Hi
On Wed, 31 Jan 2001, G. Marc Turner wrote:
> I need some advice on how to handle an issue in my stats course...
... SPSS and Hand calculations give different values
> So, tomorrow afternoon when I go over this in class, and the students ask
> me to explain why the scores are different, what should the answer be? My
> immediate reaction is to say that we shouldn't trust the values of SPSS,
> and this points out why it is important to know how to do the calculations
> by hand. However, I'm not sure how far that will get me in convincing the
> students.
I would hesitate to take the position that SPSS is "wrong," as
that is unlikely to be the case and could come back to haunt you.
I would rather take the position that in calculating statistics
there are often several (or many) different ways of actually
defining and computing the statistics. Sometimes the assumptions
made might differ, for example. This is an example of one of
those cases. You could try and track down the algorithm that
SPSS is using and apply it manually to your set of data to show
the correspondence with the output, and also how the procedure
differs from the (simpler?) one that you taught.
Best wishes
Jim
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James M. Clark (204) 786-9757
Department of Psychology (204) 774-4134 Fax
University of Winnipeg 4L05D
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CANADA http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark
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