SAGE Publishing Interpreting Quantitative Data with SPSS.pdf

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Interpreting Quantitative Data
with SPSS
Rachad Antonius
SAGE Publications
London • Thousand Oaks • New Delhi
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© Rachad Antonius 2003
First published 2003
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or
private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication
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those terms should be sent to the publishers.
SAGE Publications Ltd
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library
ISBN 0 7619 7398 2
ISBN 0 7619 7399 0 (pbk)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2002 102 782
Typeset by C&M Digital (P) Ltd., Chennai, India
Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
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CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
FOREWORD TO THE STUDENT xi
FOREWORD TO THE INSTRUCTOR xvii
1 THE BASIC LANGUAGE OF STATISTICS 1
Introduction: Social Sciences and Quantitative Methods 1
Data Files 2
The Discipline of Statistics 6
Populations, Samples, and Units 7
Descriptive Statistics 9
Inferential Statistics 9
Variables and Measurement 10
Importance of the Level of Measurement 16
Concepts, Dimensions, and Indicators 17
Summary 18
Keywords 19
Suggestions for Further Reading 19
Exercises 20
2 THE RESEARCH PROCESS 22
Main Steps in Soci