% frequencies may look big, but they depend on the number of participants, so always look at the normal frequency to compare.

Analyze -> Descriptive Stats -> Frequencies

• move variables into box on right
• click “Statistics” to choose only the descriptives and percentiles you want along with the frequencies
• click “Charts” to choose histograms (continuous variables) or bar charts (categorical variables)
• you can split the file beforehand to look at (e.g.) gender separately

To get box-plots you have to use Analyze -> Descriptive Stats -> Explore

• put variables in the “Dependent List”
• put variable you want to split file by in “Factor List”
• click “Plots” to choose histogram too, and tick “Both” at bottom

Box-plots

• use mainly to compare the max and min values of groups
• longer horizontal line = more variation in scores (range is bigger)
•  = positive skew =
•  = negative skew = 
• can compare medians:

Descriptive stats

• distribution (skew, kurtosis)
• central tendency (mean, median mode)
• dispersion (SD, variance, range)

Analyze -> Descriptive Stats -> Descriptives

• move variables into box on right
• click “Options” and choose the descriptives that you want
• click “OK”
• you can split the file beforehand to look at (eg) gender separately

Skew

• may affect analyses because we assume normality
• positive number = 
• negative number = 
• 0 = normal distribution

Kurtosis

• no impact on results
• positive number = leptokurtic  (scores clustered tight)
• negative number = platycurtic  (scores not clustered)
• 0 = mesokurtic (normal distribution)