Computing Multi-Item Scales in SPSS (SPSS Tutorial Video #3b): Big 5 Personality Inventory
Summary
TLDRIn this 'Data Demystified' tutorial, Jeff Gallick guides viewers on using SPSS to compute and tabulate multi-item scales from survey data. He demonstrates how to calculate average scores for the Big Five personality traits—openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism—taking into account reverse-coded items. The step-by-step syntax editor process is explained, showing how to create new variables for each trait, emphasizing the importance of correctly interpreting reverse-coded questions to ensure accurate personality assessments.
Takeaways
- 📚 The video is a tutorial on using SPSS for data analysis, specifically focusing on how to compute and tabulate multi-item scales.
- 🔍 The presenter, Jeff, uses the 'YouTube Viewing Habits Survey' as a practical example throughout the tutorial.
- 📝 Multi-item scales represent a single construct through multiple questions, often found in psychology and other disciplines.
- 🔢 The 'Big Five Personality Inventory' is highlighted, which includes 15 items across five sub-constructs: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
- ⚠️ Some items in the survey are reverse-coded, meaning the interpretation of responses is the opposite of what is typical.
- 🛠 The tutorial demonstrates using the SPSS syntax editor to create new variables for each of the Big Five dimensions.
- 📊 To calculate scale values, the video explains averaging responses from related questions, with special attention to reverse-coded items.
- 🔄 The process involves summing up responses and dividing by the number of items, adjusting for reverse-coded items by subtracting their value from the scale's maximum.
- 📑 The syntax provided in the video includes commands to compute each of the Big Five dimensions with the correct handling of reverse-coded variables.
- 💻 The video concludes with the execution of the syntax, resulting in the creation of new variables representing the average values of the personality scales.
- 🔑 The presenter encourages viewers to engage with the content by liking, subscribing, and turning on notifications for future videos.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the 'Data Demystified' tutorial series presented by Jeff Gallick?
-The main topic of the 'Data Demystified' tutorial series is to teach viewers how to use SPSS for working with data, with a focus on specific techniques such as computing and tabulating multi-item scales.
What is the purpose of the 'Compute' tool in SPSS as demonstrated in the video?
-The 'Compute' tool in SPSS is used to create new variables based on existing ones, such as calculating average scores for multi-item scales, taking into account reverse-coded items.
What is the 'Big Five Personality Inventory' mentioned in the script?
-The 'Big Five Personality Inventory' is a 15-item scale that measures five key dimensions of personality: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
How does reverse coding affect the interpretation of survey items in the 'Big Five Personality Inventory'?
-Reverse coding means that the interpretation of the survey items is the opposite of what is typically expected. A higher score on a reverse-coded item indicates a lower level of the corresponding personality trait.
What is the method used in the video to handle reverse-coded items when calculating scale values?
-To handle reverse-coded items, the video demonstrates subtracting the response from the maximum possible score on the scale (8 in this case), which effectively flips the values.
How are the new variables for the personality dimensions calculated in the video?
-The new variables are calculated by summing the relevant items and dividing by the number of items (usually 3), with reverse-coded items being adjusted by subtracting their score from the scale maximum before averaging.
What is the significance of the 'Syntax Editor' in creating new variables in SPSS as shown in the video?
-The 'Syntax Editor' in SPSS allows users to write and execute commands to create new variables and perform complex data manipulations in a systematic and efficient manner.
What does Jeff Gallick suggest for viewers who want to learn more about the intuition behind data analysis?
-Jeff Gallick suggests that viewers who want to learn more about the intuition behind data analysis should check out the other videos on his channel that focus on demystifying statistics and data science.
How can viewers access the data file and video tutorial mentioned in the script?
-Viewers can find a link to the data file and a video tutorial in the description of the video, as mentioned in the script.
What is the final step before running the syntax to create new variables in SPSS as described in the video?
-The final step before running the syntax is to include an 'execute' command, which tells SPSS to run the commands and create the new variables.
Outlines
📊 Introduction to Multi-Item Scales in SPSS
In this video, Jeff Gallick introduces a tutorial on using SPSS to work with data, specifically focusing on the compute tool for tabulating multi-item scales. He explains the context using a YouTube viewing habits survey and details the process of handling multi-item scales, which represent single constructs. Jeff uses the Big Five Personality Inventory, a 15-item scale with five sub-constructs: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. He emphasizes the importance of reverse-coded items and demonstrates how to handle them in SPSS.
🖥️ Creating New Variables in SPSS
Jeff demonstrates how to use the SPSS syntax editor to create new variables for each of the Big Five dimensions. He walks through the process of computing these scales, including handling reverse-coded items by using a formula that inverts the scale. Jeff explains each step in detail, including summing the items, dividing by the number of items to get an average, and ensuring correct syntax. The variables computed include openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
📈 Finalizing and Running SPSS Syntax
Jeff finalizes the syntax by adding an execute command and runs it to create five new variables. He verifies the new average values in SPSS and explains how these computed variables can be used for further analysis. Jeff concludes the video by encouraging viewers to ask questions in the comments, promoting his mission to make data analysis accessible, and suggesting additional intuition-focused videos on his channel. He also reminds viewers to like, subscribe, and hit the bell icon for notifications.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Data Demystified
💡SPSS
💡Multi-Item Scales
💡Big Five Personality Inventory
💡Reverse Coded
💡Syntax Editor
💡Compute
💡Variable Names
💡Intuition Behind Analysis
💡Data Rich World
💡Subscription and Engagement
Highlights
Introduction to the tutorial series on using SPSS for data analysis by Jeff Gallick.
Demonstration of using the Compute tool to tabulate multi-item scales in SPSS.
Utilization of the YouTube Viewing Habits Survey as the dataset for the tutorial.
