SCI802:

ICT and Research

Methodology

Lecture 9:
An Introduction to SPSS
Prof Tanko Ishaya
University of Jos
 Contents
 Designing a study
 Desinging a questionnaires
 Preparing a codebook
 An introduction to SPSS
 Defining Variables
 Entering Data
 Analyzing Data
 SPSS Output
 Analyzing Data
 Max, Min, Range
 Percentiles
 Mode, Median, Mean
 Standard Deviation
 SPSS interface: data view and variable view
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 Designing a study
 The data you enter into SPSS must come
from somewhere
 Responses to questionnaires
 Information collected from interviewers
 Coded observations of actual behaviour or
 Measurements of output or performances
 Remember that the data are only as good as
the instrument you used to collect them
and the research framework/design that
guided their collection

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 Planning the study
 Recall the overall process of research
 Review of the literature
 Formulation of
hypothesis/questions/aims/objectives
 Choice of study design
 Selection of subjects
 Recording of observations and
 Collection of data
 Decisions made at each of these stages can
affect the quality of the data you have to
analyze and the way you address the research
questions
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Some tips on Designing your study
 What type of research design (e.g. experiment, survey, observation) is
the best way to address your research questions
 If an experiment, decide whether a between- groups design or a
repeated measures design
 Make sure you include enough levels in you independent variables in
experimental
 Always select more subjects than you need, particularly if you are using
human subjects
 Check that you have enough subjects in each of the groups and try to
keep them equal when possible
 Wherever possible, randomly assign subjects to each of your
experimental conditions rather than using existing groups
 Choice appropriate dependent variables that are valid and reliable
 Try to anticipate the possible influence of extraneous or confounding
variables
 If you are distributing a survey, pilot-test it first to ensure that the
instruments, questions and scale items are clear
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Choose Appropriate Scales and Measures
 What measures have been used by other researchers in
the area?
 Two characteristics to be aware of in choosing appropriate
scales:
 Reliability
 Test-retest reliability ( temporal stability) – administering a
test to the same people on two different occasions
 Internal consistency - the degree to which the items that make
up the scale are all measuring the same the same underlying
attribute.
 Validity
 Content validity - adequacy with which a measure has sampled
from the intended universe or domain of content
 Criteria validity – relationship b/w scale scores and some
specified, measurable criterion
 Construct validity- investigating its relationship with other
constructs
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Designing a Questionnaire
 Contents
 Objectives of questionnaires
 Advantages and disadvantages
 Design of questionnaires
 Type of questions used
 Common problems and pitfalls
 Exercise of designing a questionnaire using
MS Excel

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What are the sources of research data?
 Physical signals
 Temperature
 Atmospheric pressure
 ...
 Medical records, demography,
census bureau, Case reports
?
 Individual experience 
QUESTIONNAIRES 
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 What is a questionnaire?
 An instrument (form) to
 collect answers to questions
 collect factual data
 gathers information or measures
 A series of written questions/items in a
fixed, rational order

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 Why using a questionnaire?
A well designed questionnaire:
 Gives accurate and relevant information
to your research question
 Minimises potential sources of bias
 Will more likely be completed

⇒As simple and focused as possible

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 Advantages of Questionnaires
 Can reach a large number of people
relatively easily and economically
 Provide quantifiable answers
 Relatively easy to analyse

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 Disadvantages of Questionnaires
 Provides only limited insight into problem
 Limited response allowed by questions
 Maybe not the right questions are asked
 Varying response
 Misunderstanding/misinterpretation
 Need to get it right first time
 Hard to chase after missing data

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 Types of Questionnaires
 Interviewer-Administered
 Face-t0-face
 Telephone
 Advantages
 Clarification of ambiguity
 Quick answers
 Participation by illiterate people
 Self-Administered
 By post
 Email
 Internet /Online
 Advantages
 Cheap and easy to administer
 Preserves confidentiality
 Completed at respondent's convenience
 No influence by interviewer

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 Questionnaire Design – Planning
 Decide on goals
 Identify risk factors for getting bitten by dogs
 Know the subject
 Literature, experts on dog bites
 Formulate a hypothesis
 Postmen more likely to get bitten by dogs than the
normal population
 Define information needed to test hypothesis
 Occupation, owning dog, outdoor activities, attitude
towards dogs

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 Questionnaire Design – Design Questions

 Content of the questions

 Format of the questions
 Presentation and layout
 Coding schedule (if appropriate)
 Pilot and refine questionnaire

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 What makes a well designed questionnaire?

