Learn to Create Dot Plots in SPSS With Data From Our World in Data (2020)

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With Data From Our World in Data (2020)

This PDF has been generated from SAGE Research Methods Datasets.

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Learn to Create Dot Plots in SPSS With Data From Our World in Data

(2020)

How-to Guide for IBM® SPSS® Statistics Software Introduction

Data visualization tools are an essential part of the exploratory step in data analysis. For their correct use, it is necessary to take into account the type of variables for which each chart is suitable. In this guide, you will learn how to build dot plots with the SPSS package from a set of real data extracted from a public repository. You will also learn how to change the aesthetic aspects of the graph and how to use it to analyze different hypotheses. Finally, you will have the opportunity to practice what you have learned throughout this guide through a series of proposed exercises.

Contents

1. Dot Plots

2. An Example in SPSS: The Rise of Social Media, 2004–2019 2.1 The SPSS Procedure

2.1.1 Loading the Database 2.1.2 Dot Plot

2.1.3 Improvement of the Graphic Appearance of the Dot Plot

2.1.4 Simple Scatter 2.1.5 Connected Dot Plot 2.2 Exploring the Output

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SAGE Research Methods: Data Visualization

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3. Your Turn

1. Dot Plots

Dot plot is a graphical representation that allows you to visualize the frequencies of a qualitative variable. To build a dot plot, it is necessary to count the number of data points falling in each category and draw a stack of dots that number high for each category. This kind of chart is used with small datasets. It is very similar to a barplot because the height of the bar built by the dots is proportional to the frequency of the represented category.

2. An Example in SPSS: The Rise of Social Media, 2004–2019

Social Media appeared in the 2000s. In the last 20 years, different platforms have been appearing and disappearing and have been accumulating a large number of active users per month. This data set collects the number of people using social media platforms from 2002 to 2019 (see Codebook). With this information, it is possible to analyze the number of years that a platform has been active and how many active users it has had per month. Based on this information, our aim is to analyze the main differences in the number of monthly active users and the number of years each platform has remained active. Dot plot is a very useful tool to answer these questions.

2.1 The SPSS Procedure

SPSS is a statistical package used by several kinds of researchers for complex statistical data analysis. It has a main menu to build several kinds of charts. In this

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The database we will use is available in the url: https://ourworldindata.org/internet.

It is public and free of charge. To access the database, you must go to “The rise of social media” and press “data” in the bottom menu of the chart. This database is ready to be downloaded in the corresponding dataset in csv format, although it is not necessary to download it to follow this guide.

Now, you can open IBM SPSS Statistic software and press ”File...”. In the “File”

menu, select “Open -> Data” and then choose the “Monthlyactiveusers.sav” file available in the corresponding dataset folder. At this moment, you can see four variables in the “Variable View”: Entity, Code, Year, and Monthlyactiveusers. In this View, you should view the measure of the variable Year to “Ordinal,” the name of the last variable to Monthlyactiveusers, and the label to Monthly active users.

2.1.2 Dot Plot

We show the basic dot plot of variable Entity to show the study period of each of the social media platforms (Figure 1). To this end, go to Graphs/Chart Builder.

Below you have all the types of graphs you can use. Then, go to Scatter/Dot, and drag the bottom first symbol to the empty box. In this box, you can indicate the variables to show. To do this, drag the variable Entity to the frame titled X-Axis and click OK.

The horizontal axis of the dot plot lists the names of different entities. Each entity consists of a stack of circles. The data from the dot plot are tabulated below.

Entity Number of circles

Facebook 12

Flickr 10

Friendster 8 Google+ 7 SAGE

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Google Buzz 6

Hi5 7

Instagram 6 MySpace 8

Orkut 9

Pinterest 4 Reddit 9 Snapchat 1 TikTok 2 Tumblr 7 Twitter 10 WeChat 8

Weibo 9

WhatsApp 5 YouTube 14

Figure 1. Simple Dot Plot of Social Media Platforms Users

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2.1.3 Improvement of the Graphic Appearance of the Dot Plot

The basic dot plot is customizable by double-clicking on the graph to open the Graph Editor. In this window, you can change some attributes of the plot in order to achieve more elegant representations.

Customize the color of the dots: In the Graph Editor, double-click on a dot, and the property window appears. In the marker tab, you can select a color to fill the dots and then press “Apply” (Figure 2).

The horizontal axis of the dot plot lists the names of different entities. Each entity consists of a stack of colour circles. The data from the dot plot are tabulated below.

