Computing Multi-Item Scales in SPSS (SPSS Tutorial Video #3b): Big 5 Personality Inventory

Summary

In 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

00:00

📊 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.

05:00

🖥️ 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.

Keywords

💡Data Demystified

Data Demystified refers to the series of tutorial videos presented by Jeff Gallick, aimed at demystifying the process of working with data using statistical software like SPSS. It is the overarching theme of the video series, emphasizing the goal to make data analysis more accessible and understandable. The script mentions 'Data Demystified' as the title of the series, indicating the educational nature of the content.

💡SPSS

SPSS, which stands for Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, is a software used for statistical analysis in various disciplines. In the video, SPSS is the tool that the presenter, Jeff Gallick, uses to demonstrate how to work with data, specifically for tabulating multi-item scales.

💡Multi-Item Scales

Multi-Item Scales are a set of multiple questions or items that are used to measure a single construct or concept. In the video, the script discusses how to use the SPSS compute tool to handle these scales, particularly focusing on the 'Big Five Personality Inventory', which is a set of 15 items representing five sub-constructs.

💡Big Five Personality Inventory

The Big Five Personality Inventory is a widely used psychological assessment tool that measures five key dimensions of personality: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The video script provides an example of using SPSS to compute average values for these dimensions based on survey responses.

💡Reverse Coded

Reverse coded items are questions in a survey where the interpretation of the responses is the opposite of what is typically expected. In the context of the video, some items in the Big Five Personality Inventory are reverse coded, meaning a higher response score indicates a lower level of the corresponding personality trait. The script explains how to account for this when computing scale values in SPSS.

💡Syntax Editor

The Syntax Editor in SPSS is a tool that allows users to write and execute commands in the form of syntax, a type of programming language for statistical analysis. In the video, Jeff Gallick uses the Syntax Editor to demonstrate how to compute new variables for the multi-item scales.

💡Compute

In SPSS, the 'Compute' command is used to create new variables based on existing ones through mathematical operations or transformations. The video script describes the process of using the 'Compute' command to calculate average scores for the Big Five personality dimensions.

💡Variable Names

Variable names in SPSS represent the data fields or columns in a dataset. In the script, Jeff Gallick refers to specific variable names, such as 'big five underscore seven', to demonstrate how to reference these in the Syntax Editor for the computation of new variables.

💡Intuition Behind Analysis

The video script mentions the importance of not only learning the mechanics of analysis but also understanding the intuition behind the analysis being performed. This refers to gaining a deep, conceptual understanding of statistical methods and their application in data analysis, which is a key focus of the 'Data Demystified' series.

💡Data Rich World

The term 'data rich world' refers to the modern environment where vast amounts of data are available for analysis. In the video, Jeff Gallick expresses his mission to equip everyone with the necessary information to thrive in such an environment, emphasizing the importance of data literacy.

💡Subscription and Engagement

The video script encourages viewers to like, subscribe, and click the bell icon to stay updated with new content. This is a common practice among content creators to increase viewer engagement and ensure that subscribers are notified of new videos, which is crucial for the growth and success of a channel.

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