PLS 209                                                                                 Name___________________________
Research Methods
Homework7
Data Set Creation Using SPSS 

GET THE DATA

The data set will consist of the 50 US states and most, if not all, of the data will be from the Statistical Abstract of the United States. You will have at least five variables in you data set: State, Youth, Crime1, and two additional variables of your choice. 

• Go to the main page of the Statistical Abstract  Statistical Abstract
• Click on State and Metropolitan Area Data Book (should be right under Other Resources) State and Metropolitan Area Data Book: 2006
• Click on Online publication     http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/smadb.htm
• Select  Tables A. States 3 (The link is only on the page number 3) http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/smadb/smadb-06tablea.pdf

You should see Table A-1 States --- Area and Population

Copy the list of states in the first column of the table into (1) the first column of an EXCEL spreadsheet ,or (2) the first column in the SPSS data editor (Note--sometimes you cannot paste directly into the SPSS data editor).  Hold down the alt-key and highlight the column of names with your mouse.  You can copy and paste or you should be given the option of opening the information in an EXCEL spreadsheet.  It is your choice how you do this

Move to Page 6 Table A-4 States Population by Age Group and Sex
 (This is page 6 in the PDF file, it is page 8 in the original document)

Use the same procedure as above to copy the percent of the population under 18 years for 2004 (7th column from left)  to your data file (EXCEL or SPSS).  Be careful to begin with the value for Alabama --- not the US as a whole.

Move to Page 31 Table A-25 States Crimes and Crime Rates
(This is page 31 in the pdf file, but page 33 in the original document)

Use the same procedure as above to copy the Total Property Crime Rate (Make sure it is the crime rate --- offenses per 100,000)

Now follow the same procedures any select any TWO other variables in the state stables that you think might be related to one another (e.g., A85 percent voting in the presidential election and A35 median family income)

Place these two variables in the 4th and 5th columns of the spreadsheet or SPSS data entry

You should now have 5 columns and 51 rows of information in your EXCEL file.  Insert a new first row for variable labels which can be no longer than 8 characters.  Label the columns State, Youth, Crime1, "your choice", and "your choice".

Save your EXCEL file.  You will start SPSS and then it read the EXCEL file.

SPSS COMPUTER INSTRUCTIONS 

   Step 1 Open the EXCEL file with SPSS

• Start SPSS
• Select the location of the EXCEL file created above
• Tell SPSS to look for EXCEL files
• Open the file
• During the process of opening the file indicate that variable names are in the first row.

    Step 2 Create a 2nd Crime Variable by Recoding Crime1 into a new variable named Crime2

• Select in sequence Transform, Recode, Into Different Variables
• Highlight Crime1 in the left window and click the right arrow
• In the Output Variable Name:  enter Crime2 in the box and click on Change
• Click on Old and New Values
• On the left side under Old Value click Range  (If Range is not available make sure the variable is defined as numeric)
• Enter 0 in the first range window and 2000 in the second range window
• On the right side under New Value make sure Value is checked and enter 1 in the new value box and press Add
• Repeat setting 2000 to 3000 equal to 2, 3000 to 4000 equal to 3, 4000 to 5000 equal to 4, and 5000 to 6000 equal to 5.
• Click Continue and then OK  to finish the transformation.  The new variable should appear in the data editor.

 Step 3 Generate Scatterplots

• From the menu bar on the top of the screen select in sequence Graphs, Legacy, Scatterdot  
• Select Simple Scatter  from the Scatter/dot menu
• Click Define
• Put Youth on the X axis and Crime1 on the Y axis (highlight the variable name and then click on the appropriate arrow)
• Click OK
• Generate a second scatterplot using the two variables you have included in the data set.
• Print the resulting scatterplots

  Step 4 Generate Frequencies for Crime2

• Select in sequence  Analyze, Descriptive Statistics, Frequencies
• Select Crime2 and click Ok to generate basic frequencies
• Print the frequency table

 Submissions  

Email the saved states50.sav file to aspin at bradley.edu
In class hand in the two scatterplots and frequencies printouts

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