Entity Number of circles Facebook 12

Flickr 10

Friendster 8 SAGE

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Google+ 7 Google Buzz 6

Hi5 7

Instagram 6

MySpace 8

Orkut 9

Pinterest 4 Reddit 9 Snapchat 1 TikTok 2 Tumblr 7 Twitter 10 WeChat 8

Weibo 9

WhatsApp 5 YouTube 14

Figure 2. Simple Dot Plot of Social Media Platforms Users Customized With Color

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Change the title of the chart: You can change the title in the Graph Editor. Make a simple click on the title and you can write another text on it (Figure 3).

The horizontal axis is labelled Social Media Platform and lists the names of different platforms. Each platform consists of a stack of colour circles. The data from the dot plot are tabulated below.

Social Media Platform Number of circles

Facebook 12

Flickr 10

Friendster 8

Google+ 7

Google Buzz 6

Hi5 7

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Instagram 6

MySpace 8

Orkut 9

Pinterest 4

Reddit 9

Snapchat 1

TikTok 2

Tumblr 7

Twitter 10

WeChat 8

Weibo 9

WhatsApp 5

YouTube 14

Figure 3. Simple Dot Plot of Social Media Platforms Users Customized With Titles

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Adding a title to each of the axes: In the same Graph Editor, you can change the title of the axes in the same way as the title (Figure 3).

Change the orientation of the stacked dots (Figure 4). You can change the orientation of the graph by pressing on the “Transpose chart coordinate system.”

The vertical axis is labelled Social Media Platform and lists the names of different platforms. Each platform consists of a row of colour circles. The data from the dot plot are tabulated below.

Social Media Platform Number of circles

Facebook 12

Flickr 10

Friendster 8

Google+ 7

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Google Buzz 6

Hi5 7

Instagram 6

MySpace 8

Orkut 9

Pinterest 4

Reddit 9

Snapchat 1

TikTok 2

Tumblr 7

Twitter 10

WeChat 8

Weibo 9

WhatsApp 5

YouTube 14

Figure 4. Horizontal Dot Plot of Social Media Platforms Users Customized

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2.1.4 Simple Scatter

You can also show to each platform the monthly active users (Figure 5). To this end, go to Graphs/Chart Builder…. Then, go to Scatter/Dot, and drag the bottom first symbol to the empty box. In this box, you can indicate the variables to show.

To this end, drag the variable Entity to the frame titled X-Axis and the variable Monthlyactiveusers to the Y-Axis and click OK.

The chart consists of horizontal grid lines. The horizontal axis is labelled Entity and lists different social media platforms. The vertical axis is labelled monthly active users and ranges from 0 to 2500000000 in increments of 500000000. The approximate data from the chart are tabulated below.

Entity Monthly active users SAGE

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Facebook 0 to 2500000000 Flickr 0 to 100000000 Friendster 0 to 100000000 Google+ 0 to 500000000

Google Buzz 200000000 Hi5 0 to 100000000 Instagram 0 to 1000000000 MySpace 0 to 100000000 Orkut 0 to 100000000 Pinterest 0 to 400000000 Reddit 0 to 450000000 Snapchat 250000000

TikTok 250000000 and 500000000 Tumblr 0 to 650000000

Twitter 0 to 350000000 WeChat 0 to 1000000000 Weibo 0 to 500000000

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This plot can be made by coloring the dots according to another variable, such as the year (Figure 6). To do this, go to Scatter/Dot and drag the bottom third symbol (Grouped Scatter) to the empty box. In this box, drag the variable Entity to the frame titled X-Axis, the variable Monthlyactiveusers to the Y-Axis, and Year to the frame Set Color and click OK.

The chart consists of horizontal grid lines. The horizontal axis is labelled Entity and lists different social media platforms. The vertical axis is labelled monthly active users and ranges from 0 to 2500000000 in increments of 500000000. A legend on the right side of the graph shows years from 2002 to 2019. Each year is accompanied by a dot. The approximate data from the chart are tabulated below.

