Data Analysis with SPSS

>Stephen Sweet is an assistant professor of sociology at Ithaca College and was formerly the associate director of the Cornell Work and Family Careers Institute. His books include Changing Contours of Work (2008), The Work and Family Handbook: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Methods and Approaches (2005), Teaching Work and Family: Strategies, Activities, and Syllabi (2006), College and Society: An Introduction to the Sociological Imagination (2001), and Data Analysis with SPSS: A First Course in Applied Statistics (2008, 2003, 1998).             His studies on work, family, community, and inequality appeared in a variety of publications, including Generations, Research in the Sociology of Work, Sex Roles, Family Relations, New Directions in Life Course Research, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Marriage and the Family, Innovative Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, andCommunity, Work, and Family, Popular Music and Society, International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters.  His articles on teaching and curriculum development have been published in Teaching Sociology, Critical Pedagogy in the Classroom, and Excellent Teaching in the Excellent University.             In addition to his research and teaching responsibilities, Stephen Sweet currently serves as the Teaching Resources Specialist for the Sloan Work and Family Research Network, co-edits the Work-Family Encyclopedia, and manages the Sloan Early Career Scholars Program.   

Brief Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Key Concepts in Social Science Research  
Chapter 2: Getting Started: Accessing, Examining, and Saving Data 
Chapter 3: Univariate Analysis: Descriptive Statistics
Chapter 4: Constructing Variables 
Chapter 5: Assessing Association through Bivariate Analysis  
Chapter 6: Comparing Groups through Bivariate Analysis  
Chapter 7: Multivariate Analysis with Linear Regression   
Chapter 8  Multivariate Analysis with Logistic Regression
Chapter 9: Writing a Research Report  
Chapter 10: Research Projects   

Comprehensive Table of Contents:
    *Each chapter begins with “Overview,” and concludes with “Summary,” “Key Terms", and “Exercises.”


 

Chapter1: Key Concepts in Social Science Research    

            Why Do We Need Statistics    

            Framing Topics Into Research Questions    

            Theory and Hypothesis     

            Population and Samples

            Relationships and Causality         

            Data

                       

Chapter 2: Getting Started: Accessing, Examining,and Saving Data        

            Initial Settings    

            The Layout of SPSS

            Types of Variables    

            Defining and Saving a New Data Set    

            Managing Data Sets: Dropping and Adding Variables    

            Merging and Importing Files    

            Loading and Examining an Existing File    

           

Chapter 3: Univariate Analysis: Descriptive Statistics    

            Why Do Researchers Perform Univariate Analysis?    

            Exploring Distributions of Scale Variables    

            Exploring Distributions of Categorical Variables    

            

Chapter 4: Constructing Variables    

            Why Construct New Variables?    

            Recoding Existing Variables    

            Computing New Variables    

            Recording Computations Using Syntax    

 

Chapter 5: Assessing Association through Bivariate Analysis       

            Why Do We Need Significance Tests?    

            Cross Tabulations    

            Bar Charts    

            Correlations 

            Scatter Plots 

   
Chapter 6: Comparing Groups through Bivariate Analysis      

            One-Way Analysis of Variance    

            Post-hoc Tests    

            Assumptions of ANOVA      

            Graphing the Results of ANOVA

            T tests    

                       

Chapter 7: Multivariate Analysis with Linear Regression    

            The Advantages of Multivariate Analysis    

            Linear Regression: A Bivariate Example    

            Multiple Linear Regression    

            Other Concerns In Applying Linear Regression    

            Assumptions of Regression

            Dummy Variables    

            Outliers    

            Causality    

 

Chapter 8: Multivariate Analysis with Logistic Regression        

            What Is Logistic Regression?    

            When Can I Do a Logistic Regression?    

            Understanding the Relationships through Probabilities    

            Logistic Regression: A Bivariate Example    

            Multivariate Logistic Regression: An Example    

            Interpreting Logistic Regression Output    

            Using Multivariate Logistic Regression Coefficients to Make Predictions

            Using Multivariate Coefficients to Graph a Logistic Regression Line    

 

Chapter 9: Writing a Research Report    

            Overview    

            Writing Style and Audience    

            The Structure of a Report    

            References and Further Reading    

           

Chapter 10: Research Projects    

            Potential Research Projects    

            Research Project 1: Racism    

            Research Project 2: Suicide    

            Research Project 3: Criminality    

            Research Project 4: Welfare     

            Research Project 5: Sexual Behavior     

            Research Project 6: Education    

            Research Project 7: Health

            Research Project 8: Happiness

            Research Project 9: Your Topic     

           

Appendix 1:  STATES.SAV Descriptives    


 

Appendix 2:  GSS98.SAV File Information     



 

Appendix 3:  Variable Label Abbreviations


   


Permissions

    


Index