SPSS: Variables, Values, and Labels

This recognition and recall practice is based on the GSS.SAV file on the disk that came with your Dowsall, Logio, Babbie and Halley (DLBH) SPSS text. You should have your DLBH text and disk with you. Please note that you cannot do this practice on a computer that does not have the SPSS program.

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Instructions:

Upload SPSS, put in your disk that accompanied your book, and upload the file, GSS.SAV. In the main menubar of SPSS click on Utilities. On the dropdown menu select Variables . . .

If the long variable names are in the Utilities dialog box you may change them to short names by following the instructions on p. 84 of DLBH.

In the left-most frame of the dialog box, click on educ. The variable information will appear in the right-most frame.

1. Question: What is the variable name?

   jeanne's response:

   The variable name is educ

2. Question: What is the variable label?

   jeanne's response:

   The variable label is Highest Year of School Completed

3. Question: What possible values can the variable take on?

   jeanne's response:

   The variable educ can take on the actual number of years completed. This means that the variable is interval

4. Question: What are the value labels?

   jeanne's response:

   The only value label is DK = Don't Know. That is the label for 98. 98 is also called the missing value. That means that you record a 98 if the person does not give a legible, codable answer.

   Whenever the respondent does not clearly mark a response, we record the missing value. That's what the furor in Florida was all about during the Presidential elections, 2000. What shall we record for a hanging chad? And who gets to make such decisions? And shall we throw away the missing data? or shall we try to determine the respondent's intent? Now, there's a conundrum for you.

5. Question: Why do we need to go to all the trouble of giving labels to our variables and values?

   jeanne's response:

   Because the variable names and the value names are often too long to include in our working tables. What we do instead is use short variable names, like educ, and numbers to indicate the values. In this case we used 98 for Don't Know. Why do you suppose we used 98 instead of the more traditional 9? Because we were going to analyze up to 20 years of education. 20 needs two spaces. Whenever you are going to have more than 10 value options (0 through 9) you allow two spaces. That's why lots of our Dear Habermas files have numbers like 01, 02, etc., so when we get to 10 the numbers are still in order.

   Also, if you're going to have more than 100 units, you should leave three spaces for your code. (0 through 99) Then when you move to 100, you have adequate space.

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