Descriptive statistics for categorical variables practical

Welcome to the descriptive statistics practical in which we will look at how to investigate categorical variables in SPSS. Categorical variables can take only predefined values (or categories) and can be of two types - nominal and ordinal. For nominal variables each category has a name but there is no natural order to the categories. For example, a nominal variable might measure "fruit choice", in which it does not make sense to describe an orange as somehow coming between an apple and a banana in an ordering. Ordinal categories by contrast do have a natural ordering. For example, an ordinal variable might measure opinions on an issue with the categories Strongly disagree; Disagree; Agree; and Strongly Agree forming an ordering in terms of "strength of ageement" from low to high. (This variable is an example of a Likert scale .) In this practical we will simply look at summaries and plots of categorical variables that apply equally to both nominal and ordinal variables.

This ends our practical.