Example of Displaying Descriptive Statistics
main topic     interpreting results     session command     see also    

You want to compare the height (in inches) of male (Sex=1) and female (Sex=2) students who participated in the pulse study. You choose to display a boxplot of the data.

1    Open the worksheet PULSE.MTW.

2    Choose Stat > Basic Statistics > Display Descriptive Statistics.

3    In Variables, enter Height.

4    In By variable, enter Sex.

5    Click Graphs and check Boxplot of data. Click OK in each dialog box.

Session window output

Descriptive Statistics: Height

 

 

Variable  Sex   N  N*    Mean  SE Mean  StDev  Minimum      Q1  Median      Q3  Maximum

Height    1    57   0  70.754    0.342  2.583   66.000  69.000  71.000  73.000   75.000

          2    35   0  65.400    0.433  2.563   61.000  63.000  65.500  68.000   70.000

Graph window output

 

Interpreting the results

The means shown in the Session window and the boxplots indicate that males are approximately 5.3 inches taller than females, and the spread of the data is about the same.