 Good appearance
® easy on the eye
 Short and simple
 Relevant and logical
 High response rate

⇒ Easy data summarisation and analysis

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 Rules of Questionnaire Design ?
 On first page
 Return address
 Study title in bold
 On all pages
 Identifying mark/
unique identifier
 Numbered items
 Page numbers
 Directions in bold
 Self-addressed envelope!!

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 Questionnaire Order
 Decide on order of items/questions
 Easy  difficult
 General  particular
 Factual  abstract
 Where to place sensitive questions?
Be aware of ordering effects
 Group questions by topic/ response options
 Starting questions
 Simple
 With closed format
 Relevant to main subject
 Non-offending
 Neither demographic nor personal questions
 Don’t put most important item last
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 Questionnaire Introduction
 Covering letter/ interview
introduction
 Who you are/ you work for
 Why you are investigating
 Where you obtained the respondent’s name
 How and where you can be contacted
 Guarantee of confidentiality
 Length of interview (be honest)
⇒ Usefulness of study should be clear
to all respondents
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 Contents
 Clear focus on research question
 Avoid sidetracking
 Avoid unnecessary information
 Demographic information
 Contact information (if non-
anonymised)

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 Format of questions
 Adjust to responding audience
 Professionals vs. public
 Middle class vs. prisoners
 Keep sentences simple and short
 Define key words (“fully vaccinated”)
 Remember option “don’t know”

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 Format of questions
 Ask for one information at a time
Do you own a dog or have frequent contacts
with dogs?
Yes
No 
 Use mutually exclusive and
exhaustive answer options
 Vertical order of answer options

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 Be accurate
Do you often touch dogs?
Yes 
No 
vs.
How often did you touch a dog during the
past 3 months?
Once 
Twice 
Three times or more 
Not at all 
Don´t know 

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 Be appropriate
Are you a drunk?
Yes 
No 
vs.
How often did you touch a dog during the
past 3 months?
Once 
Twice 
Three times or more 
Not at all 
Don´t know 

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 Be objective
Did you drink the strange Moss drink in Jos?
Yes 
No

vs.
Which beverage did you consume?
Water 
Beer 
Wine 
Moss 
None of them 
Don´t know 

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 Format of questions
Two main question formats
 Closed format  forced choice
Yes  Always 
No  Sometimes 
Don’t know  Never 
 Open format  free text
What is your most distressing symptom? Please
describe:
________________________________________________
 ________________________________________________
Closed questions are usually quite easy to convert to the numerical format
required for SPSS. Eg. Yes can be coded as 1, No as 2
 Open or Closed?
 Open Advantages:
 Not directive
 Allows exploration of issues
to generate hypothesis
 qualitative research, focus groups, trawling questionnaires
 Used even if no comprehensive range of alternative choices
 Good for exploring knowledge and attitudes
 Detailed and unexpected answers possible
 Closed Advantages:
 Simple and quick
 Reduces discrimination against less literate
 Easy to code, record, analyse
 Easy to compare
 Easy to report results
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 Open or Closed?
 Open Disadvantages:
 Interviewer bias
 Time-consuming
 Coding problems
 Difficult to analyse!
 Difficult to compare groups
 Closed Disadvantages:
 Restricted number of possible answers
 Loss of information
 Possible compromise
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 Objectives of Questionnaires
 Drawing together a wide range
of other peoples work into a
story which works for your
project

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Preparing a codebook
 Before Data Entry
Design your research
You need a code book/scoring guide
You give ID number for each case (NOT
real identification numbers of your
subjects) if you use paper survey.
If you use online survey, you need
something to identify your cases.
You also can use Excel to do data entry.

