Understanding Psychology as a Science Quantitative Analysis Assignment -
Question 1 - A researcher conducted an experiment to see the effect of rehearsal on memory performance. The researcher randomly assigned the participants to one of two groups. One group were allowed to rehearse the words being learnt, while the other group was prevented from rehearsing the words by performing another task. The researcher predicts that those allowed to rehearse will recall more words than those prevented from rehearsing.
Based on the description of the experiment and the data provided for this question, answer the following questions:
1. What is the independent variable?
2. What is the dependent variable?
3. What is the null hypothesis?
4. What is the experimental hypothesis?
5. Is the hypothesis one-tailed or two-tailed, and why?
6. Present a summary table of the data showing the mean of each condition and the standard deviations.
7. Present a bar chart of the means for each of the conditions.
Conduct an appropriate analysis of the data using SPSS.
8. State which test you have used, and give your reasons for using this test.
9. Present a summary of the results of this test, including an appropriate measure of effect size.
10. Interpret the results - would you reject or retain the null hypothesis?
11. State what the researcher could conclude about the effects of the independent variable with respect to the research question.
Question 2 - A researcher wanted to investigate whether an individual's attitude towards rehabilitation of offenders differed based on their education and gender. A random sample of participants was recruited and asked to complete a personality test and answer some simple questions on their attitude to rehabilitation. They were also required to complete a form asking for demographic information. The attitude scale was scored from 10-50 (the lower the score, the more negative the attitude towards the success of rehabilitation, the higher the score, the more positive the attitude towards the success of rehabilitation).
Based on the description of the study and the data provided for this question, answer the following questions:
12. What are the two factors?
13. What is the dependent variable?
14. There are three hypotheses that are being investigated in this study, what are they?
15. What are the three null hypotheses?
16. Present a summary table of the data showing the mean and standard deviations of attitudes across the different groups.
Conduct an appropriate analysis of the data using SPSS.
17. State which test you have used and give your reasons for using this test.
18. Present a summary of the results of this test, including an appropriate measure of effect size.
19. Interpret the results - would you reject or retain the null hypotheses?
20. State what the researcher could conclude about the main effects and interaction effect with respect to the research question.
Question 3 - A researcher was interested in the relationship between life happiness, work satisfaction and self-rated general health. She wanted to know how well work satisfaction and level of health predicted level of happiness. She has been using the publicly-available European Social Survey, taken in 2006, which has items measuring these (which she did not choose). In her preliminary analysis she has put together scales for each of these variables, based on the items it included, and checked they have adequate Cronbach's alpha levels. She has data from 1297 participants from the UK element of the survey, and the data are in a separate SPSS file which you must open.
Based on the description of the study and the data provided for this question, answer the following questions:
1. What are the two hypotheses being tested?
2. What is the null hypothesis for each?
3. Produce a scatterplot showing the relationship between life satisfaction and work satisfaction.
Conduct an appropriate analysis of the data using SPSS
4. Obtain the Pearson correlation coefficients between these three variables and display the results in an appropriate table, indicating significance levels.
5. Based on these correlations and associated p-values, would you reject or retain the null hypothesis?
6. Now to estimate their relative contributions to the prediction, run a multiple regression. Use the Enter method (not stepwise). Present the results in an appropriate manner, including Beta values and adjusted R2.
7. Based on the results of the regression, state what the researcher could conclude from the results of the study with respect to the research question.
8. What is the problem with this form of research design and analysis with respect to determining cause?
9. State two potential problems with this study.
10. Suggest one way in which it might be improved.
Attachment:- Assignment Files.rar