Using SPSS to Understand Research and Data Analysis.

• 5.1b Structure of the EZDATA file

After you have downloaded the file, open it in the SPSS Data Editor. When you have opened the file in SPSS, it should look like the one shown in Figure 5.1.

As discussed in Chapter 2.3b, the data in the file are organized with all of our variables in the columns, and individual employee participants (cases) listed in rows. The scores each employee received on each of the variables are entered in the cells along each row.

For example, employee number 1 was assigned a score of 1 for the gender variable (to indicate he is a man); he received scores of 1 on the masc variable and 2 on the fem variable. Scroll to the right and you will see his scores on the other variables in the data file.

As you continue scrolling to the right, you may notice that the listing of the variables in the columns looks different from the listing explained in Chapter 4. You may have also noted that there are some new variables in the file that weren't discussed in Chapter 4. The reason for this is that we have already done some of the housekeeping referred to in the title of the present chapter.

That is, we have completed transformations on the original variables to create the new variables in the file, and have added variable labels for the major variables, as well as value labels for some of them. We did this so that we could provide the file in its complete form for download. This way we can be sure you will be working with exactly the same ezdata.sav file that we will be using in the remainder of this book. Also, this should reduce any anxiety you might have about losing or somehow ruining your ezdata file - you can come back to this page anytime and re-download the file.

In this chapter we will explain the procedures for making these changes to the file. Some of them are tedious and error-prone, which is why we have already done them. In the remaining chapters of this book, we do suggest that you actually follow along examples and perform data analysis procedures on the ezdata.sav file that we describe.

But in the current chapter, instead of asking you to perform the file modification procedures yourself on the ezdata.sav file, we will suggest that you practice these procedures on the simpler example1.sav file you created in Chapter 2. That way you will still learn the procedures without having to perform them all on the ezdata.sav file.