Using SPSS to Understand Research and Data Analysis.

8.2 Running Correlations

There are numerous bivariate relaltionships that could be explored using the correlation procedure. For this example we will examine relationships between masctot and femtot and two other variables, task1and soc1. In the exercise at the end of the chapter you will be asked to run correlations between masctot and femtot and two other variables, naff and ndom. Before we run the analyses, take a moment to think about what kinds of relationships we might expect to obtain here.

For example, given social stereotypes, we might expect a significant postive correlation between degree of masculinity and degree of task skills (i.e., greater masculinity might be related to higher degree of task skills). For the same reasons we might expect a significant positive correlation between degree of femininity and social skills. However, we might find that masculinity is either unrelated or negatively correlated with social skills, and that femininity might be unrelated or negatively correlated with task skills. Actually, the procedure we will use will generate all possible intercorrelations among the included variables.

To run the correlations, open ezdata.sav and select Analyze, Correlate, Bivariate... from the Data Editor window (Figure 8.1)

In the Bivariate Correlations dialog window (Figure 8.2), select Social Skills 1(soc1), Task Skills1(task1), masctot and femtot from the variables in the left pane, then click the right-arrow key to move these four variables to the Variables: pane on the right. Note that you will have to scroll down the left pane to locate these variables.

Note that by default Pearson is checked for the desired correlation, Two-tailed is selected for the test of significance, and the Flag significant correlations option is checked. Leave these settings as they are. Then click the OK button in the upper right corner. The requested correlations will appear in an Output Viewer window.

To view a video of this procedure, click Play below.