Over the next few posts I am going to talk about the basics
of quantitative data cleaning and analysis. Let's start by thinking about how
data gets into your SPSS program- there are several options. The first option
is to use Survey Monkey or other surveying software sites. They allow you to
directly download your data into an SPSS file. You will need to double check
that everything is as you expect, but in general the data do tend to be
accurate.
The second option is the old-fashioned way of entering the
data by hand. This is commonly used when you have used paper surveys/
instruments. The concern for this method is it is easy to mistype and introduce
errors into your data set. It is a good idea to have someone check your work
when and entering data. I also recommend doing some descriptive stats- looking
at the range of the scores for each variable to make sure they are as expected
(e.g., if you are expecting scores ranging between 1-5 a 55 tells you have
entered a wrong number).
Next time we will look at cleaning your data. Do you have an issue or a question that you
would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer?
Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu
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