Explanation of multi-item scales representing a single construct in psychology and other disciplines.
Introduction of the Big Five Personality Inventory as an example of a multi-item scale.
Clarification of reverse-coded items and their impact on scale interpretation.
Guidance on creating new syntax files in SPSS for data computation.
Description of the process to compute scale values for the Big Five dimensions.
Method for averaging items to create new variables representing each dimension.
Technique for handling reverse-coded items in the computation of scale values.
Detailed syntax construction for computing each of the Big Five dimensions.
Finalization of syntax with an execute command to run the computations.
Result of creating new variables representing the average values of the scales.
Invitation for viewers to ask questions and engage with the content.
Emphasis on building intuition behind analysis in addition to learning mechanics.
Promotion of other videos focusing on the intuition behind statistical analysis.
Encouragement for viewers to like, subscribe, and enable notifications for the channel.
Transcripts
welcome to data demystified i'm jeff
gallick and this is my series of
tutorial videos on how to use spss to
work with data
in this video i'm going to show you how
to use the compute tool to tabulate
multi-item scales
as always we'll be using the youtube
viewing habits survey that i created
and you can find both a link to the data
file and a video tutorial of the data
below
often in psychology and in other
disciplines we have multiple questions
that represent a single construct
sometimes this is called a multi-item
scale and in our survey here
and in the youtube viewing survey i
actually asked people
a 15 item scale which comprises five sub
constructs known as the big
five personality inventory i'll put a
link below to where you can pull these
questions directly but basically this
captures five dimensions called openness
conscientiousness extroversion
agreeableness and neuroticism
and you see all of those items right
here what's critical is that some of
these items are actually reverse coded
it's noted with this
r over here in the variable name as well
as the r in parentheses in the label
what that means is whereas typically if
i click on what these options are
one represents strongly disagree and
seven represents strongly agree
typically a high response on this
meaning a larger number would be a
higher level of let's say openness or
conscientiousness
a reverse coded item means that the
interpretation is backwards
the higher you respond on that scale the
less you are that type of a person
so when we compute our scale values we
actually have to take that into account
so to quickly walk you through this the
way we're going to do this we're
actually going to use the syntax
editor so to do that i'm going to create
a new syntax file if i don't have one
open ready so under file
new syntax that will open up this window
here
and i know the names of my variables
which are right here and i also know in
the descriptions if i just pop back over
here which ones are associated with
which dimensions so the ones that have
an
n are for neuronicism e is for
extroversion o is for openness
a is for agreeableness and c is for
conscientiousness
and so i can construct these new
variables if i go back to my syntax
editor the syntax is actually very
straightforward it's just compute
and i'm going to create a new variable
we're going to call this openness
and openness is going to be equal to
questions seven eight and nine so what i
can do is just take an average of those
and the easiest way i know how to do
that actually is with three items just
to sum them up and divide by three and
the items are going to be big five
underscore seven
plus big five underscore
eight plus big five underscore
nine those are the names of my variables
and i'll take all that and divide by
three and critically i have to end that
with a period
so that'll create a new variable called
openness but i want to do these all at
the same time so i'm going to have
another row which is going to be compute
conscientiousness
and that's going to be equal to
questions 13 14 and 15 though it's
important to note that question 14 is
reverse coded so we'll see how we deal
with that in a second
so first big 5 underscore 13
plus variable 14 but again that's
reverse coded so to reverse code that we
simply take 8
minus big 5 underscore 14 underscore r
that's the name of the variable
now the reason that works is this is a
seven item scale and to reverse a seven
item scale meaning to invert
the inference of any of the items what
we do is we take the value one above
that scale and subtract the response
from that
because we'll see that if let's say
somebody says a seven eight minus seven
gets you to one
somebody says a4 well eight minus four
is four so it stays in place
so any value gets flipped over we still
need to then add to this
composite the last item which is big
five underscore
15 and of course i had to then divide
that all by three so divided by
three that's all set and we can move on
to extroversion so compute
extroversion and that's going to be
equal to items four five and six
so big five underscore four oops i gotta
add that parenthetical back here
plus big five big
five underscore five plus item six
reverse coded again which is just eight
minus big five underscore
six underscore r and then we close the
parentheticals for both of those and
divide by three again so that's the
computation for extroversion
let's do agreeableness next so compute
agreeableness
and that's going to be equal to items 10
11 and 12.
so we do 8 minus big
5 underscore 10 underscore r because
that is actually a reverse coded value
plus big five underscore 11
plus big five underscore 12 and again
divide that by three and finally let's
compute neuroticism so that'll be
compute
neuroticism equals
items one two and three so big five
underscore one plus big
five underscore two plus
8 minus big 5
underscore 3 underscore r and all that
divided by 3.
and before we run it we actually have to
terminate all this with an execute
command so execute
and now we're all set to go so if i take
all of these and i hit run
i will now create five new variables all
down here
and if we click into one of them we see
that these are now the newly created
average values for our scale so now when
we want to
actually compute something we can use
these values here
that's it for this video i hope you
found this useful and if you have any
questions
please comment below and i'll be sure to
reply as quickly as i can
aside from these tutorials i'm on a
mission to equip everyone with the
information they need to thrive in our
data rich world
if you'd like to learn not just the
mechanics of analysis which these video
tutorials focus on
but also learn the intuition behind the
analysis you're performing
i strongly suggest you check out the
other intuition-focused videos
on this channel where i take the jargon
out of statistics and data science
and help you build a deep intuitive
understanding behind
all the analysis that you're performing
i'll put a link below to a playlist of
the videos that focus on just this
finally please take a moment to like the
video subscribe to this channel
and click that little bell icon so you
don't miss out on any new content that i
put out
thanks for watching
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