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 What is a Codebook
A code book is about how you code your
variables.
What are in codebook?
Variable names
Values for each response option
How to recode variables

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 Example of a Code Book
Q1. How old are you?

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Introduction to SPSS
 What is SPSS?
 Originally an acronym that stands for “Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences”. Now it stands for
Statistical Product and Service Solution
 One of the most popular statistical packages that
can perform complex data manipulation, analysis
and graphical presentation of data
 Well suited for survey and experimental research
 It is a straight forward package with a friendly
environment.
 There is a lot of easy to access documentation and the
tutorials are very good.

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 Uses of SPSS
 Data management
 Defining variables
 Coding values
 Entering and editing data
 Creating new variables
 Recoding variables
 Selecting cases
 Data analysis
 Univariate statistics
 Bivariate statistics
 Multivariate statistics
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 Types of Variables
 What are variables you would consider
in buying a second hand bike?

 Brand (Trek, Raleigh)

 Type (road, mountain, racer)
 Components (Shimano, no name)
 Age
 Condition (Excellent, good, poor)
 Price
 Frame size
 Number of gears
 Types of Scales
Nominal- objects or people are categorized
according to some criterion (gender, job category)
Ordinal- Categories which are ranked according
to characteristics (income- low, moderate, high)
Interval- contain equal distance between units of
measure- but no zero (calendar years,
temperature)
Ratio- has an absolute zero and consistent
intervals (distance, weight)
 Parametric vs Non-parametric
 Parametric stats are more powerful than non-
parametric stats- for real numbers- T test
 Non-parametric stats are not as powerful but good
for category variables - Mann-Whitney U (likert)
 Opening SPSS
Double click the SPSS icon on the desktop

OR

Start/Programs/SPSS for Windows/SPSS**

The following introductory screen should appear:
 SPSS Interface
Data view
The place to enter data
Columns: variables
Rows: records
Variable view
The place to enter variables
List of all variables
Characteristics of all variables

46
 What is SPSS?
 Originally an acronym that stands for “Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences”. Now it stands for
Statistical Product and Service Solution
 One of the most popular statistical packages that
can perform complex data manipulation, analysis
and graphical presentation of data
 Well suited for survey and experimental research
 It is a straight forward package with a friendly
environment.
 There is a lot of easy to access documentation and the
tutorials are very good.

47
 Basic Structure of SPSS
Unlike in Excel, SPSS files have 2 “sides”: the
Data view which looks very much like an Excel
file and a Variable view which is a kind of
“behind the scenes” thing.
Data view
The place to enter data
Columns: variables
Rows: records
Variable view
The place to enter variables
List of all variables
Characteristics of all variables
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 SPSS Data View

 In Data View, columns represent variables (e.g. gender,

length), and rows represent cases (observations such as
the sex and the length of the third coyote).

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 SPSS Variable View

 This is where you define the variables you will be using:

to define/modify a property of a given variable, you click
on the cell containing the property you want to
define/modify.
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References and Acknowledgements
 Primary
 Robson, C. (2002) Real World Research Wiley Blackwell; 2nd
Edition, ISBN-13: 978- 0631213055
 Kumar, R (2010) Research methods: A step-by-step guide for
beginners
 Jones, S. (1998) Doing Internet Research Critical Issues and
Methods for Examining the Net. Sage, ISBN-13: 978-0761915959
 Oates, B.J. (2005) Researching Information Systems and
Computing. Sage. ISBN-13: 978-1412902243
 Alderson P (1998) The importance of theories in health care British
Medical Journal 317, 1007-10
 Hek G, Judd M and Moule P (2002) Making sense of research: an
introduction for health and social care practitioners (2nd edition)
London: Continuum
 Acknowledgements
 Lectures have been adapted in part from various lecture materials prepared by
many lecturers and materials available on the Internet

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The End!