SPSS Exercise 2: Running Graphs and Charts to Test for Normality

Running Graphs and Charts in SPSS

Running charts and graphs is very similar to running descriptive statistics. You will need to reference your SPSS
assignment 1 output and/or rerun it to answer some of the questions for SPSS: Assignment 2.

1. Go to Analyze > Descriptive Statistics > Explore.

2. Select CTFall and CTSpring and move them to the Dependent List box.
3. Click on the Plots tab.
4. Uncheck Stem-and-leaf.
5. Check Histogram.
6. Check Normality plots with tests.
7. Select Continue.
8. Select Ok.
9. Examine your Output file and use it to answer the quiz questions.
10. Export your Output file as a PDF document.

Interpreting the Results of Graphs and Charts

**I am using an example dataset, so my values are different than the ones you will get. However, the SPSS
output will be organized in the same way.

We use the graphs along with the skewness and kurtosis values from the descriptive statistics (see SPSS
assignment 1 output) to determine if our data is normally distributed.

Normality for Continuous Variables

We check for normality by inspecting the kurtosis and skewness of a data set. There are two ways that we do
this. The first is by visually inspecting the histogram and the normal curve that was overlayed. The blue bars
represent our data while the black line is the normal curve (and it will not change even if the data is skewed,
though it will peak more or less depending on kurtosis).

Kurtosis
Kurtosis is a measure of the "peakedness" or "flatness" of a distribution. A kurtosis value near zero indicates a
shape close to normal. A negative value indicates a distribution that is more peaked than normal, and a
positive kurtosis indicates a shape flatter than normal. A range of -0.5 to 0.5 is considered normal, while
anything between +/- .5 and 1.0 is considered acceptable.

Skewness
Skewness measures the degree and direction of asymmetry. A symmetric distribution (such as a normal
distribution has a skewness of 0. A distribution that is skewed to the left (e.g. when the mean is less than the
median) has a negative skew. The larger the value the more skewed the distribution. A value of +/- 1.0 is
considered normal and anything between +/- 1.0 and 2.0 is considered acceptable (Field, 2000 & 2009;
Gravetter & Wallnau, 2014; Trochim & Donnelly, 2006).
 SPSS Exercise 2: Running Graphs and Charts to Test for Normality

Interpreting the results for Run1 (example data)

So for Run we will first look at the tests for normality. Look at the Sig. value for the Shapiro-Wilk test. A
significant value (<.05) means that our distribution differs significantly from a normal distribution. This is fairly
common, since we rarely have a perfectly normal distribution in real life. So we need to run some visual tests
as well as look at the skewness/kurtosis values.

First we will inspect the histogram. For my example data, it looks like it
kind of follows the normal curve for skewness, though it might be
slightly negatively skewed due to all of the data that is just higher than
the mean (purple arrow), in general, the data is more clustered in the
middle and less frequent at the tails (what we would expect for a
normal distribution). Our normal curve (the black line) does seem to be
a bit peaked, so we likely a somewhat leptokurtic distribution, but let’s
now inspect our values to see if those show the same trend. You can
also double click on the chart in SPSS to add a normal curve.

We also want to see if how our measures of central tendency are falling.
Remember that when all three are equal we will have a normal distribution.
So, for Run1 the mean was 3.60, median, 3.58, and mode of 3.94. These are
not the same, so the distribution is not perfectly normal, however, they are
close together. So we know that while it is not perfectly normal, we can
expect it to be acceptable. We will need to view our values to determine if
this is accurate or not.

Look at the SPSS output from the Explore command. There is a row for
skewness and a row for kurtosis. We can see that for skewness my example
data has a value of -0.33 while my kurtosis has a value of -0.24. We can see
that we have a negative value for both. A negative value for skewness would
indicate a negative skew, but it is within the acceptable range. The negative
value for kurtosis would indicate that it is a platykurtic distribution, but
within the acceptable range to assume normality.

Finally, we want to look at the Normal Q-Q plots. This graph plots the
observed values against the expected values given a normal distribution.
We are looking for values that tend to line up very well along the vertical
line. This suggests we can assume normality.

Questions for SPSS Assignment 2

For the SPSS: Assignment 2 Questions, you will need to be able to:
1.) Visually interpret the histogram with the normal curve overlay.
2.) Interpret the kurtosis and skewness values for CTFall and CTSpring.
3.) Inspect the mean, median, and mode and then interpret how these impact skewness.
4.) Inspect the Shapiro-Wilk test for normality and Normal Q-Q plot for normality evidence.
 SPSS Exercise 2: Running Graphs and Charts to Test for Normality

5.) Make a conclusion on the normality of both CTFall and CTSpring data.

Completing the Assignments

For each SPSS assignment, you will need to upload your output file (15 pts) and answer quiz questions (10pts)
for a total of 25 pts. The corresponding dropbox is located in eCourseware under SPSS Assignments>SPSS
Assignment 2. The quiz is located under Assessments>Quizzes.

References
Field, A. (2000). Discovering statistics using SPSS for windows. London: Sage Publications.
Field, A. (2009). Discovering statistics using SPSS. London: SAGE.
Gravetter, F., & Wallnau, L. (2014). Essentials of statistics for the behavioral sciences (8th ed.). Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth.
Trochim, W. M., & Donnelly, J. P. (2006). The research methods knowledge base (3rd ed.). Cincinnati, OH:
Atomic Dog.