SPSS, part 2: Descriptive stats

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 = skew_pos
  • negative number = skew_neg
  • 0 = normal distribution

Kurtosis

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