please read the whole assignment and complete it carefully. you must us spss for this assignment. copy outputs and answers to word
PSYC 207 Data Analysis Spring 2021 Final Take-Home Assignment (30%) DUE: April 27th, 2021 11:59 PM Upload your final assignment to the Moodle Dropbox as one MS Word doc (no pdfs accepted) INSTRUCTIONS For your final assignment, you will analyze two datasets using statistical tests based on the background information given (this is contrived) and provide an appropriate statistical analysis, statistical conclusion(s) and research conclusion(s) based on your data analysis, as well as associated questions. Marks are not awarded for incorrect statistical tests used, incorrect statistical conclusions and incorrect research conclusions. Please use correct terminology throughout. If you are unclear, check Salkind and class notes. Be detailed with your answers. Your work must be your own and you must answer in your own words. SPECIFICS Your assignment is broken up into four parts: For Part 1 only: Create a table (or tables) of summary descriptive data of the participants using appropriate descriptive summary measures. Ensure you label your tables appropriately. Separate the tables out into the following: a. Sociodemographics (e.g. gender, location, age, etc.) b. Specific research variables related to your participants (e.g. sleep, QOL, physical activity, etc.) c. Written paragraph(s) on who your sample represents. Summarize, don’t list. EXAMPLE TABLE Mean ± SD % Age (years) 24±8 Gender Female 42 Male 58 For Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4: 1. Provide a null hypoth(es) for each research hypothes(es) presented. 2. Perform the appropriate statistical analysis to answer each research hypothesis using SPSS. Provide and label all relevant SPSS outputs. The level of significance default in SPSS is 0.05. 3. Results section. This is where you present your statistical findings. These should be: (a.) Labeled SPSS outputs (b.) Written statistical conclusion of the interpretation for each statistical analysis in Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4. See examples provided by Salkind and PSYC 207 resources/powerpoints/practice examples for written statistical conclusions: e.g. for a t-test, you would have to have to include your statistical findings including a t-statistic: t(14) = 4.201, p=0.003 4. Research conclusion. Provide a written research conclusion(s) for each research hypothesis. *See the last page of this assignment for order of results presentation, outputs, questions, etc. GRADING* You will be graded on the following: 1. Selection of the appropriate statistical test(s) to answer research questions 2. Correct SPSS statistical outputs, statistical conclusions, interpretation and analysis 3. Research conclusions based on statistical findings 4. Answers to follow-up questions 5. Overall clarity of presentation of data including grammar, spelling, organization, etc. *See grading rubric provided. PSYC 207 FINAL EXAM BACKGROUND Quality of life (QOL) can be described as a state of well-being associated with the ability to perform everyday activities and which reflects physical psychological, and social well-being; QOL reflects satisfaction within the physical, psychological, social, activity, material, and structural areas of one’s life. You are interested in assessing factors that are related to improved QOL in persons. After performing a literature review you theorize that several factors might contribute to a person’s QOL, including the following domains: financial, physical, and psychological. For example, research has shown that a person’s financial stability is associated with greater QOL in some instances given that greater financial health might lend itself towards increased access to healthy foods and potential for improved nutritional practices, as well as access to healthcare and adequate housing (all of which are linked to QOL). Further, some research shows that robust physical health may be linked to QOL. Findings show that persons who engage in regular physical activity show improved immune function and thus greater ability to fight disease, as well as increased mobility to perform daily tasks (greater independence), and increased social interaction (psycho-social benefits). Finally, there is some evidence to suggest that one’s level of resiliency may play a role in one’s QOL. Resiliency can be described as the ability to mentally or emotionally cope with a crisis or, having experienced a personal crisis, return to a pre-crisis state rapidly. It seems that in some cases, the