CJ 330

VIOLENCE, CRIME, AND JUSTICE

11/15/99

UPDATED VERSION WILL BE POSTED ON blue.temple.edu/~ralph section of course website later today - also - I will be announcing "office hours" when I will be available in GH 107 on Friday.

 

FIRST LAB SESSION ON DATA ENTRY

GOALS

1. Set up a spreadsheet so that all your variables from your coding sheet have variable names; these appear as the top row in your spreadsheet

2. To enter a few rows of data

3. To save your spreadsheet in Lotus format

4. To import your spreadsheet into SPSS

5. To get SPSS to give you all your frequencies for each variable

GOAL 1: SETTING UP SPREADSHEET

1. Start Excel - it is under MS OFFICE

2. Start entering your variable names in the top row

- be sure to make the first column a place where you can put the IDNUMBER that corresponds to your data sheet (YES - WHEN YOU START THIS DATA ENTRY FOR REAL YOU WANT TO BE SURE THAT ALL YOUR DATA SHEETS ARE NUMBERED. If different people are working in a team, and each person has a different set of data sheets, set it up so that

 

TOM's data sheets: 100, 101, 102 .... 199

SALLY's data sheets: 200, 201, 202, .... 299

 

- You may have to widen columns so that you can see all of the letters in each variable name

- Be sure you do not use the same variable name twice

- Variable names cannot be more than 8 letters. Also, no symbols, and no spaces in the variable name

- You want to have your variables in the spreadsheete in the same order as they are on the coding sheet itself.

 

3. Once you have all your variables defined, SAVE the file

click on FILE

click on SAVE AS

under SAVE AS TYPE scroll down and click on WK1

under FILE NAME enter (for example) MUSVIDAA

 

4. Copy the file onto other people's floppies, so that everyone on the team has the template on two floppies.

GOAL 2: Enter a few rows of data

HINTS

• Entry goes much smoother when two people work together; one person reads out from the code sheet, and another person enters the numbers into the file, calling out the numbers as he/she enters them. Go slowly and carefully. A few coding errors can ruin your whole day. If there is any question, the coder should read it back to the reader.
  

• to keep your top row visible, with your variable names, even after you have entered about 30 rows of data

click mouse on second row of spd

click WINDOWS from menu

click FREEZE PANES

• Save the file about every ten rows of data.
  

• When you are done

click file

click Save As

save it with a different name, e.g., MUSVIDBB. Be sure when you do this the Save as type box says LOTUS WK1; i.e., you are always saving it as Lotus WK1 format.

 

By saving each file after you have done more data entry with a different name, you always have your original data.

• Be sure to always save the new file on TWO floppies.
  
  

GOAL 3: Importing your spreadsheet into SPSS

1. Start SPSS

2. Import your file

Click on FILE

Click on OPEN

Under LOOK IN tell it to look on A:

Under FILES OF TYPE highlight LOTUS

Find your file and click on it

Click OPEN

When dialogue box comes up, click on the little box next to READ VARIABLE NAMES

Click OK

 

Your actual data file may not come up; you may be looking at spss output instead. Look on the bottom task bar and see if you can find a box for the data file. Click on it. You want a screen that looks like a spreadsheet, but it has spss commands at the top. Once you have the actual data file up, you want to save it.

 

3. Save your SPSS file.

Click on FILE

Click on SAVE AS

Under SAVE IN see if you can direct it to a: your floppy

Under FILE NAME give it the same name as your latest spreadsheet file: e.g., MUSVIDBB. BUT IF YOU MAKE ANY DATA CHANGES AT ALL IN SPSS, GIVE THE FILE A NEW NAME, BECAUSE THE DATA IN IT ARE DIFFERENT FROM THE DATA YOU BROUGHT IN FROM THE SPREADHSEET.

Under FILE TYPE leave it as SPSS

 

REPEAT THE OPERATION SO YOU HAVE IT ON TWO FLOPPIES

 

QUESTION: When should I start saving in SPSS?

 

You can save in spreadsheet format (spd) when you are doing your main data entry. After you have entered all your data, you can start saving in spss.

 

Remember - once you start changing data in spss, those changes will not be reflected in your spreadsheet

GOAL 5
With your SPSS file open,
- click analyse
- click descriptives
- click frequencies
- highlight all your variables with the mouse
- put them into the right hand box (click right facing arrow)
- click on statistics box
- select all
- do it