QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS: MEASUREMENT AND DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS

SPSS Problems

Chapter 3

Use the hsbdata.sav file to do these problems with one or more of these variables: math achievement, mother’s education, ethnicity, and academic track. Use Tables 3.2, 3.3, and the instructions in the text to produce the appropriate plots or descriptive statistics. Be sure that the plots and/or descriptive statistics make sense (i.e. that they are a “good choice” or “OK”) for the variable.

3.1. Create bar charts. Discuss why you did or did not create a bar chart for each variable.

3.2. Create histograms. Discuss why you did or did not create a histogram for each variable.

3.3. Create frequency polygons. Discuss why you did or did not create a frequency polygon for each variable. Compare the plots in Extra SPSS Problems 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3.

3.4. Compute the range, standard deviation, and skewness. Discuss which measures of variability are meaningful for each of