The Pros and Cons of using SPSS as a

Research Tool to explore

Individual Differences

SPSS User Group Meeting

York October 2011
Sophie von Stumm, University of Edinburgh
 Aims of Individual Differences

A research area of psychology that aims to

• Identify dimensions of individual differences

• Observe dimensions and describe of individual differences

• Explore causes of individual differences

• Explore the long-term consequences of individual differences

 Study of Individual Differences

• Focus on latent (unobservable) psychological constructs that

underlie psychometric (observed) test scores, such as its core
pillars are intelligence and personality traits

Intelligence Personality

Independence Measurement Conceptual

• No meaningful • IQ scores as a • Intelligence is invested
associations function of evaluation and applied over time,
situations and shaping adult intellect
arousability

Personality and
intelligence are Personality affects
separate entities intellectual development
Personality affects
test performance
 Overview

• Collect data

• Enter and screen data (SPSS)

• Identify latent traits

• Develop comprehensive models of individual differences

(AMOS)
 Data

• Experimental design: mostly survey/ questionnaires

• Two types of psychometric tests: maximum versus typical

performance (ability versus personality)

• Testing settings: groups and individuals; supervision; timing

 Test in Lab

• Paper-and-pencil mode

• Individual desks, supervised, timed

• Ideal for ability testing (battery of intelligence tests)

• Recruitment online (gumtree), flyers (job centers), press

(psychology today)

• Data entry manually from test booklets (coding;

labelling; editing data)
 Test Online

• Adapt questionnaires
to format of online
survey tool

• Surveymonkey
(www.surevymonkey.co
m) or Unipark
(www.unipark.com)

• Important: data format;

N; survey design
http://www.idealware.org/articles/fgt_online_surveys.php
 The Current Data

• Research project (Central Research Fund of the University of

London) to test 200 adults from the London area on

– Intelligence
– Personality (investment) traits
– Bunch of demographics and other stuff
 Intelligence Tests
All trees are fish. All fish are horses.
Therefore all trees are horses. T or F?

All trees are fish. All fish are horses.

Therefore all horses are trees. T or F?

“jovial “ has a similar meaning as:

refreshing
scare
thickset
......is to dispute as endure is to...... wise
a) argue – invert jolly
b) repute – verdure Think of as many
c) impute – verdure words as you can
d) impute – last A–B–C–K starting with a) pro
e) argue – last and b) sub
 Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence

• Raven’s, letter sets, and nonsense syllogisms are tests of fluid

intelligence, i.e. capacity for knowledge; pure reasoning
power

• Verbal fluency, vocabulary, and verbal reasoning are tests of

crystallized intelligence, i.e. knowledge possessed;
information learned through experience
Latent Trait Model

λ1 λ2 λ3 λ4

Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4

ε1 ε2 ε3 ε4
 Investment

• Crystallized intelligence develops through the investment of

fluid intelligence

• Investment is determined by personality traits

 Personality traits determine where, when and how people

invest their ability
 Personality

• The Big Five: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to

Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness
 Universal language of personality (very universal and very
lumpy)

• More specific - Investment traits: “the tendency to seek out,

engage in, enjoy, and continuously pursue opportunities for
effortful cognitive activity”

• Need for Cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982), 18 item Likert

scale (1 to 5 rating scales)
 Analysis

Gf (fluid
?
intelligence)
Gc (crystallized
intelligence)
?

Need for Cognition

1. What is the relationship between gf and gc?

2. What is the relationship between Need for Cognition and gc?
3. What is the relationship between gfand Need for Cognition?
 Analysis

1. Screen data for frequencies and errors; check labels and

missing data codes

2. Latent traits of crystallized and fluid intelligence (each

derived from 3 indicator variables/ observed test scores)

3. Build composite scores from z-scores

4. Composite score for Need for Cognition; internal consistency

5. Correlations and regression models

 What have we learned?

• There are two factors of intelligence (gf and gc – a little shaky)

• Need for Cognition correlates positively with both gf and gc

but more so with gc

• Gf and Need for Cognition account for significant amounts of

variance in gc; i.e. ability and investment affect knowledge
possessed

• But what’s the relationship between gf and Need for

Cognition in the regression model?
 Limitations of SPSS

• Does not support Structural Equation Modelling (by and large,

an extension method of regression models based on
covariance matrix)

• Does not allows for simultaneous estimation of regression

parameters and associations between independent
(predictor) variables

• Does not provides model fit indices to evaluate how well data
is represented

• Does not allows including latent traits without building

composite scores or extracting factor regression scores
 AMOS - Extension of SPSS

• Amos has an extremely user-friendly interface (no syntax

writing needed if preferred)

• Coupled with SPSS, allowing for easy editing and switching

between methods of analysis/ programs

• Let’s fit a regression model with latent traits…

 Results

• Gf accounts directly for 79% of the variance in gc

• Gf accounts indirectly for an additional 3% of the variance in

gc, as mediated by Need for Cognition

• Need for Cognition accounts for 0.2% of the variance (ns) in gc

• Evidence against the investment theory?

 Conclusions

• SPSS is practical for (1) entering data manually and (2) editing
data from various sources (e.g. online survey)

• SPSS allows for thorough exploration of data (frequencies;

means; distributions; correlations)

• Extension programs (AMOS) enable comprehensive models of

mechanisms of associations

• Investment is important for crystallized intelligence (!?)

 Thank you

Acknowledgements: Eva Zoubek ; the Central Research Fund of the University

of London, and the ESRC

von Stumm, S., Hell, B., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2011). The hungry mind:
Intellectual curiosity as third pillar of academic performance. Perspectives
on Psychological Science, in press.
von Stumm, S., Chamorro-Premuzic, T., Ackerman, P. L. (2011). Re-visiting
intelligence-personality associations: Vindicating intellectual investment.
In T. Chamorro-Premuzic, S. von Stumm, & A. Furnham (eds.), Handbook
of Individual Differences. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.