How to Make a Scatter Plot in SPSS or PASW Statistics

A scatterplot is an easy way to allow people to get a handle on what's going on with your data qualitatively, and can shed light on what sorts of statistical tests would best capture the relationship between two variables. Here's how to calculate one easily in SPSS.

Things You'll Need

• SPSS 17 (or any other version), also known as PASW Statistics 17

Instructions

1. After opening your data in SPSS, go to Graphs, then "Legacy Dialogs", then "Scatter/Dot". (If you have an older version of SPSS in which the Legacy Dialogs option is not visible, you can go straight to Scatter/Dot from this menu.)

2. Select the type of plot you want. Simple Scatter is sufficient for most purposes; Matrix Scatter or 3-D Scatter is useful for when you have more than two variables. Additional options include Simple Dot and Overlay Scatter.

3. Click Define. You will be presented with many options, but the only important thing is to move one variable over to the X Axis box and another to Y Axis. You can click the Titles box to add titles, or the Options box to display error bars and confidence intervals.

4. Click OK. Your plot should appear in the SPSS output window.