Over 250 respondents reported working 40 hours, with the next highest frequency being under 100. Number of Siblings

The histogram for the number of siblings shows a negatively skewed data set, with more participants reporting fewer siblings. However, the range in this variable was quite high, ranging from 0 to 22 siblings. The mean response was 3.71 siblings, the median response was 3 siblings and the mode of the sample was 2, indicating that the most frequent response was 2 siblings. In this case the mode would likely be a good representation of this sample, as it represents the majority. The mean could also be used as a way of representing the number of participants who did have more than 2 participants, but outliers, such as the individuals reporting more than 15 siblings, heavily influence the mean. After the scale reaches approximately 10 siblings, very few individuals endorse responses higher, and thus this sample does have quite a few outliers that are influencing the mean to be higher than the other measures of central tendency.

Syntax:

GET

FILE='gss.sav'.

DATASET NAME DataSet1 WINDOW=FRONT.

DATASET ACTIVATE...

Deviation
3.074

14.631

2.981

Variance

9.450

8.887

Range

20

87

22

Minimum

0

2

0

Maximum

20

89

22

Histograms:

References

Norusis, M.J. (2008). Guide to Data Analysis. SPSS Statistics 17.0.