Descriptive Statistics

How to calculate mean, median, mode, skewness, standard deviation, variance, and standard error

Step 1: Use the menus to select the proper analysis.  Click on "Analyze", “Descriptive Statistics”, “Frequencies"

Step 2: Select the variables you would like to analyze

Step 3: select the descriptive statistics to be calculated, then click “Continue” and “OK”

The descriptive statistics will appear in the output

Common descriptive statistics like means and standard deviations are often presented in tables

Frequency Distributions

Count the number of times each value occurs for a single variable.

Step 1: Use the menus to select the proper analysis.  Click on "Analyze", “Descriptive Statistics”, “Frequencies"

Step 2: Select variables.  Using the arrow move the variables of interest to the right-hand column, then click "OK"

The frequency distribution will appear in the output.   Valid percentages exclude missing data.

Crosstabs

Count the number of times each value occurs two or more variables at the same time. 

Step 1: Use the menus to select the proper analysis.  Click on "Analyze", “Descriptive Statistics”, “Crosstabs"

Step 2:  Select the variables that will be included.  Use the arrows to maneuver your variables from the left window to the right window.   At least one variable must be in Row(s) and at least one variable must be in Column(s).  Click on the “OK” button to generate the Crosstab.

The output will include the number of valid cases and missing data, as well as the frequency of occurrence for every row / column cell