[Quantitative Methods Teaching] Teaching with British Social Attitudes - on-line

[John F Hall]

I have been working on new learning materials using data from the 2011 British Social Attitudes survey (UK Data Service catalogue entry: http://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/Catalogue/?sn=7237&type=Data%20catalogue )

 

The SPSS file as downloaded was not ready for immediate use for secondary analysis or for teaching (unless as an example which needs quite a lot of work to make it usable).   Even though I have made intensive use of SPSS since 1972 on a wide range of surveys, large and small, it took me several days to identify and specify correct measurement levels and to modify and/or extend missing values, variable and value labels before I had a file which met my exacting (some would say pedantic) needs.

 

My extended critique (with screenshots) and detailed commentary on the SPSS file as distributed is now available on:

http://surveyresearch.weebly.com/uploads/2/9/9/8/2998485/comments_on_the_distributed_spss_file_for_british_social_attitudes_2011.pdf

To some extent, my comments and suggestions can also be applied to other SPSS files distributed by UKDS (e.g. European Social Survey, Understanding Society)

 

My draft notes on Understanding Society are on:

http://surveyresearch.weebly.com/uploads/2/9/9/8/2998485/notes_on_bhps_and_understanding_society.pdf

Colleagues and/or first time users may find both sets of comments helpful when preparing (questionnaire-survey-based) SPSS files and associated documentation for use in research and teaching.

 

John F Hall (Mr)

[Retired academic survey researcher]

 

Email:   [hidden email]  

Website: www.surveyresearch.weebly.com

SPSS start page:  www.surveyresearch.weebly.com/spss-without-tears.html

  

  

 

 

 

 

[Martyn Chamberlain]

Thank you so much John , this is brilliant stuff and is very much appreciated.

Best wishes

Marty

Sent from my iPhone

On 8 Oct 2013, at 10:35, "John F Hall" <[hidden email]> wrote:

I have been working on new learning materials using data from the 2011 British Social Attitudes survey (UK Data Service catalogue entry: http://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/Catalogue/?sn=7237&type=Data%20catalogue )

 

The SPSS file as downloaded was not ready for immediate use for secondary analysis or for teaching (unless as an example which needs quite a lot of work to make it usable).   Even though I have made intensive use of SPSS since 1972 on a wide range of surveys, large and small, it took me several days to identify and specify correct measurement levels and to modify and/or extend missing values, variable and value labels before I had a file which met my exacting (some would say pedantic) needs.

 

My extended critique (with screenshots) and detailed commentary on the SPSS file as distributed is now available on:

http://surveyresearch.weebly.com/uploads/2/9/9/8/2998485/comments_on_the_distributed_spss_file_for_british_social_attitudes_2011.pdf

To some extent, my comments and suggestions can also be applied to other SPSS files distributed by UKDS (e.g. European Social Survey, Understanding Society)

 

My draft notes on Understanding Society are on:

http://surveyresearch.weebly.com/uploads/2/9/9/8/2998485/notes_on_bhps_and_understanding_society.pdf

Colleagues and/or first time users may find both sets of comments helpful when preparing (questionnaire-survey-based) SPSS files and associated documentation for use in research and teaching.

 

John F Hall (Mr)

[Retired academic survey researcher]

 

Email:   [hidden email]  

Website: www.surveyresearch.weebly.com

SPSS start page:  www.surveyresearch.weebly.com/spss-without-tears.html