Data File Management and Descriptive Statistics with SPSS – Problem 5.4: Compute Parents’ Revised Education With the Mean Function

We have decided to combine father’s and mother’s education scores because, as we will find out later, they are highly correlated. Thus, for some purposes, it is better to treat them as one variable. We also want to demonstrate the use of the Mean function, which is a type of Compute function that we used to create the pleasure scale. Note that, in this problem, we will use the original father’s and mother’s education variables (not the revised ones). This provides us with a variable that has more range.

Compute parents’ education using the Mean function, which is an alternative to using the compute

  • Click on Transform  Compute to get Fig 5.11.
  • Click on Reset.
  • In the Target Variable box, type
  • Click on Type & Label to get Fig. 5.10 again. Label the new variable parents’ education.
  • Click on Continue.
  • In the Function Group: box, scroll down, and highlight
  • In the Functions and Special Variables box, highlight
  • Click the up arrow to move it into the Numeric Expression Box.
  • Enter faed and maed in the brackets. Either type them or click them over. Note the comma between the variables.
  • Click on

Also, you should label, at least, the highest and lowest Values.

  • Go to the Variable View (in the bottom left-hand corner) of your hsbdata file.

In the parents ’ education variable row, click on None under the Values column, and then ] ‘

Type 2 and less than h.s. grad; click Add.

Type 10 and Ph.D./M.D.; click Add.

Click on OK. (Note you can get values of 2.5 and 3.5, etc., so leave the decimals at 2.)

Source: Morgan George A, Leech Nancy L., Gloeckner Gene W., Barrett Karen C.

(2012), IBM SPSS for Introductory Statistics: Use and Interpretation, Routledge; 5th edition; download Datasets and Materials.

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