User Guide: SPSS Variable Coding Assistant

Welcome to the SPSS Variable Coding Assistant. This tool prepares your raw questionnaire for Chapter 3 data entry by building a structured Data Dictionary.

1. Data View vs. Variable View in SPSS

Before you type numbers into SPSS, you must set up the rules. SPSS has two main tabs at the bottom of the screen:

Variable View: The "blueprint." This is where you define variable names, labels, and how text answers (like "Male" or "Agree") are coded into numbers.
Data View: The "spreadsheet." This is where you actually type in the numerical data collected from your participants.

2. Rules for SPSS Variable Names

In the Variable Name column, SPSS is extremely strict. Names must:

Have NO spaces (use `Age_Group`, not `Age Group`).
Start with a letter.
Not end with a period or underscore.
Not use reserved keywords like ALL, AND, or BY.

3. Understanding Measure Levels

SPSS requires you to define what type of data you are collecting:

Nominal: Categories with no inherent order (e.g., Gender, Major, Region).
Ordinal: Categories with a logical order, but unequal spacing (e.g., Education Level: High School, Bachelor's, Master's).
Scale: Continuous data with equal intervals. In social sciences and applied linguistics, composite Likert scales and test scores are treated as Scale.

4. Why Reverse Coding Matters

If you have a construct measuring "Motivation," and one item states "I hate studying English," agreeing with this means low motivation. If your standard scale is 1=Strongly Disagree to 5=Strongly Agree, you must mathematically flip the scores (1 becomes 5, 2 becomes 4, etc.) in SPSS using Transform > Recode into Different Variables before you run Cronbach's Alpha or calculate the mean.