SPSS LAB FOR Instructor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Juhaini Jabar (Dr.

BEGINNERS J)
SPSS LAB RULES WITH DR. J
1. Must always arrive on time.
2. Must bring your lab book with you. No lab book, no lab session for you.
3. Make sure that you are not doing anything else except focusing on the lab
activities. Please close all email accounts and other social media sites.
4. Strictly no talking during explanation and hands on activities. If you are lost, or
your SPSS file has problems, please just remain calm and raise your hands to get
help from me or the lab assistant. DO NOT ask for your friend’s help. This will
disturb the entire class.
5. You must complete all the activities required during lab. Have fun with SPSS.
SPSS TYPES OF FILE
1. Data files (.sav)
2. Syntax files (.sps)
3. Output files (.spv)
TWO VIEWS WITHIN SPSS FILE
1. Data view (where data can be seen)
2. Variable view (where variables can be seen)
TYPES OF DATA IN SPSS
1. Scale (used in Likert scale, i.e 1=strongly disagree…5=strongly agree)
2. Ordinal (data that can be ranked i.e. who won 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place and so
on).
3. Nominal (grouping of things – only can belong in 1 group at a time i.e. male or
female).
PRACTICE ACTIVITY PAGE 2
2. Numerical – discrete variable
3. Nominal – categorical
4. Occcat80
5. 1-exciting, 2-routine, 3-dull
6. 0, 8, 9
7. Scale (ratio because there is 0)
REVIEW QUESTIONS PAGE 13
1. C
2. A
3. D
4. B
EXTRA PRACTICE QUESTION
We have collected data from people in an organization on how satisfied they are with
three aspects of their job (rates from 1 = very unsatisfied to 10=very satisfied). We
want to find out whether job satisfaction differs between those in different areas of
the organization.
Age Gender Area Task Respect Pay
Satisfaction satisfaction satisfaction
20 M SALES 6 8 8
30 F HR 5 7 6
21 M HR 6 8 6
45 F SECURITY 3 5 5
35 M SECURITY 4 4 3
22 F SALES 9 7 7
37 M SALES 7 6 3
27 M SALES 8 2 7
32 M SECURITY 5 6 5
47 F HR 7 9 7
EXTRA PRACTICE QUESTION
i. Create variables and enter data into SPSS
ii. Recode age into appropriate categories
iii. Determine percentage of sample in each age, gender and work area categories
iv. Create new variable of overall Job Satisfaction
v. Check whether new variable is normally distributed
 T-TEST
The t test compares two averages (means) and tells you if they are different from each other.
The t test also tells you how significant the differences are; In other words it lets you know if
those differences could have happened by chance.
The t score is a ratio between the difference between two groups and the difference within the
groups. The larger the t score, the more difference there is between groups. The smaller the t
score, the more similarity there is between groups. A t score of 3 means that the groups are three
times as different from each other as they are within each other. When you run a t test, the bigger
the t-value, the more likely it is that the results are repeatable.
A large t-score tells you that the groups are different.
A small t-score tells you that the groups are similar.
T-TEST: P-VALUE
How big is “big enough”? Every t-value has a p-value to go with it.
A p-value is the probability that the results from your sample data occurred by chance.
P-values are from 0% to 100%. They are usually written as a decimal. For example, a
p-value of 5% is 0.05. 
Low p-values are good; They indicate your data did not occur by chance.
For example, a p-value of .01 means there is only a 1% probability that the results from
an experiment happened by chance.
In most cases, a p-value of 0.05 (5%) is accepted to mean the data is valid.
THREE TYPES OF T-TEST
A Single sample t-test tests the mean of a single group against a known mean.
A Paired sample t-test compares means from the same group at different times (say,
one year apart).
An Independent Samples t-test compares the means for two groups.
SINGLE SAMPLE T-TEST
Hypothesis to be tested:

H1: The marketing department has higher assessment marks compared to last
year’s average of the company.

*We want to know whether their performance is really better this year
compared to last year.
Write up: page 19
PAIRED SAMPLE T-TEST
Hypothesis to be tested:

H2: The marketing department performed better in their task compared to

their yearly assessment.

*We want to know whether they did better in an individual task or overall
yearly performance.
Write up: page 22
INDEPENDENT SAMPLE T-
TEST
Hypothesis to be tested:

H3: The marketing department staff has higher performance due to their impressive
achievement compared to the staff from the R&D department.
*We want to know whether the marketing department really performed better than
the R&D department, or is it just a coincidence?
Write up (pg. 25):
In order to determine if there is a difference in the performance between marketing
department (M=81.9, SD=7.05) and R&D department (M=69.9, SD=6.0); an
independent sample t-test was conducted. Results indicate that there is a significant
difference between these two groups t(21)=4.43, p<.001. This suggest that the
marketing department performed better than the R&D department.
PEARSON CORRELATION
COEFFICIENT (R)
Hypothesis to be tested:

H1: The average number of kids in a family is related to the level of female
education.
PRACTICE QUESTIONS PAGE
31
1. There is a significant strong, positive relationship between level of female
literacy and female life expectancy, such that the higher the literacy the longer the
life expectancy, r(83)=.82, p<.001. This suggest that increasing literacy level
among women and girls increases their life expectancy.
2. While the relationship between female literacy and life expectancy was strong
and positive, r(83)=.82, p<.001. When male life expectancy rates are controlled
for, the size of this relationship drops, still positive and significant r(81)=.66,
p<.001. Increasing female literacy is related to female life expectancy, even when
male literacy is controlled.
*Partial correlation may test whether a variable is a potential mediator.