Week 2: Frequencies and Descriptives 

 Group/section restrictions.

Prior to completing this week's discussion, you must have SPSS rented and downloaded. You must also have the GSS dataset downloaded from the SPSS & GSS Overview and saved to your computer. You will first open SPSS and then open the GSS dataset within SPSS. (See Intro to SPSS.)

You are now going to create and post a frequency table, chart, and descriptives table (central tendency/dispersion) of each of your variables. 

Complete the following steps:

1. Post a brief explanation of your topic. Include your research question and for each variable - the name, survey question or description, answer categories (yes/no, strongly agree, disagree, etc.), and level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, or interval/ratio)

2. Include a frequency table for each of your variables. Explain your outputs in no more than 5 sentences for each variable. Cite numbers in the outputs to support your conclusion. When you cite %, use the % reported in the "valid percent" column.

3. Create a chart for each variable, which is a graphic representation of your data. The type of chart (pie, bar, or histogram) is based on a variable's level of measurement. Explain your outputs for each variable. It is OK if your explanation is similar to (but not the same as) the frequency table interpretation since a chart is a different data presentation on the SAME variable. Cite numbers in the outputs to support your conclusion.

4. Describe the measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode) and dispersion (variance, standard deviation) for each of your variables. Based on what you have learned in the readings and lessons this week, identify the best measures for each variable and explain what they tell us. What do these measures summarize for us about the variable's data?