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Adventures in Social Research
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Adventures in Social Research
Data Analysis Using IBM SPSS Statistics

Tenth Edition
May 2018 | 512 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
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Proud sponsor of the 2019 SAGE Keith Roberts Teaching Innovations Award—enabling graduate students and early career faculty to attend the annual ASA pre-conference teaching and learning workshop.

Recipient of the 2018 Cornerstone Author Award!

Inspire students to pursue their own adventures in social research with this practical, hands-on introduction to data conceptualization, measurement, and association through active learning.

Adventures in Social Research: Data Analysis Using IBM® SPSS® Statistics offers a practical, hands-on introduction to the logic of social science research for students in many disciplines. The fully revised Tenth Edition offers step-by-step instruction on data analysis using the latest version (24.0) of SPSS and current data from the General Social Survey. Organized to parallel most introductory research methods texts, this text starts with an introduction to computerized data analysis and the social research process, then takes readers step-by-step through univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analysis using SPSS Statistics. The range of topics, from beginning to advanced, make Adventures in Social Research appropriate for both undergraduate and graduate courses.

For students who are using SPSS for the first time, the free online study site includes video tutorials on basic procedures and operations and includes all SPSS data sets necessary for completing the exercises in the book.

Available with Perusall—an eBook that makes it easier to prepare for class
Perusall is an award-winning eBook platform featuring social annotation tools that allow students and instructors to collaboratively mark up and discuss their SAGE textbook. Backed by research and supported by technological innovations developed at Harvard University, this process of learning through collaborative annotation keeps your students engaged and makes teaching easier and more effective. Learn more. 

 

 
Preface
 
About the Authors
 
PART I. PREPARING FOR DATA ANALYSIS
 
Chapter 1. Introduction: The Theory and Practice of Social Research
Overview

 
Why Use a Database?

 
SPSS Statistics

 
Social Research: A Primer

 
Concepts and Theories: Deprivation Theory

 
Variables and Hypotheses: Religiosity

 
Social Research Strategies: Inductive and Deductive

 
Theory and Research in Practice

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 2. The Logic of Measurement
Validity Problems

 
Reliability Problems

 
Distinguishing Between Validity and Reliability

 
Multiple Indicators

 
Levels of Measurement

 
Measurement and Information

 
Measurement Options

 
Classifying Variables as Discrete or Continuous

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 3. Description of Data Sets: The General Social Survey
Sampling

 
Data Collection

 
The Codebook: Appendix A

 
Conclusion

 
 
PART II. UNIVARIATE ANALYSIS
 
Chapter 4. Using SPSS Statistics: Some Basics
Demonstration 4.1: Starting an SPSS Statistics Session

 
Demonstration 4.2: Exploring the Data View Portion of the Data Editor

 
Demonstration 4.3: Entering Data—a Preview

 
Demonstration 4.4: Loading a Data Set

 
Demonstration 4.5: Raw Data in Data View

 
Finding Variable Information: Values and Labels

 
Demonstration 4.6: Variable View Tab

 
Demonstration 4.7: Ending Your SPSS Statistics Session

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 5. Describing Your Data: Religiosity
Demonstration 5.1: Opening Frequently Used Data Files

 
Demonstration 5.2: Setting Options—Variable Lists and Output Labels

 
Demonstration 5.3: Frequency Distributions

 
Demonstration 5.4: Frequency Distributions—Running Two or More Variables at One Time

 
Descriptive Statistics: Basic Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion

 
Demonstration 5.5: The Frequencies Procedure

 
Demonstration 5.6: The Descriptives Procedure—Calculating Descriptive Statistics for Continuous Variables

 
Demonstration 5.7: Printing Your Output (Viewer)

 
Demonstration 5.8: Adding Headers/Footers and Titles/Text

 
Demonstration 5.9: Saving Your Output (Viewer)

 
Demonstration 5.10: Saving Changes to Your Data Set

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 6. Presenting Your Data in Graphic Form: Political Orientations
Graphing Data With Direct “Legacy” Dialogs

 
Demonstration 6.1: Frequency Table—POLVIEWS

 
Demonstration 6.2: SPSS Statistics Chart Editor

 
Demonstration 6.3: Frequency Table—PARTYID

 
Demonstration 6.4: Political Attitudes

 
Demonstration 6.5: Histogram—AGE

 
Demonstration 6.6: Line Chart—INCOME

 
Saving and Printing Your Charts

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 7. Recoding Your Data: Religiosity and Political Orientations
Demonstration 7.1: Modifying Variables With Recode—ATTEND ? CHATT

 
Demonstration 7.2: Recoding AGE ? AGECAT

 
Demonstration 7.3: Recoding POLVIEWS ? POLREC

 
Demonstration 7.4: Recoding PARTYID ? PARTY

 
Demonstration 7.5: Saving Changes to Your Data Set

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 8. Creating Composite Measures: Exploring Attitudes Toward Abortion in More Depth
Demonstration 8.1: Identifying the Seven Abortion Variables—File Info

