Exploring Data with Graphs

By: Irum Noureen

● Objective of this week is:
Report results by integrating multiple aspects in the form of tables and
graphics; interpret results in qualitative form in their scientific research writings
(P4).
Content of Week
● Bar Charts, Histograms, Pie Charts, Boxplots, Scatter Diagrams
The art of presenting data
Graphs in SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences) are important tools for data visualization that
help in understanding and interpreting complex datasets.
They provide a visual representation of data, making it
easier to identify patterns, trends, relationships, and
anomalies.
 Why Important
• Visualize Distribution: Graphs like histograms, box plots,
and bar charts allow you to explore the distribution of
variables and assess their shape, spread, and central
tendency.
• Detect Outliers and Errors: Visual representations can help
you quickly spot outliers, missing data, or errors in the dataset
that may not be apparent from raw numbers.
• Identify Relationships: Scatter plots or line graphs can help
visualize relationships between two or more variables, making
it easier to identify correlations or trends.
Why Important
Data Cleaning: Graphs can help you assess the quality of
data during the cleaning process. For instance, a box plot
might reveal whether there are any extreme values or
inconsistencies.
• Summarize Information: Large datasets with multiple
variables can be overwhelming. Graphs condense and
summarize data in a way that makes it easier to digest and
understand.
• Compare Groups: Bar charts, pie charts, and stacked bar
charts are useful for comparing the frequencies or means of
different groups or categories.
Common Types of Graphs in SPSS:
• Bar Charts: For comparing categorical data.
• Histograms: For displaying the frequency distribution of numerical data.
• Scatter Plots: For showing the relationship between two continuous
variables.
• Box Plots: For visualizing the spread and outliers in the data.
• Pie Charts: For showing proportions of categories in a dataset.
• Line Graphs: For displaying trends over time (time series data).
• Clustered/Stacked Bar Charts: For comparing multiple categories or
groups.
● The vertical axis of a graph is known as the y-axis of
the graph.
● The horizontal axis of a graph is known as the x-axis of
the graph.
 Histogram
● use frequency distributions to screen our data
● Simple histogram: just want to see the frequencies of scores for a
single variable
● Stacked histogram: If you had a grouping variable (e.g. whether
men or women attended the festival) you could produce a histogram
in which each bar is split by group
● Frequency polygon: This option displays the same data as the
simple histogram except that it uses a line instead of bars to show the
frequency,
● Population pyramid: Like a stacked histogram this shows the
relative frequency of scores in two populations. It plots the variable (in
this case hygiene) on the vertical axis and the frequencies for each
population on the horizontal: the populations appear back to back on
the graph. I
 Boxplots
● useful ways to display your data
● At the center of the plot is the median, which is surrounded by a
box the top and bottom of which are the limits within which the
middle 50% of observations fall
● Simple boxplot: Use this option when you want to plot a boxplot
of a single variable,
● Clustered boxplot: This option is the same as the simple boxplot
except that you can select a second categorical variable on which
to split the data. Boxplots for this second variable are produced in
different colors.
● 1-D boxplot: Use this option when you just want to see a boxplot
for a single variable. (This differs from the simple boxplot only in
that no categorical variable is selected for the x-axis.)
● Boxplots show us the range of scores, the range between which
the middle 50% of scores fall, and the median, the upper
quartile and lower quartile score.
Bar charts
● Bar charts are
the usual way
for people to
display means.
Pie Chart
● Pie Charts allows you to specify how data are represented in the chart. Select
the option under the Data in Chart Are group that best describes your data.
This feature requires the Statistics Base option.
1.From the menus choose:
Graphs > Legacy Dialogs > Pie
2.In the Pie Charts dialog box, select an option under the Data
in Chart Are group.
3.Click Define.
4.Select variables and options for the chart. In the Filter
by field, you can type in a search term to filter the variables
on.
 Scatterplot
● Relationships between variables (rather than their means,
or frequencies).
● A scatterplot is simply a graph that plots each person’s
score on one variable against their score on another.
● A scatterplot tells us several things about the data, such
as whether there seems to be a relationship between the
variables, what kind of relationship it is, and whether any
cases are markedly different from the others
● The y-axis needs to be the dependent variable
● The horizontal axis should display the independent
variable