Analyzing Descriptive Data using Excel © Schachman.

Analyzing Descriptive Data

using Excel

© Schachman

Descriptives: Central Tendancy

• Mean• Median • Mode• Range

I have 10 subjects. My demographic data includes age, gender, marital status, and educational level.

I have administered a 5-item Self Esteem Questionnaire to determine their level of self-esteem

I begin by entering the data for my first subject, using my codebook for guidance in assigning numerical values.

Age: ___in years

Gender: 1 = Male, 2 = Female

Marital Status: 1 = single, 2 = married, 3 = divorced, 4 = widowed

Education: 1 = some HS, 2 = graduated HS, 3 = some college, 4 = graduated college

SE Questionnaire (5 questions, SE 1 to SE5.

Now, data from all 10 subjects have been entered. Time for data analysis!!!

Before we begin crunching numbers, you will need to make sure that your computer is properly configured. Go to the DATA tab, and see if you have a tab called “Data Analysis” in the ANALYSIS group. If not, you will need to upload the Analysis ToolPak, which is described in the following slides……

Installing the Analysis ToolPak in Four Easy Steps

2

Click the Microsoft Office Button

and then click Excel Options.

Click Add-Ins

2

1

From the Manage drop-down menu,

select Excel Add-ins and click GO

When this window pops up, put a

check mark in the Analysis

ToolPak box and click OK. If you

do not see Analysis ToolPak, click

on BROWSE to locate it. Now

you’re ready for data analysis!!

3

4

So here we are again…

We will start by looking at the descriptive stats for “Age.” Now that we have the Data Analysis Tool installed, we click on it, and this browser window pops up. Click on “Descriptive Statistics” and click “OK.”

Then, take your cursor, and glide it across the entire column (including the “Age” label)

This is what pops up. Click on “Input Range”

This is what it will look like when you are done. Make sure ALL of the boxes shown here are checked!

And here it is!

You see here that our mean age is 44.2 years, the median and mode is 47, and the age span is 33 years, ranging from 27 to 60 years of age!

Now…we look at FREQUENCIES!

In this example, we want to know the number and frequency of the subjects’ marital status.

But first we must add three columns just to the right of marital status. To do this, go to the HOME tab, click on ”Insert” and then “Insert Sheet Columns.” Do this three times all together.

Name these columns “classes” “bin” and “freq”

At this point, you may need to refer back to your codebook. Under “classes”, place your descriptive labels (single, married, divorced, and widowed). Under “bin” place your numerical labels---in the proper order (1, 2, 3, 4).

Now we are ready to calculate the frequency. With your cursor, highlight the cells under “freq”

With your “freq” column highlighted, click on the FORMULAS tab and then “insert function.” This box will pop up. Type in the word “frequency” ---click on the highlighted bar and then click “OK”

If the word “frequency” does not appear, click “ALL” on the drop-down menu

This is what you will see next. On the following slide, I will show you how to fill in the Data-array and the Bins_array

To fill out the Data_array, click on the data array box (see red arrow) then glide your cursor down the column of numbers that you entered under Marital status. Do NOT grab the label also—just numbers!

To fill out the Bins_array, click on the bins array box (see red arrow) then glide your cursor down the column of numbers that you entered under Bins. Do NOT grab the label also—just numbers!

Now, press “Control” “Shift” and “Enter” simultaneously

(If you just pressed “OK” or “Enter”, just the first frequency would show up)

This is what it should look like:

You can see that we now have our frequency. 2 single, 5 married, etc.

Now lets make a chart!

While the “freq” column is highlighted, click on the INSERT tab. Then click on the CHART tab (red arrow) to expand and open up this window, which offers many options. Select the type of graph you would like to make. Let’s do a Bar Graph---highlight it from the list, and click “OK”

This is what it shows us. We have some tweaking to do because we want to add a title and some labels. Click on the “Select Data” option on the DATA tab (red arrow)

Then this box pops up!

Click on the EDIT button on the Horizontal Axis (red arrow)

Then, glide your cursor over the labels listed under “classes”---remember, do not pick up the label “classes”---just single, married, etc.

Then click “OK”

This is what it now looks like. See that the labels are now listed along the left-hand side of the bar graph. We still need to give the graph the proper title.

On the Legend Entries section, click on EDIT

Insert the title by typing “Marital Status” Under Series Name (red arrow). Click “OK”

I would like to get rid of the legend (green arrow). This is a personal preference and you may choose not to. To do this, right click on the legend and click on DELETE (red arrow).

We’re ready to see our completed graph. Be sure to save it on a new sheet, otherwise it sits smack-dab in the middle of your data set, as shown below. When you are on the DESIGN tab, click on “Move Chart Location.” When the pop-up window opens, click on the button that says “New Sheet” and write the name of the page. Then click “OK”

Here is our finished product…..

Pretty! See how it is named “Marital Status Chart” as we named it in the previous slide.

Now, let’s find out the mean, median, and mode for our SE survey

Make a new column called “Total SE”

Select all 5 numbers in the top row. These are the SE scores for the first subject. We need to add them together. To do this, go to the HOME tab. Then all the way on the right-hand side you will see a button that says “Auto Sum”. From the drop-down menu, select the Σ symbol, which stands for “Sum”. When you click on that, the total for subject #1 will automatically pop-up under the “Total SE” column to the right. Complete the rest of the rows the same way. You can do several rows at a time--- you do not need to do them individually.

Now that we have the individual SE scores all tallied up, let’s do our descriptive statistics. Again, from the DATA tab, click on Data Analysis and select “Descriptive Statistics” from the list. Click “OK”

Glide your cursor over the entire column (including the label). Be sure to click on all three boxes. It is helpful to give your new

worksheet a name--- you can type this in the empty box near the green arrow. I will call this new worksheet “Total SE Descriptives.”

Click OK. This should look familiar now….

Here are your results…….

THE END!

Based on the scores of all 10 subjects, the mean SE score was 19.4. The median and mode were 21. Scores ranged from 11 to 25.