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  • 1.  Mean average of multiple response sets

    Posted Tue January 03, 2023 10:56 AM

    Hello everyone!


    I am not a native speaker, so I hope you all understand my English :)
    I've calculated several multiple answer sets and I was wondering if it is possible to calculate the mean average of this variables. For example: One multiple answer set asked whether or not a company has benefits included for all employers. There are 8 possible answers and they can select more thatn one. So I calculated this set. But to do descriptive analysis I want to describe also the mean average of this variable unfortunately I don't know how to do this. Maybe it is just possible with Excel. It would be great if anyone can help me with this!

    Greetings
    Anna Stichling



    ------------------------------
    Anna Stichling
    ------------------------------

    #SPSSStatistics


  • 2.  RE: Mean average of multiple response sets

    Posted Tue January 03, 2023 01:32 PM
    Hi. I guess one thing you could do to figure out the average for a MULT RESPONSE set (dichotomous or not) would be to use the COUNT command on the variables that define the MR variable. It's just the total of the counted values divided by the number of cases. For example, here is syntax that creates some random data and two MULT RESPONSE sets.

    dataset close all.
    new file.
    input program.
    vector b(8).
    vector c(5).
    loop #i=1 to 25.
    loop #j=1 to 8.
    compute b(#j)=rnd(uniform(1)).
    end loop.
    loop #j=1 to 5.
    compute c(#j)=1+rnd(uniform(3)).
    end loop.
    end case.
    end loop.
    end file.
    end input program.
    formats all (F1).
    execute.

    ** The actual MULT RESPONSE variables, when tabulated, give you the total count for each across the dataset.

    MULT RESPONSE GROUPS=
      $b 'Binary variable set' (b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 b7 b8 (1))
      $c 'Categories 3 and 4' (c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 (3,4))
      /FREQUENCIES=$b $c.

    ** The count per observation.
    COUNT b=b1 to b8 (1).
    COUNT c=c1 to c5 (3,4).

    FRE VAR b c /FORMAT NOTABLE /STATISTICS MEAN.

    That gives you the average count per observation (that is, row of the dataset). Multiply that by the number of cases and you reproduce the MR total count.

    ------------------------------
    Rick Marcantonio
    Quality Assurance
    IBM
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: Mean average of multiple response sets

    Posted Tue January 03, 2023 01:38 PM
    It's not obvious to me that this mean would be meaningful, but you could compute it as
    compute themean = mean(V1 to V8).
    where those are the variables in the MR set.

    --





  • 4.  RE: Mean average of multiple response sets

    Posted Tue January 03, 2023 01:39 PM
    Right. I agree with Jon. It *can* be done; I didn't mean to imply that it *should* be.

    ------------------------------
    Rick Marcantonio
    Quality Assurance
    IBM
    ------------------------------