The best way to understand a dataset is to calculate descriptive statistics for the variables within the dataset. There are three common forms of descriptive statistics:
| 1. Summary statistics |
Numbers that summarize a variable using a single number. Examples include the Measures of Location: Mean, Median, Mode, Spreadness: Variance, Standard Deviation, and Range Nature of Spreadness: Skewness, Kurtosis, Quartiles, DEcile, Percentiles |
| 2. Tables | Tables can help us understand how data is distributed. One example is a frequency table, which tells us how many data values fall within certain ranges. |
| 3. Graphs | These help us visualize data. An example would be a histogram. |
This tutorial explains how to calculate descriptive statistics for variables in SPSS.
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Statlearner
Statlearner