Why Screen Data?
Stem and Leaf Display
Like a grouped frequency distribution without loss of information
Why does data go missing?
Missing Data
If missing data are not randomly distributed, there can be systematic problems
What do you do with missing data?
How do we find missing data?
2. Analyze -> Descriptive Statistics -> Explore
Replacing Missing Data
2. Have the option to replace with series mean, mean (and median) of nearby points, and other imputations
Causes For Outliers
Why are outliers problematic?
How do we identify outliers in SPSS?
What should you do with outliers?
2. Some outliers are of interest (e.g., they can call attention to a poorly worded question)
Are data normal?
Examine both univariate (individual variables) and multivariate (combination of variables) normality
Ways to assess normality
Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic
Tests the null hypothesis that the population is normally distributed
-Significance of this test indicates non-normal data
Normal distribution
A symmetrical, bell-shaped distribution having half the scores above the mean and half the scores below the mean
Variability
The extent to which scores spread out around the mean
Range
A measure of variability that is computed by subtracting the smallest score from the largest score
Variance
A single number that represents the total amount of variation in a distribution
Standard Deviation
The standard deviation is the square root of the variance. It has important relations to the normal curve.
Skewed Distribution
Most of the scores are clustered on one end of the continuum
Kurtosis
Measure of the degree of peakedness of a distribution
Leptokurtosis
Distribution is too peaked with thin tall (higher than zero statistic)
Platykurtosis
Distribution is too flat with many cases in the tail(s) (lower than zero statistic)
Multimodal shapes
Scores tend to congregate around more than one point