 
Demonstration 8.2: Running Frequencies for Several Variables at Once

 
Index: A Form of Composite Measure

 
Demonstration 8.3: ABORT Index

 
Demonstration 8.4: Defining ABORT

 
Demonstration 8.5: Checking New Index—Comparing Scores on Old and New Variables

 
Demonstration 8.6: Running Frequencies for ABORT

 
Demonstration 8.7: ABINDEX

 
Demonstration 8.8: Running Frequencies

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 9. Suggestions for Further Analysis
Desired Family Size

 
Demonstration 9.1: Respondents’ Ideal Family Size (CHLDIDEL)

 
Child-Rearing

 
Demonstration 9.2: Important Qualities for Children

 
Attitudes About Sexual Behavior

 
Demonstration 9.3: Index of Sexual Permissiveness

 
Prejudice

 
Conclusion

 
 
PART III. BIVARIATE ANALYSIS
 
Chapter 10. Examining the Sources of Religiosity
The Deprivation Theory of Religiosity

 
Testing Our Hypothesis: Correlating Religiosity and Gender

 
Demonstration 10.1: Running Crosstabs to Test Our Hypothesis

 
Demonstration 10.2: Interpreting a Crosstab With Limited Categories

 
Demonstration 10.3: Correlating Another Measure of Religiosity and Gender

 
Drawing Conclusions Carefully: Reassessing Our Original Hypothesis

 
Demonstration 10.4: Interpreting a Crosstab With Ordinal Variables—Religiosity and Age

 
Demonstration 10.5: Correlating Other Measures of Religiosity and Age

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 11. Political Orientations as Cause and Effect
The Relationship Between POLVIEWS and PARTYID

 
Demonstration 11.1: POLREC by PARTY

 
Demonstration 11.2: PARTY by POLREC

 
Demonstration 11.3: POLREC by AGECAT

 
Demonstration 11.4: PARTY by AGECAT

 
Demonstration 11.5: POLREC by RELIG

 
Demonstration 11.6: PARTY by RELIG

 
Demonstration 11.7: PARTY and POLREC by SEX

 
Demonstration 11.8: POLREC by RACE

 
Demonstration 11.9: PARTY by RACE

 
Demonstration 11.10: Recoding EDUC ? EDCAT

 
Demonstration 11.11: POLREC by EDCAT

 
Demonstration 11.12: PARTY by EDCAT

 
Some Surprises: Class, Marital Status, and Politics

 
The Impact of Party and Political Philosophy

 
Saving Recoded Variable: EDCAT

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 12. What Causes Different Attitudes Toward Abortion?
Demonstration 12.1: Gender and Abortion

 
Demonstration 12.2: Age and Abortion

 
Demonstration 12.3: Religion and Abortion

 
Demonstration 12.4: Politics and Abortion

 
Demonstration 12.5: Sexual Attitudes and Abortion

 
Other Factors You Can Explore on Your Own

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 13. Measures of Association for Nominal and Ordinal Variables
The Logic of Statistical Association: Proportionate Reduction of Error

 
Lambda (?): A Measure Appropriate for Nominal Variables

 
Demonstration 13.1: Instructing SPSS Statistics to Calculate Lambda (?)

 
Interpreting Lambda and Other Measures

 
Gamma (?): A Measure Appropriate for Ordinal Variables

 
Demonstration 13.2: Instructing SPSS Statistics to Calculate Gamma (?)—Example 1

 
Demonstration 13.3: Running Gamma (?)—Example 2 (Reverse Scoring Case)

 
Additional Measures of Association

 
Analyzing the Association Between Variables at Different Levels of Measurement

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 14. Correlation and Regression Analysis
Pearson’s r: A Measure Appropriate for Interval/Ratio Variables

 
Interpreting Pearson’s r and the Coefficient of Determination (r2)

 
Instructing SPSS Statistics to Calculate Pearson’s r

 
Demonstration 14.1: Recoding RINCOM16 ? RECINC

 
Demonstration 14.2: Using SPSS Statistics to Compute Pearson’s r

 
Demonstration 14.3: Requesting Several Correlation Coefficients

 
Regression Analysis

 
Demonstration 14.4: Regression

 
Demonstration 14.5: Presenting Data Graphically—Producing a Scatterplot With a Regression Line

 
Measures of Association for Interval and Ratio Variables

 
Analyzing the Association Between Variables at Different Levels of Measurement

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 15. Tests of Significance
Statistical Significance

 
Significance Tests: Part of the Larger Body of Inferential Statistics

 
Statistical Significance Versus Measures of Association

 
Chi-Square (c2)

 
Demonstration 15.1: Instructing SPSS Statistics to Calculate Chi-Square

 
Significance and Association

 
Demonstration 15.2: Instructing SPSS Statistics to Run Independent-Samples t Test

 
Demonstration 15.3: t Test—EDUC by SEX

 
Analysis of Variance

 
Demonstration 15.4: Instructing SPSS Statistics to Run ANOVA

 
A Statistical Toolbox: A Summary

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 16. Suggestions for Further Bivariate Analyses
Demonstration 16.1: Desired Family Size

