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3.5.2 Teenage Attitudes (Tutorials)
Page last updated 13 October 2011
As of 24 August 2011 the following tutorials have now been converted to pdf format for quicker display The screenshots are from SPSS 15 as updating them for 19 would be prohibitively time-consuming, but the syntax will work with any version from 11 onwards. The links will open the tutorials, but I had a few problems with reciprocal links I have now hopefully sorted out.
Preliminary notes
3.5.2.1 COUNT and COMPUTE - Preliminary notes
The data to be used are from a survey of fifth-formers (aged 15 and 16) in a North London comprehensive school (11-18 mixed). This is background information on the survey. The following exercises create derived variables
containing scores on two simple attitude scales, one to measure teenagers'
attachment to the status quo, the other to measure negative attitudes to women.
As of 24 August 2011 the following tutorials have now been converted to pdf format for quicker display The screenshots are from SPSS 15 as updating them for 19 would be prohibitively time-consuming, but the syntax will work with any version from 11 onwards. The links will open the tutorials, but I had a few problems with reciprocal links I have now hopefully sorted out.
Preliminary notes
3.5.2.1 COUNT and COMPUTE - Preliminary notes
The data to be used are from a survey of fifth-formers (aged 15 and 16) in a North London comprehensive school (11-18 mixed). This is background information on the survey. The following exercises create derived variables
containing scores on two simple attitude scales, one to measure teenagers'
attachment to the status quo, the other to measure negative attitudes to women.
Attachment to status quo
3.5.2.2 Data checks 1 - Status quo
Goes through preliminary data checks needed on questionnaire items to be used to create an index of teenagers' attachment to status quo.
3.5.2.3 The COUNT command 1 - Attachment to status quo
Uses SPSS command COUNT to create a new variable by counting the number of times a value or set of values occurs in a given set of variables. For example, in the fifth form survey, four items are replicated from a scale developed by Himmelweit to measure "attachment to status quo" among teenagers. This tutorial constructs a crude index of this attitude by counting the number of "Tend to agree" or "Strongly agree" responses to these items.
3.5.2.4 The COMPUTE command 1 - Attachment to status quo
Four items from a scale developed by Himmelweit to measure "attachment to status quo" among teenagers are replicated. SPSS command COMPUTE creates a much more accurate and useful score by combining all the responses for each item, so that disagreement can be taken into account as well as agreement, and also the level of agreement or disagreement.
Goes through preliminary data checks needed on questionnaire items to be used to create an index of teenagers' attachment to status quo.
3.5.2.3 The COUNT command 1 - Attachment to status quo
Uses SPSS command COUNT to create a new variable by counting the number of times a value or set of values occurs in a given set of variables. For example, in the fifth form survey, four items are replicated from a scale developed by Himmelweit to measure "attachment to status quo" among teenagers. This tutorial constructs a crude index of this attitude by counting the number of "Tend to agree" or "Strongly agree" responses to these items.
3.5.2.4 The COMPUTE command 1 - Attachment to status quo
Four items from a scale developed by Himmelweit to measure "attachment to status quo" among teenagers are replicated. SPSS command COMPUTE creates a much more accurate and useful score by combining all the responses for each item, so that disagreement can be taken into account as well as agreement, and also the level of agreement or disagreement.
Sexism (negative attitudes to women)
3.5.2.5 Data checks 2 - Sexism
Goes through preliminary data checks needed on questionnaire items to be used to create an index of sexism. In the fifth form survey, one question consists of 14 statements measuring opinions about women, some negative, some positive, with which pupils can agree or disagree on a 4-point scale. Nine of these items, five of which are
negative and four positive, will be used to construct an index of "Sexism" (negative attitudes to women).
3.5.2.6 The COUNT command 2 - Sexism
In the fifth form survey, it is possible to construct an index of "Sexism" (negative attitudes to women) from nine items, five of which are negative and four positive. To be a sexist a pupil must agree with the negative items and disagree with the positive items. SPSS command COUNT is used to construct an index which counts the number of agreements with the negative items together with the number of disagreements with the positive items. Using drop-down menus for this is problematic, but is nevertheless demonstrated in full.
3.5.2.7 The COMPUTE command 2 - Sexism
In the fifth form survey, SPSS command COMPUTE creates a much superior measure of "Sexism". COMPUTE is better because it uses all the responses for each item, so that disagreement can be taken into account as well as agreement, and also the level of agreement or disagreement. However, using COMPUTE to generate a measure of
"Sexism" presents an additional problem. Four of the nine items are actually coded the opposite way round to the other five. If added together they simply cancel each other out. For a high score to indicate high sexism, scores on the four positive items first need to be reversed (at least temporarily) before adding the items together.
