Assignment 1: Working with Data in SPSS

(PSY206) Data Management and Analysis

Author

Md. Rasel Biswas

Instructions

You are provided with the dataset: class_data.xlsx (Click to download)
Download the data and complete the tasks using SPSS. Submit both the data (.sav) and the output (.spv) files in the designated classroom thread.

Data Overview

The dataset represents information collected from 50 undergraduate students of a university during a classroom survey on learning environments and attention levels. The purpose of the survey was to understand whether different demographic, psychological, and environmental factors influence students’ concentration in class.

The survey includes:

  • Basic demographic information such as age, gender, and department
  • Physical measurements (height and weight) for calculating BMI
  • Class attentiveness, indicating whether the student remains attentive during lectures
  • Whether mobile phone usage causes class disruption
  • Socioeconomic background of students, self-reported on a three‐category scale

All identifying information has been removed and responses are coded numerically for data analysis.

Data Head

student_id age gender dept class_attentive mobile_disrupt height_cm weight_kg socio_econ
1 19 1 5 1 3 170.3 64.5 2
2 20 2 4 0 1 152.6 46.5 1
3 22 2 5 1 1 172.8 74.4 1
4 19 2 5 1 2 148.3 47.4 3
5 19 1 3 0 3 155.8 47.4 2
6 20 1 5 1 1 171.3 61.7 1

Variable Coding Instructions

Variable Codes & Value Labels
gender 1 = Male, 2 = Female
dept 1 = Statistics, 2 = Nutrition, 3 = Physics, 4 = Psychology, 5 = Mathematics
class_attentive 1 = Yes, 0 = No
mobile_disrupt 1 = Yes, 2 = No, 3 = Sometimes
socio_econ 1 = Low, 2 = Middle, 3 = High

Question 1 — Data Import and Setup

  1. Import the file class_data.xlsx into SPSS
  2. In Variable View, properly define the following:
    • Variable labels
    • Value labels for categorical variables
    • Measurement scale (Nominal, Ordinal, Scale)
    • Other properties (if applicable)
  3. Save the file as class_data.sav

Question 2 — Data Exploration

Generate the following outputs in SPSS:

  1. Frequency tables for:
    • gender
    • class_attentive
    • mobile_disrupt
  2. A bar chart showing the distribution of class attentiveness
  3. Descriptive statistics (Mean, SD, Minimum, Maximum) for:
    • age
    • height (cm)
    • weight (kg)

Question 3 — Data Management

Perform the following data transformations:

  1. Compute BMI:

    \[BMI = \frac{weight\_kg} {(height\_cm/100)^2 }\]

  2. Create a new variable BMI_Status (Categorical):

    • Underweight: BMI < 18.5
    • Normal: 18.5 \(\le\) BMI \(\le\) 25
    • Overweight: BMI \(\ge\) 25

    Run a frequency table for the newly created BMI Status variable

  3. Recode mobile_disrupt to binary variable:

    • Not Disruptive = No
    • Disruptive = Yes / Sometimes

    Create a bar chart showing the distribution of the recoded Mobile Disruption variable (Disruptive vs Not Disruptive).

  4. Sort the dataset by height in descending order and then by BMI in descending order.

  5. Split file by gender and run attentiveness frequency separately