greater one’s resiliency, the better one’s QOL. If this is the case, perhaps there are interventions available that can enhance one’s resiliency that may in turn, help to enhance one’s QOL. Your research study is separated into four parts: PART 1: Sociodemographics Run descriptive summary statistics on your collected data. Using MS Word, create a table (or tables) of summary descriptive data of the participants using appropriate descriptive summary measures (see example below). Label your table(s) appropriately. Separate the tables out into the following: a. Sociodemographics (e.g. gender, location, age, etc.) b. Specific research variables related to your participants (e.g. sleep, QOL, physical activity, etc.) RESULTS Using this tabular data construct a small write-up (a paragraph or two) summarizing who your participants are. Access SPSS File: ‘PSYC_QOL_SP2021’ to run this descriptive statistical analysis to complete the sociodemographics part of the assignment. PART 2: Quality of Life (QOL) You draw a convenience sample (volunteers) and n=110 agree to participate in your study. Your primary research hypothesis for Part 2 is to investigate those factors that can predict or explain a change in QOL. Based upon the literature you hypothesize that the factors of: income, physical activity, anxiety and resiliency could be significant predictors or explanatory factors of changes in QOL. Secondarily you hypothesize that anxiety is negatively associated with resiliency. Thirdly, you think that there will be differences between urban and rural locations for levels of anxiety and resiliency. Access SPSS File: ‘PSYC_QOL_SP2021’ to run a statistical analysis to complete PART 2 of the assignment. RESULTS – SPSS outputs, statistical and research conclusions PART 3: Mindfulness training and anxiety In the third part of your study, you want to investigate the influence of mindfulness training (MT) on levels of anxiety. Mindfulness training can be described briefly as a technique one can learn that involves making concentrated efforts to be aware of what is happening in the present moment (in your mind, body and surroundings) without passing judgement. While you hypothesize that mindfulness training (MT) can help reduce anxiety scores, you also think there might be gender differences with respect to anxiety - and want to know if there might be an interaction between gender and MT and their combined effect on anxiety. To answer these questions you have randomly allocated your sample (n=110) into two groups: one group that receives mindfulness training (MT) and the other that does not (control group). The MT group received a month of mindfulness training (3 times per week for one hour at a time) while the control group received weekly ‘cute kitten’ videos (3 times per week, one hour each) to watch for a month. Following the one month MT intervention, measures of anxiety were gathered and you ran your statistical analyses to answer your research question. The persons who delivered the MT therapy were trained with inter-rater reliability of 0.78. Access SPSS File: ‘Anxiety_SP2021’ to complete Part 3 of the assignment. RESULTS – SPSS outputs, statistical and research conclusions PART 4: Sleep Finally, to gather some preliminary data that will inform a future study involving sleep, you hypothesize that there are gender differences in the amount of sleep one gets. As well you also hypothesize differences in sleep across age groups. You run a statistical analysis to assess those differences, recoding your Age variable into the following categories: 1 = 20-39 years 2 = 40-59 years 3 = 60-99 years Access SPSS File: ‘PSYC_QOL_SP2021’ to complete Part 4 of the assignment. RESULTS – SPSS outputs, statistical and research conclusions Information on Instruments used in the study R1 Resiliency Scale The R1 Resiliency scale used in this study is a 10 item questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale wherein 1 = very true about me to 5 = not true about me. The 10 items are summed for an overall score out of 50, wherein a higher score = higher resiliency (e.g. a score of 40 on the R1 Resiliency scale would indicate a higher level of resiliency than a score of 25). Rankings are as follows: 1-15Low resiliency 16-30Moderate resiliency 31-50High resiliency The R1 Resiliency scale has construct validity of (r = 0.34, p<0.05) and="" reported="" criterion="" validity="" of="" r="0.68,"><0.05) with="" the="" current="" gold="" standard.