SPSS Data Analysis: Constructing a Frequency Distribution

Task:

A1 The following data represent the number of times that a sample of residents in a nursing home who were aged 80 or older fell during a 12-month period.

A. Enter the data into SPSS

B. Construct a frequency distribution for this data set, showing

o Absolute frequencies (the count of cases)

o Relative frequencies (percentage of times a given value occur)

o Cumulative relative frequencies

C. Copy the frequency table from SPSS Output into your report.

Instruction:

· Open SPSS

· Select “type in data” (or select “cancel”)

· Key in data values (one value per cell) on the “data view” screen

· After you finish entering all data, go to the “variable view” screen

· You can change your variable names and change the number of decimals.

· Then click on “Analyse -> descriptive statistics -> frequencies

· Copy the frequency table from the “Output” window to your word document.

A2 Using information from the frequency distribution in # 1, answer the following questions:

a. What is the sample size?  

b. What percentage of the nursing home residents had at least one fall?

c. What number of falls was the most frequent in this sample?

d. What number of falls was the least frequent in this sample?

e. What percentage of residents had 2 or fewer falls?

f. Are there any outliers in this data set?

A3 Draw a frequency histogram for the data in question #1.  Now superimpose a normal distribution on the histogram.

Instruction:

Click Analize -> Descriptive statistics -> Frequencies -> then click on “charts” on the right side of the screen ->on the pop up window, click on “Histograms” -> “with normal curve” -> click on “continue”

a. Copy the Histogram to your homework report

b. Describe the shape of the frequency distribution in terms of modality and skewness. From eyeball inspection, is the number of falls normally distributed?

B1 Using the SPSS dataset Polit2SetA, create a frequency distribution for the variable racethn.  You can do this by clicking on Analyze (on the top toolbar menu), then select Descriptive Statistics from the pull-down menu, then Frequencies.  

This will bring up a dialog box in which you can designate the variables of interest and specify certain statistical or output options.  For this exercise, click on the variable “racethn” (the fourth variable in the list) and then click on the arrow in the middle of the dialog box to move this variable into the list for analysis.  Then click OK.  Based on the output you have created, answer these questions:

a) What percentage of women in this study were “White, not Hispanic”?

b) Does the column for “Cumulative Percent” yield meaningful information for this variable?

c) Include the frequency table in your report (copy from SPSS Output window). 

B2 Re-run the frequency distribution for racethn.  For this run, when the Frequencies dialog box appears, click on the “Charts” pushbutton, and then select “Bar Chart” and “Percentages.” Compare the tabled versus graphic results from Exercises B1 and B2. 

B3 Now execute the SPSS Frequency command once again for the variable higrade, highest grade of education for participants (Variable 6).  (If you do this analysis right after the previous one, you will need to remove the variable racethn from the variable list with the arrow push button, and then move higrade into the list for analysis.) Examine the frequency distribution information and answer these questions:

a) What percentage of women completed 16 years of education?

b) What percentage of women had 10 years or less of education?

c) How many women had exactly 12 years of education?

d) Include the printout table in your report.

B4 Now focus on missing data for the variable higrade, using the same frequency distribution output as in Exercise B3. Answer these questions:

a) How many cases altogether had valid information, and what percentage of the overall sample did these cases represent?

b) How many different types of missing values were there?

c) What were the missing value codes (available by looking at the Variable View screen of the Data Editor, or in the Codebook)?

d) What do these missing values codes mean?

B5 Rerun the frequency distribution for higrade a third time.  Now, when the initial dialog box opens, click the pushbutton for “Charts”.  When a new dialog box appears, click on “Histogram” and “With normal curve.” Return to the main dialog box and click on OK.  Examine the resulting output and then answer the following question:

a) Based on the graph, what is the normality of the distribution?

Run Frequency Frequencies for the following three demographic/background variables in the dataset: educational attainment (educatn, variable number 5); currently employed (worknow, variable 7); and current marital status (marital, variable 9).  Create a table (in a word processing program) that would display this information, using Table 2.5 of the textbook as a model.  Then write a paragraph summarizing the most salient characteristi