PSY/BHV 395 Name:
Chapter 2 In-class assignment
Define the following terms:
Menu bar Tool bar Syntax commands Variable label Value label
Give examples for the following terms:
Categorical variables
Ordinal
Nominal
Numerical variables
Discrete (count)
Continuous
Work to do in class:
1. Open the “variable view” spreadsheet of SPSS
2. In the “Name” column, enter “Person”
a. For the “type” of this column, change the default type of numeric to “string”
and “20” character length
3. In the “Label” column, enter “Family Member Name”
4. Go back to “data view” spreadsheet
a. Begin entering data under the variable “Person” that you created, starting with
your own name
5. Go back to “variable view”
a. Define the next variable as “SEX” and label is “Sex of Family Member”
b. Keep the variable a numeric variable with length of 8 characters and 2
decimal places
c. Click on “values” column to enter value labels for SEX variable
i. Enter “1” for “male” and click “Add”
ii. Enter 2” for “female” and click “Add” and then “OK”
d. Click on “scale” column and choose “nominal” for this variable
e. Input the data in the “data view” spreadsheet for this variable
6. Go back to “variable view”
a. Define the next variable “BIRTHDT” and label the variable “Birth Date”
b. Click on “type” column and select “Date”
c. Go to “data view” and enter data for this variable.
7. Go back to “variable view”
a. Define the next variable “EDYRS” and label the variable “Years of
Education”
b. Go to “data view” and enter the data for this variable. For missing information
enter (.) as the value
8. Save your data on your floppy disk as FAMILY.SAV
Open the STATES.SAV data on your computer
Examine the variable names and variable labels by clicking “Utilities” and “File Info”