Entity Monthly active users Facebook 0 to 2500000000 Flickr 0 to 100000000 SAGE

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Friendster 0 to 100000000 Google+ 0 to 500000000 Google Buzz 200000000 Hi5 0 to 100000000

Instagram 0 to 1000000000 MySpace 0 to 100000000 Orkut 0 to 100000000 Pinterest 0 to 400000000 Reddit 0 to 450000000 Snapchat 250000000

TikTok 250000000 and 500000000 Tumblr 0 to 650000000

Twitter 0 to 350000000 WeChat 0 to 1000000000 Weibo 0 to 500000000 WhatsApp 0 to 1400000000 YouTube 0 to 2000000000

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This plot can be used to see the trends over time of the monthly active users of each of the social media platforms studied (Figure 7). For this purpose, go to Scatter/Dot, and drag the bottom third symbol (Grouped Scatter) to the empty box. In this box, drag the variable Year to the frame titled X-Axis, the variable Monthlyactiveusers to the Y-Axis, and Entity to the frame Set Color and click OK.

The graph consists of horizontal gridlines. The horizontal axis is labelled year and ranges from 2002 to 2019, in increments of 1. The vertical axis is labelled monthly active users and ranges from 0 to 2500000000 in increments of 500000000. A legend on the right side of the graph shows a list of the following platforms, each accompanied by a dot:

• Facebook

• Flickr

• Friendster

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• Google Buzz

• Google+

• Hi5

• Instagram

• MySpace

• Orkut

• Pinterest

• Reddit

• Snapchat

• TikTok

• Tumblr

• Twitter

• WeChat

• Weibo

• WhatsApp

• YouTube

The approximate data from the chart are tabulated below.

Year Monthly active users 2002 50000000

2003 50000000 2004 50000000

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2009 0 to 450000000 2010 0 to 500000000 2011 0 to 750000000 2012 0 to 1000000000

2013 0 to 1200000000 2014 0 to 1400000000 2015 0 to 1500000000 2016 0 to 1750000000 2017 0 to 2050000000 2018 0 to 2250000000 2019 0 to 2400000000

Figure 7. Grouped Scatter of Monthly Active Users by Year and Platform

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2.1.5 Connected Dot Plot

You can filter the data and only select two years to compare monthly active users (Figure 8). To do this, go to Data/Select cases, and then select “If condition is satisfied” and press If. In the window, enter the formula: Year=2010 | Year=2018.

Go to Graphs/Chart Builder. Then, go to Scatter/Dot, and drag the bottom last symbol to the empty box. In this box, you can indicate the variables to show.

To this end, drag the variable Entity to the frame titled X-Axis, the variable Monthlyactiveusers to the Y-Axis, year to the frame Set Color and click OK.

The chart consists of horizontal gridlines. The horizontal axis is labelled Entity and

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Facebook 5, E 8 2.7, E 9

Flickr 0.4, E 8 No data

Google+ No data 4.9, E 8

Google Buzz 2, E 8 No data

Hi5 0.5, E 8 No data

Instagram No data 1, E 9

MySpace 0.5, E 8 No data

Orkut 0.5, E 8 No data

Pinterest No data 2.5, E 8

Reddit No data 3.5, E 8

TikTok No data 5, E 8

Tumblr No data 6, E 8

Twitter 0.5, E 8 3, E 8

WeChat No data 1, E 9

Weibo 0.25, E 8 4.5, E 8

YouTube 5, E 8 2.9, E 9

The dots for 2010 and 2018 of each platform are connected.

Figure 8. Connected Dot Plot of Monthly Active Users by Entity by Year (2010 vs 2018)

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2.2 Exploring the Output

The interpretation of this type of graphics is simple and intuitive. As you can observe in Figure 9, due to the height of the stacked dots is proportional to the frequency of each platform, YouTube is the social media platform with the highest users active monthly. The lowest corresponds to Snapchat and TikTok with 1 and 2 dots, respectively.

The horizontal axis is labelled Social Media Platform and lists the names of

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Flickr 10

Friendster 8

Google+ 7

Google Buzz 6

Hi5 7

Instagram 6

MySpace 8

Orkut 9

Pinterest 4

Reddit 9

Snapchat 1

TikTok 2

Tumblr 7

Twitter 10

WeChat 8

Weibo 9

WhatsApp 5

YouTube 14

Figure 9. Social Media Platforms Users Active Monthly Between 2002 and 2019

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3. Your Turn

Select cases related to 2018 and obtain the simple scatter of the social media platforms. Then, change the title to “Monthly Active users in 2018.” Also, change the title of the x-axis to a suitable text and put the graph in vertical. How many monthly active users have TikTok?

Download the Number of deaths by cause, World data from Our World in Data, and raise three questions that can be answered from the data represented by dot plots. Create a dot plot that lets you know the causes of death. Represent a connected dot plot to know if the main causes of death in 1995 are the same as today.

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