# A question for people who know SPSS

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-people-who-know-spss/291863>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 25, 2005, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-people-who-know-spss/291863 "2005-02-25T13:48:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![saluki\_fan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@saluki\_fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saluki_fan)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-people-who-know-spss/291863/1 "2005-02-25T13:48:46Z")

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I’ve calculated the mean, median, and mode for a set of data using SPSS 12.0, but now I’m having trouble interpreting it. How do I go about calculating the mean when I’m unable to see specific values? There is a smaller chart that lies just above my second chart that says my median is 5.00 and my mode is 5. I’ve discovered that my mode is in line 5 of the second chart, but I don’t see any correlation between the 5.00 and any other data. Could somebody please help how to interpret this information?

Thanks

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**Author:** ![saluki\_fan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@saluki\_fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saluki_fan)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-people-who-know-spss/291863/2 "2005-02-25T14:54:04Z")

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I think I’ve figured it out. Am I right in assuming that the value correlates to the value that is coded in. Basically since everything I coded in is in a range, which is then coded numerically instead of exact numbers, then the numbers I get for mean and median are the values for the codes and not the exact figure?

😕

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**Author:** ![andymurph64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@andymurph64](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andymurph64)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-for-people-who-know-spss/291863/3 "2005-02-25T16:20:23Z")

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Yes, it is based on the actual value present in the data set. So, if you have data values from 1-5 but they are labeled 0-4 then SPSS will not look at the labels but the values (1-5).