SEPTEMBER 28
INTRODUCTION TO SPSS

Headquartered in Chicago, SPSS has more than 40 offices, over 900 employees and 1999 revenues of $140 million.

This year I am converting my teaching of SPSS from using the low-cost "least common demominator" version on the campus UNIX computer to SPSS 10 running on microcomputers. This will cause some problems for me, which means that it will cause some for you too. But don't worry, I'll take it easy on both of us in getting a firm handle on using the program within the class.

Assignment: For Friday (September 28), use my "random number" table handout to select 10 states at random from the list of data on American states listed here. (If you didn't get the handout, you can find a table of random numbers on the web by clicking here.)

IT IS IMPORTANT HOW YOU DRAW YOUR TEN CASES. You can choose any place to enter a table of random numbers and move in any direction. Because you want to identify only 10 numbers from 01 to 51, you should look for pairs of numbers. Select the first ten pairs that you encounter that range from 01 to 51.

Don't choose your "favorite" states or use your own idea of "random" sampling. Underline or "highlight" the ten states that constitute your random sample. Print out the page and bring it to class.

OCTOBER 1
RECORDING DATA FOR COMPUTERS

Assignment: Enter the data from your ten randomly selected states into the SPSS Data Editor. In the "Variable View," make the changes that I noted in class on Friday: (1) change the variable names from "var00001" to "State," (2) increase the field for the string variable to 16 characters, (3) fix the number of decimals to match the data, (4) and enter "labels" for the variables. Save the file as mystates on your hard drive, or on a disk if you are using computers in a laboratory.

OCTOBER 2
USING THE SPSS DATA EDITOR

An SPSS file can carry useful information about the nature and format of your data--the contents of of your mystates file. On Friday, I illustrated how to name and create variable labels for your variables. SPSS also provides something called value labels which are suitable for nominal scale variables.

Unfortunately, your SPSS Guide doesn't discuss these features, but they are described in the SPSS Syntax Reference Guide that's available as a PDF file on the CD that you purchased. Call up that file and read about variable labels and value labels. Alternatively, you can read about both by going to last year's web site that discussed the SPSS "syntax" for "Data Definition" commands.

SPSS will also allow you to enter new variables in a data file using the Data Editor. For example, you can add data from the 2000 presidential election and update the states' Electoral Votes from the 2000 census.

Assignment: Open your mystates data file. Following the format in the lecture notes posted on my web site, add the percent vote for Bush in 2000 and the updated electoral votes.

OCTOBER 27
OPTIONAL SESSION

 I will hold an Optional session to hear questions on computer issues, whatever they may be. I may even be able to answer most of them.

OCTOBER 4
A THIRD SPSS RUN

SPSS is not only a collection of programs for statistical analysis; it is also a general "data management" system that you can use to recode existing values, to create new variables, and to select portions of your data set for analysis.

Assignment: Use the COMPUTE command under the Transform menu to form the new variable, VOTEGAIN, by subtracting VOTES00 from VOTES90. Open a "syntax" window and list the variable that you created along with the name of the state. Bring the result to class.

OCTOBER 5
ACCESSING AN EXISTING DATA SET:THE 51 STATES DATA

You do not have to create an SPSS file every time you analyze data. In fact, the full data set for 51 states (all states plus the District of Columbia) and numerous variables has already been made into an SPSS file, saved for your usage under the file name, states.por, and then sent to you via e-mail. You should be able to open this as a "portable" file and then save it to your hard drive, which will be called states.sav. We will use this full data set in the assignment below. You should understand that states.sav was created in a process akin to the one that you used to make your small data set. If you wish to make another data set sometime for analysis in another course, you should be able to reconstruct the process. For the rest of this course, however, we will be using existing SPSS data sets.

Assignment: Do what is stated above as your assignment for today.