HELP with SPSS / statistical methods- beginner questions

[MysticM]

Hi, I'm new here and its's my first quarter as a grad student. Have very little statistical background. Monday is the deadline for the conference. I have this datafile with a simple analysis, but I have no clue what to do. I've tried to write a simple syntax in SPSS 22 (I think?)to compute two variables  - one with a specified condition and the other one without it - but got same N of cases so I'm assuming it didn't work. I can elaborate, if anyone has time / desire to show me around please? I don't want to write to my PI and admit that I'm not sure at all what I'm doing  I'm planning to take statistical research methods next quarter...

Thank you!

M

[isilya]

I know it's hard, but you need to talk to your PI about this NOW or it will become a persistent issue. Your advisor will have suggestions for where to get started for learning statistics. The earlier you address this problem, the better.

[rising_star]

Google is your friend here. Any SPSS (or STATA) code you need can be pretty easily found by googling for what you're trying to do. That said, if you don't even know what kind of statistical tests you want to run, then you need to start reading an intro stats textbook ASAP.

[hippyscientist]

As far as a good stats book for SPSS - Andy Field's Discovering Statistics using SPSS is fantastic and has helped me out no end. I think reading that and talking to your adviser are your best options here. Stats are vital in most STEM areas of research that I've encountered and if you're not comfortable with them you need to tell your adviser so they don't assume that you know it.