Preface

To the Student

The SPSS® Companion Manual introduces a new statistical technology, SPSS, to the Workshop Statistics series. SPSS enables you to perform intense numerical calculations in a fraction of the time it would take you to do so with a standard calculator. Originally designed for use in the social sciences (the abbreviation SPSS stands for Statistical Program for the Social Sciences), SPSS is frequently used in both academia and business environments.

Much of SPSS’s popularity within academia and various industries can be attributed to its capacity for managing data sets, a functionality that represents the bulk of the work done by professional statisticians. In addition, SPSS allows you to create, with great ease, beautiful graphics and tabular outputs. However, despite these significant conveniences, it is important to remember that no statistical software will relieve you of the need to think critically about the results any software package produces.

Supplement Workshop Statistics by Harnessing the Power of SPSS

You will note that the whole of the Workshop Statistics parent text is not reproduced in this manual. The SPSS Companion Manual really begins with the second Workshop Statistics topic; Topic 2 introduces you to SPSS, allowing you to familiarize yourself with the software’s capabilities while using small data sets. The remaining topics included in this manual contain only those in-class and homework activities for which SPSS can be used to perform data analysis.

In many cases SPSS cannot be utilized to complete the entirety of a Workshop Statistics activity; often only parts of activities require the inclusion of SPSS directions. In those cases, just those parts of the activities that profit from the incorporation of SPSS have been included. Thus, you will need to refer both to the parent text and the SPSS Companion Manual to complete in-class and homework activities. You will also need to mark your answers to the activities reproduced in this manual in the parent text. Except for Topic 2, this manual includes no space for you to respond to questions already posed in Workshop Statistics. In those few instances where the SPSS Companion Manual incorporates questions new to the parent text, space has been provided for you to include your response.

Finally, as you work through the manual it will benefit you to review earlier topics. Many of the SPSS functions described early on will be used in a variety of situations throughout the book. Consider noting key functions so that you may easily use them later in the course.

Additional Student Resources

Data files and scripts for the activities included in this manual can be found at the online Workshop Statistics Resource Center at www.keycollege.com/ws. You will also find answers to the in-class activities and a series of Java applets designed to deepen your understanding of statistical concepts at the online Resource Center.

This manual has been developed to familiarize you with an increasingly important statistical technology. It is my sincere hope that it will demonstrate the value of SPSS as an ally in the statistical analysis of data while simultaneously deepening your understanding of statistics.

William C. Rinaman
Le Moyne College
Syracuse, New York

To the Instructor

In the preface to the second edition of Workshop Statistics, Allan J. Rossman and Beth L. Chance stress the importance of using technology as a tool for analyzing data and exploring statistical concepts. The graphing calculator, Minitab®, and Fathom Dynamic Statistics™ versions of Workshop Statistics attest to the integral role statistical technology plays in the discovery-driven Workshop approach.

The Workshop Statistics SPSS® Companion Manual furthers the Workshop series’ commitment to the integration of statistical technologies, adapting activities featured in the parent text for use with the SPSS software package. As in the Workshop Statistics texts that integrate the graphing calculator and statistical technologies, students are not expected to have previous experience with the technology (SPSS). The SPSS Companion Manual begins in earnest with Topic 2 of Workshop Statistics, which introduces students to the SPSS software package, familiarizing them with the software’s capabilities as a tool for analyzing data. (Topic 1 does not contain any activities adaptable for use with SPSS.)

Topics in the SPSS Companion Manual correspond directly to those contained in Workshop Statistics, but the Companion Manual reproduces only the second topic from the parent text in its entirety. The remaining topics include only those in-class and homework activities adaptable for use with SPSS. Students will therefore need to refer to the parent text as well as the Companion Manual in order to complete all required work.

Data files and scripts for the activities included in this manual can be found online at the Workshop Statistics Resource Center at www.keycollege.com/ws. In addition to the data files and scripts, a password-protected portion of the Resource Center provides instructors with solutions for the activities featured in the manual, as well an addendum to the Workshop Statistics Instructor Resources, complete with suggestions for using the SPSS Companion Manual with your students.

Consistent with Workshop Philosophy?

The inclusion of instructions for completing in-class and homework activities with SPSS may strike some as inconsistent with the discovery-based approach that distinguishes Workshop Statistics. Mindful of such possible criticism, I’ve been careful to revise activities in such a way that they integrate SPSS-specific directions but do not inhibit student discovery.

As in the other technology-specific versions of Workshop Statistics, activities have been adapted to include instructions for using the technology (SPSS) without proscribing a standard approach for completing those activities. Moreover, as students work through topics and their familiarity with SPSS grows, the overall amount of instruction decreases. The SPSS Companion Manual, then, does not so much inhibit as facilitate student discovery, providing students with an opportunity for using a well-respected statistical technology to further their understanding of statistical concepts.

I hope you find this Companion Manual a useful tool for introducing your students to the SPSS software package as well as an indispensable resource for augmenting their understanding of statistical concepts.