, Samples, and Units 7 Descriptive Statistics 9 Inferential Statistics 9 Variables and Measurement 10 Importance of the Level of Measurement 16 Concepts, Dimensions, and Indicators 17 Summary 18 Keywords 19 Suggestions for Further Reading 19 Exercises 20 2 THE RESEARCH PROCESS 22 Main Steps in Social Research 23 Summary 31 Keywords 31 Suggestions for Further Reading 31 Exercises 33 3 UNIVARIATE DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS 34 Measures of Central Tendency 36 Measures of Dispersion 46 Measures of Position 51 Other Measures 52 Graphical Representation of the Distribution of Data 53 The General Shape of a Distribution 66 Methodological Issues 67 Summary 69 Keywords 70 Suggestions for Further Reading 71 Exercises 71 3036-Prelims.qxd 10/19/02 10:19 AM Page vi vi CONTENTS 4 WRITING A DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY 78 How to Write a Descriptive Report 78 Summary 95 Keywords 96 Suggestions for Further Reading 96 Exercises 96 5 NORMAL DISTRIBUTIONS 97 Properties of Normal Distributions 98 Using the Table of Areas Under the Normal Curve 100 Numerical Examples 103 Summary 105 Keywords 106 Suggestions for Further Reading 106 Exercises 106 6 SAMPLING DESIGNS 107 Types of Samples 108 Errors of Measurement 117 Summary 118 Keywords 119 Suggestions for Further Reading 119 Exercises 119 7 DATABASES ON SOCIAL STATISTICS 122 Illustration of a Data Search on Selected Sites 126 Printed Reports of Statistics Canada (or StatCan) 131 CD-ROMs and Disks 135 Online Data at StatCan 136 Keywords 140 Suggestions for Further Reading 140 Exercises 140 8 STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION 142 The Case of Two Quantitative Variables 145 The Case of Two Qualitative Variables 148 The Case of One Quantitative and One Qualitative Variable 153 Ordinal Variables 153 Statistical Association as a Qualitative Relationship 154 Summary and Conclusions 156 Keywords 158 Suggestions for Further Reading 158 Exercises 158 9 INFERENTIAL STATISTICS: ESTIMATION 161 Inferential Statistics 161 The Logic of Estimation: Proportions and Percentages 163 Estimation of a Percentage: The Calculations 165 Estimation of a Mean 168 Estimation of a Mean: The Calculations 169 Effect of the Sample Size on the Margin of Error 170 Calculation of the Sample Size Needed in a Survey 171 Summary and Conclusions 172 3036-Prelims.qxd 10/19/02 10:19 AM Page vii CONTENTS vii Keywords 173 Suggestions for Further Reading 173 Exercises 174 10 INFERENTIAL STATISTICS: HYPOTHESIS TESTING 177 Sampling Distributions 179 The Logic of Hypothesis Testing 180 The Detailed Procedure for Hypothesis Testing 182 Understanding the Probabilities of Error 184 The Various Forms of the Alternative Hypothesis 185 Hypothesis Testing When σ is Unknown 188 Hypothesis Testing with Two Independent Samples 189 Hypothesis Testing in Statistical Software 190 t-Tests 190 Summary and Conclusions 191 Keywords 191 Suggestions for Further Reading 192 Exercises 192 SYNTHESIS: ANALYZING A TOPIC IN A DATA FILE 195 The Data File Itself 195 The Topic and the Questions 195 The Analysis 196 REVIEW QUESTIONS 202 LAB 1: GETTING STARTED WITH SPSS 206 LAB 2: WORKING WITH A WORD PROCESSOR 213 LAB 3: EXPLORING DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS 216 LAB 4: RECODING; THE HELP MENU 226 LAB 5: CHARTS IN SPSS 235 LAB 6: MORE ON DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS 239 LAB 7: RANDOM SAMPLING 242 LAB 8: ACCESSING DATABASES ON THE INTERNET 245 LAB 9: CREATING A DATA FILE 248 LAB 10: CROSS-TABULATIONS (TWO-WAY TABLES) 256 LAB 11: COMPARING THE MEANS OF VARIOUS SUBGROUPS 261 LAB 12: CORRELATION AND REGRESSION 266 LAB 13: CONFIDENCE INTERVALS 272 LAB 14: t-TESTS 277 APPENDIX 1 AREAS UNDER THE NORMAL CURVE 284 APPENDIX 2 TABLE OF RANDOM NUMBERS 285 GLOSSARY OF STATISTICAL TERMS 286 GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 296 INDEX 299 3036-Prelims.qxd 10/19/02 10:19 AM Page viii 3036-Prelims.qxd 10/19/02 10:19 AM Page ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A number of contingencies have presided over the coming about of this book … and a number of people have played a role in its birth. I would like to acknowledge their input here. First of all, there was Louise Corriveau, who first encouraged me to work on a manual of quantitative methodology for the social sciences. She introduced me to a statistician, the late Robert Trudel, and together we wrote Méthodes quantitatives appliquées aux sciences humaines. Our long and elaborated discussions on every aspect of the book,both from the point of view of statistics and from the point of view of pedagogy,helped shape my views of how that subject matter ought to be taught. I should point out the role played then by Mr. Charles Dufresne,whose advice on the form,content and organization of that book was an extremely formative experience. As computers were becoming available for our classes,we started using software packages to teach this course. After experimenting with several packages,the admin- istration and instructors of the course opted for SPSS. We had manuals to teach SPSS, but we did not have a manual to teach quantitative methods for the social sciences with the help of a package such as SPSS. I thus wrote a series of class notes in quantitative methodology using SPSS. The focus was on methodology,and SPSS was a tool,not an end in itself. With the com- ments of my students and my colleagues at Champlain College – St-Lambert,these notes gradually evolved into an experimental manuscript. This book is the result of these efforts. I would like to thank my colleagues – both in the Mathematics department and in the Methodology module – for letting me teach the course,and for testing the man- ual in their classes. The administration at Champlain was quite supportive, and accommodated my needs in terms of teaching and of granting (unpaid …) leaves of absence when that was required. They also provided numerous signs of encourage- ment and appreciation of this work. As any author knows,writing a book puts a lot of stress on the daily organization of family life. I would like to thank my spouse,Y.G., and my children, Marc and Gabriel,for putting up with my constant preoccupation with statistics and method- ology during moments when I should have been available to interact with them. Finally, I would like to thank all the staff at SAGE and Keyword Publishing Services for their professional editing job. Rachad Antonius Montreal,May 20,2002

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By focusing on the use of SPSS as a tool to doing social research - and not the `be all and end all' to the research problem - this book will be an invaluable resource for students learning about descriptive statistics and some topics in inferential statistics for the first time. It will provide stu
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