Exam 5: Creating New Variables

When all the values on a variable have been converted into z-scores, the mean

You want to do a separate analysis for each region but only include persons born before 1950 in the analysis. What should you do?

A variable has a mean of 25 and a standard deviation of 5. Calculate the Z-scores for the first two cases and the raw scores for the last two cases.  

Write out a Select If condition that would limit the analysis to cases older than 59. (Variable: AGE) _____________________________________

Why are z-scores useful?

To collapse a variable with nine categories into a variable with just three categories while not losing any valid cases, you would use which SPSS procedure?

A data set contains information on 100 married couples. One of the variables is the husband's age; another is the wife's age. To create a new variable which is the difference between the husband's age and the wife's age, you would use which SPSS procedure?

You want to Compute a new variable that adds 5 to the average of TEST1, TEST2, and TEST3. The new variable should be computed only if valid scores exist for all three tests. Write out the numeric expression that would accomplish this. _____________________________________

You want to do a separate analysis for each of the following three groups and only for these three groups: persons with just 8 years of schooling, persons with just 12 years of schooling, and persons with just 16 years of schooling. What should you do?

The variable college grade point average was recorded for a sample of graduating college students. An analyst calculates the mean and standard deviation for the variable and transforms each person's score into a z-score. The first case has a z-score of 3. What does this z-score tell us about the first person's GPA?

When would you use Recode and when would you use Compute?

Write out a Select If condition that would limit the analysis to persons under the age of 30 who have been fired from their jobs 3 or more times. (Variables: AGE, TIMESFIRED) _____________________________________

Cronbach's alpha is a way to assess the _____ of an index. For an index to be considered "acceptable" for research purposes in the social sciences, alpha values should be _____.

A variable has valid codes of 1, 2, 3, and 4. You recode it so that cases with 1s are coded as 4s, 2s are coded as 3s, 3s are coded as 2s, and 4s are coded as 1s. What have you accomplished?

Which of the following Compute numeric expressions takes the value of CARS, adds 3 to it, then multiplies the sum by 2, and then takes that product and adds 5 to it?

To combine categories of a variable so that you end up with a variable with fewer categories, you would use which SPSS procedure?

Which of the following is correct about the order of arithmetic operations used by SPSS?

Why would an analyst want to know the value of Cronbach's alpha?

You want to Compute a new variable that is the number of years older the firstborn child is than the lastborn child. Write out the numeric expression that would accomplish this. (Variables: FIRSTBORN, LASTBORN) _____________________________________

You are creating an index based on four variables in your data set: VAR1, VAR2, VAR3, and VAR4. One of the cases in your data set has valid values for only VAR1 and VAR2. It has missing data for VAR3 and VAR4. For each of the following compute commands, indicate if SPSS would report a valid value or a missing value for this case on the index. A) __________ index = SUM(VAR1,VAR2,VAR3,VAR4) B) __________ index = SUM.4(VAR1,VAR2,VAR3,VAR4)