SOC and PS In this problem, you will use Spearman’s rho to analyze the relationship between two variables in the Intl-POP database. The first variable (rights) measures the extent of civil and political rights in a nation and the second (corruption) measures the level of corruption in the public sector. Are these variables related? Are nations with stronger individual rights less corrupt? Take rights as the independent variable for this problem.

Both of these variables are ordinal in level of measurement, so Spearman’s rho is an appropriate statistic to analyze the strength of the relationship.

To do this, we will use a new procedure called Correlate, which we will also use in the next chapter.

Before proceeding, take careful note of the coding scheme of the variables (see Appendix G or click Utilities S Variables from the SPSS menu).

Do high scores mean high levels of corruption and strong civil liberties? Keep the coding scheme in mind as you analyze the relationship.

● Click the SPSS icon on your desktop.

● Load the Intl-POP database.

● Click Analyze S Correlate S Bivariate

● Find corruption and rights in the list of variables and move them into the “Variables” box

● In the box labeled “Correlation Coefficients” find and click the button next to “Spearman.”
● Click OK.
The output will show the relationship between the variables in a box labeled “Correlations.” Look in the first row and you will see a cell reporting the relationship between corruption and itself (rs 5 1.000).
The rs we are seeking is in the next cell to the right. Take note of the strength and direction of the relationship and write a brief summary. How strong is this relationship?
By what percentage do we improve our predictions of corruption if we use rights? What is the direction of the relationship? Be careful when interpreting direction!