 
Child-Rearing

 
Attitudes About Sexual Behavior

 
Demonstration 16.2: Investigating Sexual Permissiveness Further

 
Additional Resources

 
Conclusion

 
 
PART IV. MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS
 
Chapter 17. Multiple Causation: Examining Religiosity in Greater Depth
Multiple Causation

 
Demonstration 17.1: The Impact of Age and Sex on Religiosity

 
Demonstration 17.2: Family Status and Religiosity

 
Demonstration 17.3: Family Status and Religiosity, Controlling for Age

 
Demonstration 17.4: Social Class and Religiosity

 
Other Variables to Explore

 
Chi-Square and Measures of Association

 
Multiple Regression

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 18. Dissecting the Political Factor
Political Philosophy and Party Identification

 
Demonstration 18.1: Controlling for Education

 
Demonstration 18.2: The Mystery of Politics and Marital Status

 
Political Issues

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 19. A Powerful Prediction of Attitudes Toward Abortion
Religion and Abortion

 
Demonstration 19.1: Religious Affiliation and Church Attendance

 
Demonstration 19.2: Religious Affiliation, Church Attendance, and Abortion

 
Politics (POLREC, PARTY) and Abortion (ABORT)

 
Demonstration 19.3: The Interaction of Religion and Politics on Abortion Attitudes

 
Demonstration 19.4: Constructing an Index of Ideological Traditionalism

 
Sexual Attitudes and Abortion

 
Demonstration 19.5: Recode PREMARSX and HOMOSEX

 
Demonstration 19.6: The Relationship Between Sexual Permissiveness and IND

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 20. Suggestions for Further Multivariate Analyses
Ideal Family Size and Abortion

 
Child-Rearing

 
The Protestant Ethic

 
Capital Punishment, Gender, and Race

 
Demonstration 20.1: CAPPUN by SEX

 
Demonstration 20.2: CAPPUN by SEX, Controlling for RACE

 
Conclusion

 
 
PART V. THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES
 
Chapter 21. Designing and Executing Your Own Survey
The Social Research Process and Proposal

 
Designing and Executing Your Own Survey

 
Getting Ready for Data Analysis Using SPSS Statistics

 
Step 1: Define Your Data

 
Demonstration 21.1: Example 1—Defining ID

 
Demonstration 21.2: Example 2—Defining CHLDIDEL

 
Demonstration 21.3: Copying a Variable

 
Demonstration 21.4: Saving Your New File

 
Step 2: Edit and Code Your Data

 
Demonstration 21.5: Accessing File Information for Coding and Editing

 
Step 3: Enter Your Raw Data

 
Demonstration 21.6: Moving Through Data View

 
Demonstration 21.7: Entering Data

 
Demonstration 21.8: Revising or Deleting Data

 
Demonstration 21.9: Saving Your Data File

 
Writing a Research Report

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 22 Further Opportunities for Social Research
The Unabridged GSS

 
Other Data Sets

 
Other Computer Programs

 
Conclusion

 
 
Appendix A: The Codebook
 
Appendix B: Questionnaire for Class Survey
 
Index/Glossary

Supplements

Student Study Site

An open-access student study site includes all GSS data sets used in the text, and screen-cast videos created by Billy Wagner to walk students through basics of SPSS.

This book is based on sound pedagogic principles and clearly derives from current live classes: you can practically hear the authors in the text. Unlike some other textbooks, it is not just a “How to” book, but also a “Why?” book, with occasional side comments revealing the sort of wry and mischievous sense of humour which appeals to students

John F Hall
Journeys in Survey Research

Earl Robert Babbie

Earl Babbie was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1938, but his family chose to return to Vermont 3 months later, and he grew up there and in New Hampshire. In 1956, he set off for Harvard Yard, where he spent the next 4 years learning more than he initially planned. After 3 years with the US Marine Corps, mostly in Asia, he began graduate studies at the University of California—Berkeley. He received his PhD from Berkeley in 1969. He taught sociology at the University of Hawaii from 1968 through 1979, took time off from teaching and research to write full-time for 8 years, and then joined the faculty at Chapman... More About Author

William E. Wagner III

William E. Wagner, III, PhD, is Professor of Sociology at California State University-Channel Islands where he teaches courses in statistics and research methods. He has published research on topics such as urban sociology, sports, homophobia, and academic status. He is co-author of Adventures in Social Research, 10E (SAGE, 2018), The Practice of Survey Research (SAGE, 2016), and ?A Guide to R for Social and Behavioral Sciences ?(SAGE, 2020) and author of Using IBM® SPSS® Statistics for Research Methods and Social Science Statistics (2019). More About Author

Jeanne S. Zaino

Jeanne Zaino, Associate Professor of Political Science, Iona College, earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in survey research at the University of Connecticut—Storrs. During that time, she worked as a research assistant at the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. She went on to earn a master’s degree and PhD in political science from the University of Massachusetts—Amherst. She is currently chair of the Political Science Department at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, where she teaches courses in American government, institutions, research methods, social statistics,... More About Author

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