Exploratory Data Analysis

Constructing Scales to Assess Parents Relationships With Their Parents

Introduction : This exercise is designed to illustrate both exploratory data analysis (EDA) and the construction of scales from a set of survey items. The scales are designed to examine "Mother’s Feelings About Her Own Mother" (Items MOF1 to MOF14) and "Father’s Feelings About His Own Father" (Items FAF1 to FAF14). The SPSS Variable Labels provide the exact wording of the scale items. SPSS Value Labels indicate that the valid values range from 1 to 5, with six (6) meaning, "don’t know." I will illustrate the process with the MOF scale. You will duplicate that process with the FAF scale.

Exploratory data analysis can be extremely complex; however, there are four main purposes of "Pre-Analysis Data Screening." These are, assessing the accuracy of the data, dealing with missing data, assessing the effects of outliers, and assessing the adequacy of the fit between data characteristics and the assumptions of a statistical procedure. In that context, we will also construct a scale and assess the reliability of that scale.

Step 1: Examine the items for accuracy.

Step 2 – Reverse score any items that are negatively worded.

Step 3 – Evaluate the items in terms of their overall contribution to the scale. Use the SPSS RELIABILITY command to do this.

Step 4 – Compute the MOF scale score using the SPSS COMPUTE procedure and run its frequency distribution with the statistics shown below.

Step 5 – Examine the new scale for outliers and normality using the EXPLORE procedure.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT : Complete all the analyses that I modeled above; however, use the FAF items # 1 - #14 instead of the items I used. After computing the FAF scale, run the SPSS Explore procedure to reproduce the output that I show above for the MOF scale. Produce a write-up that describes your procedures, your rationale for excluding any of the 14 items from your scale and the results of your analysis of the distribution and characteristics of the scale. Write this as a clear narrative, with an introduction that describes clearly what you are doing and why you are doing it. Use topic sentences that describe each section of the analysis, what you did and your conclusions based on the statistical analyses.

You DO NOT need to use APA format. Cut and paste SPSS printout into a Word document. Always put your last name in the file name, with the assignment number.

Price: $20.08

Solution: The downloadable solution consists of 14 pages, 608 words and 17 charts.
Deliverable: Word Document