="" the="" r1="" assessed="" for="" its="" internal="" consistency="" showed="" a="" cronbach’s="" alpha="" of="" 0.72="" a1="" anxiety="" scale="" the="" a1="" anxiety="" scale="" used="" in="" this="" study="" is="" a="" 20="" item="" questionnaire="" using="" a="" 5-point="" likert="" scale="" wherein="" 1="not" very="" likely="" to="" 5="highly" likely.="" the="" 20="" items="" are="" summed="" for="" an="" overall="" score="" out="" of="" 100,="" wherein="" a="" higher="" score="" indicates="" a="" higher="" state="" of="" anxiety.="" rankings="" are="" as="" follows:="" 1-24="" low="" anxiety="" 25-49="" moderately="" low="" anxiety="" 50-75="" moderately="" high="" anxiety="">=75High anxiety The A1 Anxiety scale has a reported concurrent validity of r=0.72, (p<0.05) with="" another="" anxiety="" scale="" currently="" being="" used.="" the="" r1="" assessed="" for="" its="" internal="" consistency="" showed="" a="" cronbach’s="" alpha="" of="" 0.87.="" qol="" quality="" of="" life="" scale="" the="" qol="" scale="" developed="" by="" the="" quality="" of="" life="" organization="" is="" a="" 25="" item="" scale="" using="" a="" 4-point="" likert="" scale="" wherein="" 1="poor" and="" 4="excellent." the="" 25="" items="" are="" summed="" for="" an="" overall="" score="" of="" 100,="" wherein="" a="" higher="" score="" indicates="" a="" higher="" quality="" of="" life.="" the="" qol="" scale="" has="" shown="" concurrent="" validity="" with="" the="" srs="" wellbeing="" scale="" (r="0.81,"><0.01); internal="" consistency="" has="" been="" assessed="" at="" 0.78,=""><0.05 using cronhach’s alpha. rankings for qol are as follows: 1-24low qol 25-49moderately low qol 50-74moderate qol 75-100high qol physical activity physical activity was assessed using a modified version of the ipac scale, wherein participants were asked about their weekly physical activity levels. values for such are stated in the spss file, ranked from no weekly physical activity, low level of weekly physical activity, and high level of weekly physical activity. all other variables are categorical or continuous (e.g. sleep in hours) and are defined in the spss files. level of significance the level of significance for this study is 0.05 questions (24 marks) questions related to analysis 1. provide a rationale as to why you chose the specific statistical tests you used in your analysis for parts 2-4. be specific. (3 marks) 2. no study is perfect. think back to confidence in statistics. what could have improved the confidence of the statistical findings? in other words, if you could go back in time, how could you have improved the study, statistically? (2 marks) 3. although it wasn’t asked for in this assignment, why might you want to assess the confidence limits (confidence intervals) of a variable of interest (say, anxiety scores from part 3)? using="" cronhach’s="" alpha.="" rankings="" for="" qol="" are="" as="" follows:="" 1-24="" low="" qol="" 25-49="" moderately="" low="" qol="" 50-74="" moderate="" qol="" 75-100="" high="" qol="" physical="" activity="" physical="" activity="" was="" assessed="" using="" a="" modified="" version="" of="" the="" ipac="" scale,="" wherein="" participants="" were="" asked="" about="" their="" weekly="" physical="" activity="" levels.="" values="" for="" such="" are="" stated="" in="" the="" spss="" file,="" ranked="" from="" no="" weekly="" physical="" activity,="" low="" level="" of="" weekly="" physical="" activity,="" and="" high="" level="" of="" weekly="" physical="" activity.="" all="" other="" variables="" are="" categorical="" or="" continuous="" (e.g.="" sleep="" in="" hours)="" and="" are="" defined="" in="" the="" spss="" files.="" level="" of="" significance="" the="" level="" of="" significance="" for="" this="" study="" is="" 0.05="" questions="" (24="" marks)="" questions="" related="" to="" analysis="" 1.="" provide="" a="" rationale="" as="" to="" why="" you="" chose="" the="" specific="" statistical="" tests="" you="" used="" in="" your="" analysis="" for="" parts="" 2-4.="" be="" specific.="" (3="" marks)="" 2.="" no="" study="" is="" perfect.="" think="" back="" to="" confidence="" in="" statistics.="" what="" could="" have="" improved="" the="" confidence="" of="" the="" statistical="" findings?="" in="" other="" words,="" if="" you="" could="" go="" back="" in="" time,="" how="" could="" you="" have="" improved="" the="" study,="" statistically?="" (2="" marks)="" 3.="" although="" it="" wasn’t="" asked="" for="" in="" this="" assignment,="" why="" might="" you="" want="" to="" assess="" the="" confidence="" limits="" (confidence="" intervals)="" of="" a="" variable="" of="" interest="" (say,="" anxiety="" scores="" from="" part="">