Introduction to Statistical Software

Lecture 7

Dave Brocker

Farmingdale State College

Statistical Software

Excel, R, SPSS – Oh My!

There are several tools you can use for statistical analyses.

  • PSY 360 (Research Methods) typically employs the use of both Excel and SPSS

  • I think the best approach is to use these options in addition to free software such as R.

Statistical Software

The Menu

table_chart

Excel

Familiar, and good for the core concepts

code

R

Free, flexible, runs in a browser

analytics

SPSS

Point-and-click, with a syntax editor

Statistical Software

R

  • R is available on all Operating Systems completely free of charge and can even be accessed through web browsers such as Safari, Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox.

  • As an added bonus, R is even accessible in this presentation!

Press ~` (no Shift needed) to open R.

Script (top) is where you write code. Console (bottom) is where R answers.

Statistical Software

Why should I care?

Your time is worth something and if I can show you a different way of approaching statistical questions that you might find easier—I will do whatever I can to do so!

  • Your future job might not have SPSS

  • You can learn programming syntax and troubleshoot in real-time

Statistical Software

Excel

We have used Microsoft Excel in this course to demonstrate core concepts such as finding the arithmetic average, standard deviation, measures of central tendency, and calculating z-scores.

  • Since statistical tests are mathematical at a base-level, nearly any test that can be run elsewhere can be run in Excel

Statistical Software

Excel: Data Analysis Toolpak

Excel has first-party addons such as the Data Analysis Toolpak (and third-party ones too). The Data Analysis Toolpak can run the following tests:

Data Analysis Toolpak list, top: ANOVA, Correlation, Covariance, Descriptive Statistics

Data Analysis Toolpak list, middle: Exponential Smoothing through Random Number Generation

Data Analysis Toolpak list, bottom: Rank and Percentile through t-Tests

Whoa! Those are a lot of tests! Excel is an absolute powerhouse, but some of the tests and options are somewhat difficult to access and/or have a steep learning curve.

Statistical Software

SPSS

SPSS
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Used in a variety of disciplines, with options for the majority of tests you will end up running in your academic career, plus a syntax editor that gives you more control over your data, tests, and outputs.

Statistical Software

SPSS: Example

Let’s walk through an example in SPSS step-by-step.

Setup

  1. Download the dataset movie_dat_trimmed.csv from Brightspace
  2. Double-click on IBM SPSS, then open the file

SPSS: Example

Descriptive Statistics

SPSS does its best to analyze your data and assign data value types (continuous, nominal) as well as scales of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio).

  • SPSS will only allow specific data types to be analyzed in specific ways

  • SPSS does not always ‘know’ what you are looking for, so you need to make sure your data is set up correctly!

SPSS: Example

Two Views

SPSS has two views.

Variable View
An overview of your variables.
Data View
A glimpse of your raw data.

SPSS: Example

Two Views: What to Look For

Variable View

  • What is the name?
  • What is the data type?
  • What is the range of values?
  • Are there any labels?
  • What is the Measure type?

Data View

  • What is in the first column?
  • What is in the second column?
  • etc.

SPSS: Example

Descriptive Statistics

Descriptive Statistics describe the data, they give us an idea of where our data (likely) comes from, the measures of central tendency, and estimation about normality can be made.

  • Mean | Sum

  • Standard Deviation

  • Range

  • Mode

  • Kurtosis*

  • Skewness*

* Kurtosis and skewness help us judge how close to normal our data is.

SPSS: Example

Frequency Statistics

Frequency Statistics give us an idea of the composition of our dataset and allow us to make estimations and guesses in relation to the normality of our data

  • Frequency of Responses (% or n)

  • Minimum Values

  • Max Values

  • Range

SPSS: Example

Your Turn

Descriptive and Frequency Statistics

In our dataset, we want to investigate the categorical composition of our data as well as the statistical makeup of our data.

For the dataset provided, find the descriptive statistics and frequency statistics for each variable of the appropriate data type.