How Do You Use SPSS To Calculate Descriptive Statistics?
SPSS is one of the most frequently used research tools in the social sciences and other fields of research. SPSS is a program which uses a wide variety of tests and analyses to break down the statistical trends of a dataset. One of these analyses is the calculation of descriptive statistics. The descriptive statistics of a dataset can include the mean (average), median (middle value), range (minimum and maximum values), and standard deviation, among others. The first step in any statistical analysis is to perform a data cleaning session. This simply means examining the data to see if any errors exist within it. Start SPSS, open your dataset, and perform a quick examination of the variable or variables of interest for any extreme values, cases that appear to be errors, or otherwise miscoded data. An error in coding or a typo in the dataset can throw off the values of the descriptive statistics. On the taskbar, find the “Analyze” option and click on it to reveal a drop down scroll menu.
