Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts

How spss(statistical package for the social sciences) works




You always begin by defining a set of variables, and then you enter data for the variables to create a number of cases. For example, if you are doing an analysis of automobiles, each car in your study would be a case. The variables that define the cases could be things such as the year of manufacture, horsepower, and cubic inches of displacement. Each car in the study is defined as a single case, and each case is defined as a set of values assigned to the collection of variables. Every case has a value for each variable. Variables have types. That is, each variable is defined as containing a specific kind of number. For example, a scale variable is a numeric measurement, such as weight or miles per gallon. A categorical variable contains values that define a category; for example, a variable named gender could be a categorical variable defined to contain only values 1 for female and 2 for male. Things that make sense for one type of variable don’t necessarily make sense for another. For example, it makes sense to calculate the average miles per gallon, but not the average gender.
After your data is entered into SPSS — your cases are all defined by values stored in the variables — you can run an analysis. You have already finished the hard part. Running an analysis on the data is much easier than entering the data. To run an analysis, you select the one you want to run from the menu, select appropriate variables, and click the OK button. SPSS reads through all your cases, performs the analysis, and presents you with the output.
You can instruct SPSS to draw graphs and charts the same way you instruct it to do an analysis. You select the desired graph from the menu, assign variables to it, and click OK. When preparing SPSS to run an analysis or draw a graph, the OK button is unavailable until you have made all the choices necessary to produce output. Not only does SPSS require that you select a sufficient number of variables to produce output, it also requires that you choose the right kinds of variables. If a categorical variable is required for a certain slot, SPSS will not allow you to choose any other kind. Whether the output makes sense is up to you and your data, but SPSS makes certain that the choices you make can be used to produce some kind of result.





Read more

SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences)



SPSS is a comprehensive, interactive, general-purpose package for data analysis and it includes most routine statistical techniques. SPSS is a true Windows package being mouse-driven with movable, scalable windows, drop-down menus and dialog boxes. Underlying the graphical interface is a command language consistent with previous versions of the package. A very important and useful feature is the Data Editor, which can be used to enter, view or edit data. The Data Editor makes your data immediately visible so that you can see what you are dealing with. The package also has high-resolution graphics which are easily edited and an extensive help system.

On the other hand,
SPSS is a computer program used for survey authoring, data mining, text analytics, statistical analysis etc. SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was released in 1968, developed by Norman. SPSS is one of the widely used programs for statistical analysis in social science. SPSS manual is considered as “sociology’s most influential books”.
Some of the statistics function used in the base software is Descriptive Statistics: Cross tabulation, Frequencies, Explore and Ratio Statistics. Bivariate Statistics: Mean, t-test, ANOVA, Correlation. Prediction for numerical outcomes and prediction for identifying groups. Students who are struggling with these concepts can make use of SPSS Homework Help services.
The first version of SPSS was designed for batch processing and mainframes. Now the version 16.0 runs under Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. SPSS was developed IBM corporations. It runs on the JAVA platform.
SPSS is used widely in most of the industrial sectors. It is used by market researchers, health researchers, survey companies, government educational researchers, marketing organizations and others.
SPSS is probably one of the easiest major statistics package to use. It allows even inexperienced users to run complicated statistical analyses at the click of a few buttons. When you are at the PC you are in charge of the package and it will attempt to do whatever you ask it, whether your instructions are sensible or not! The adage of garbage in, garbage out applies! It is therefore essential that you get a good understanding of the commands that you need to use and what the results mean.

Statistics is Science



Definition of statistics by BRITANNICA is-
Statistics is the science of collecting, analyzing, presenting, and interpreting data. Governmental needs for census data as well as information about a variety of economic activities provided much of the early impetus for the field of statistics. Currently the need to turn the large amounts of data available in many applied fields into useful information has stimulated both theoretical and practical developments in statistics.

Statistics is a very complex and challenging field. Most scientists we know have a moderately sophisticated understanding of statistics, many know far more of statistics than we, although some apparently less. However, most large studies consult with statisticians who are experts in statistical analysis.

I believe that statistics can be a science in the same sense as physics. The fact that it is split into two branches, frequency and Bayesian, is unsettling. There is no consensus among statisticians on some fundamental issues. This means that users of statistics must apply their own judgment - they cannot fully rely on results of research performed by statisticians in the same way that they can do it in an idealized science that I described above. Statistics does not generate intellectual material of the same kind as in historical research or art so it should try to evolve in the direction of natural sciences such as physics, in terms of consensus.

Statistical analysis is just another tool of modern science – it is part of the technology of science. And like all things, there is a wide variation in quality and understand across individuals, and what filters down to the public is generally oversimplified to the point of being wrong.

Statistics is a very complex area of science and mathematics and much of the problem is that many scientists themselves don’t understand statistics well enough, because of how they view it. Statistics is sometimes viewed as an obstacle to get to the science, but in reality its part of it.

Some people say that,
The problem is that new software packages have made it easy to apply statistical tests even in situations where understanding them is difficult, or they might not be needed at all. Many people have this notion that. Because it is so easy, many people just tack this sort of thing onto the end of papers.
The thing to keep in mind is that each statistical test looks for different aspects of the data and you have to understand what they do in order to determine if the test is appropriate and if the results will be meaningful.

So we can easily  say statistcs is a science.

Math and Statistics


According to Webster's-Online-Dictionary.org:

Statistics is a branch of applied mathematics which includes the planning, summarizing, and interpreting of uncertain observations. Because the aim of statistics is to produce the "best" information from available data, some authors make statistics a branch of decision theory. As a model of randomness or ignorance, probability theory plays a critical role in the development of statistical theory.

According to Wikipedia:

Mathematics is the academic discipline, and its supporting body of knowledge, that involves the study of such concepts as quantity, structure, space and change. The mathematician Benjamin Peirce called it "the science that draws necessary conclusions". Other practitioners of mathematics maintain that mathematics is the science of pattern, and that mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere. Mathematicians explore such concepts, aiming to formulate new conjectures and establish their truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions.

Through the use of abstraction and logical reasoning, mathematics evolved from counting, calculation, measurement, and the systematic study of the shapes and motions of physical objects. Knowledge and use of basic mathematics have always been an inherent and integral part of individual and group life.


According to Webster's-Online-Dictionary.org:

Mathematics is commonly defined as the study of patterns of structure, change, and space. In the modern formalist view, it is the investigation of axiomatically defined abstract structures using logic and mathematical notation. It is a science (or group of related sciences) dealing with the logic of quantity and shape and arrangement

Science of Mathematics and Science of Statistics


Math and Statistics





Mathematics
Statistics
Mathematics is an academic subject
statistics is a part of applied mathematics
Mathematics deals with numbers, patterns
statistics is concerned with systematic representation and analysis of data


Mathematical concepts are freely used in statistics
Mathematics form the basis of our understanding of quantity and measurement
statistics makes understanding of data easy
 mathematics is mother language of science
Both mathematics and statistics find wide usage in different fields