Frequency Tables and Charts

topic:   Peer pressure and Socioeconomics.

   

    

Task I: Frequency table

Now that you have imported GSS 2012 dataset into your SPSS and have learned how to use GSS data explorer to find out GSS variable information, you are going to create and post a frequency table of your variables.  Complete the following steps:

Give your forum title a unique label specific to your study/variables.  Post a brief explanation of your topic which includes a bit of information about your variables: level of measurement, answer categories (yes/no, strongly agree, disagree, etc.), as well as the survey question used to collect data for this particular variable (refer to Forum 1 discussion). Include a frequency table for each of your variables. If you have one DV and one IV, you need to run frequency table for BOTH of your variables. If you have one DV and 2 IVs, you need to run three frequency tables. When you are done, explain your outputs in no more than 5 sentences for each variable. Cite numbers in the outputs to support your conclusion. When you cite %, use the % reported in “valid percent” column. This column deletes all missing values, thus is “clean.” 

To create a frequency table in SPSS

1.       Open SPSS and open your GSS data file

2.       Click Analyze

3.       Click Descriptive

Statistics

4.       Click Frequencies

5.       click open Statistics

6.       Make sure that mean, median, mode, standards deviation, and variance are chosen and click “Continue”

7.       
Choose the variable that you want to make a frequency table of and click the arrow (this will move it into the right ‘Variable’ box)

8.       Click OK

Task II. Create charts (bar chart, pie chart, or histogram depending on your variables’ level of measurement)

Presenting your data in graphic form is also important when conducting quantitative research. Based on what you have learned from the reading and the weekly lesson, create a graphic representation of your data. Your choice of graphing tool is purely based on a variable’s level of measurement. When you are done, explain your outputs in no more than 5 sentences for each variable. It is OK if your explanation is similar to the frequency table interpretation, since chart is a different data presentation on the SAME variable. Cite numbers in the outputs to support your conclusion.

Basic rules: 

Nominal: bar chart or pie chart

Ordinal: bar chart or pie chart

Interval/Ratio: histogram or line chart 

To Create a Chart

1.       Follow steps 1-4 above (without worrying about the statistics).

2.       Click Charts

3.       Click choice of format (depending on your variable’s level of measurement)

4.       Click OK

5.       Continue with steps 5-6

Copy all of the frequency tables and charts by copy and pasting them into a document (PDF, MS Word) and attach to forum discussion. If your table/chart does not fit to the page, choose “copy special” and then “images.” Paste images to the word document and the problem will be solved.  

If you need further guidance, refer to the step-by-step screenshots attached at the end of the rubrics. 

   

Forum Instructions:

 a source quotation marks should be used and an APA formatted citation and reference provided.

example:

Task 1:

The research question that I would like to explore is: Are men or women more likely to report being happy in their marriage? Sex is the independent variable and will be measured nominally, into the categories of male and female. The variable of sex would be considered qualitative. The question asked is “respondent’s sex.” In this survey, more respondents were female than male. Out of 1974 respondents, 886 (44.9%) were male. The remaining 1088 (55.1%) were female. 

The dependent variable is happiness of marriage. The dependent variable of happiness of marriage will be measured quantitatively, using ordinal categories. The categories of measurement are as follows: very happy, pretty happy, not too happy, and don’t know. The survey question used to collect data for this variable was: “Taking things all together, how would you describe your marriage? Would you say that your marriage is very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?” The highest chosen category was “very happy.” 589 respondents, out of a total of 897, indicated that they were “very happy” in their marriage: this equates to 65.7 of respondents that answered this question. Only 14.3%, or 282 respondents, indicated that they were “pretty happy.” A mere 1.3%, or 26 respondents, indicated that they were “not too happy.”

Task 2:

I chose to make bar charts for both my independent and dependent variables. For my dependent variable of happiness of marriage, my bar chart had three bars. These bars represented the number of respondents that answered for the categories of very happy, pretty happy, and not too happy. The bar representing “very happy” was about twice the size of the bar representing “pretty happy,” as 589 respondents indicated that they were very happy while only 282 respondents indicated that they were pretty happy. With only 26 respondents indicating that they were not too happy, the bar that represented this category was dwarfed by the other two.

The bar chart for the independent variable, which is sex, has only two bars. One bar is indicating the number of male respondents, and the other bar is indicating the number of female respondents. The bar graph indicates that there were slightly more female respondents than males, with 1088 female respondents and 886 male respondents.

Tables and graphs_SOCI332_Week2Forum x
  

Task 1 (Frequency Tables):

  
Statistics
 

Task 1 (Frequency Tables):

Statistics

HAPPINESS OF MARRIAGE

N

Valid

897

Missing

1077

Mean

1.37

Median

1.00

Mode

1

Std. Deviation

.540

Variance

.292

HAPPINESS OF MARRIAGE

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

VERY HAPPY

589

29.8

65.7

65.7

PRETTY HAPPY

282

14.3

31.4

97.1

NOT TOO HAPPY

26

1.3

2.9

100.0

Total

897

45.4

100.0

Missing

IAP

1074

54.4

NA

3

.2

Total

1077

54.6

Total

1974

100.0

Statistics

RESPONDENTS SEX

N

Valid

1974

Missing

0

Mean

1.55

Median

2.00

Mode

2

Std. Deviation

.498

Variance

.248

RESPONDENTS SEX

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

MALE

886

44.9

44.9

44.9

FEMALE

1088

55.1

55.1

100.0

Total

1974

100.0

100.0

Task 2 (Charts):