Histograms

Histograms

"Histograms are used to display the distribution of a single continuous variable (e.g. age, perceived stress scores)." Examining the shape of the curve will provide information about the distribution of scores of a continuous variable. If we assume that scores of each variable measured are distributed normally, most scores will occur in the center, and taper towards the extremes. The skewness of the data is determined if the data displayed is either distributed more to right or left side of the visual.

(Pallant, 2016, pg. 68)

contributed by Joseph W. Sullivan

Parts of a Histogram

1. The title: The title describes the information included in the histogram.
2. x-axis: The x-axis are intervals that show the scale of values which the measurements fall under.
3. y-axis: The y-axis shows the number of times that the values occurred within the intervals set by the x-axis.
4. The bars: The height of the bar shows the number of times that the values occurred within the interval, while the width of the bar shows the interval that is covered. For a histogram with equal bins, the width should be the same across all bars.

contributed by Sandra Peña

To create a histogram on SPSS, do the following:

1) After entering data into SPSS, click on "Graphs", scroll down to “Legacy

    Dialogs", move cursor to the right and scroll down to "Histograms".

2) Click on the variable in the left box you want entered into the right variable box

3) Click on “display normal curve” to view the bar graph data in bell curve form

4) Click "OK".

5) The histogram will appear PASW Output Statistic Viewer

contributed by Jen Eraca