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PSYC 3990 Lab Final Assessment Guide

This document provides instructions for a final assessment in a psychology lab course. It includes 5 research scenarios with questions about identifying independent and dependent variables and selecting the appropriate statistical test to analyze each scenario's data. It also includes 3 examples of SPSS output from a t-test, correlations test, and one-way ANOVA, with additional questions to interpret the results. The assessment evaluates students' ability to design simple studies, identify key study components, and appropriately select and understand common statistical analyses used in psychology research.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
11 views5 pages

PSYC 3990 Lab Final Assessment Guide

This document provides instructions for a final assessment in a psychology lab course. It includes 5 research scenarios with questions about identifying independent and dependent variables and selecting the appropriate statistical test to analyze each scenario's data. It also includes 3 examples of SPSS output from a t-test, correlations test, and one-way ANOVA, with additional questions to interpret the results. The assessment evaluates students' ability to design simple studies, identify key study components, and appropriately select and understand common statistical analyses used in psychology research.

Uploaded by

micahgaffney
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Name __________________________________________

PSYC 3990 Lab: Final Assessment (40 pts)


Due November 30th at the beginning of class
Please complete this assignment INDEPENDENTLY.

Part I. Read the following research scenarios and answer the questions pertaining to each
one. (5 pts per scenario)

Research scenario A. You are interested in knowing whether biology or psychology majors
spend more time studying. From 100 biology and psychology undergraduate students, you
collect their major and an estimate of how many hours spend studying per week.

1. What is/are the IV(s)? ______________________________________


2. What is the DV? ___________________________________________
3. From the following list, which test would you run to analyze the data (correlation,
regression, z-test, independent t-test, dependent t-test, one-way ANOVA)?
__________________

Research scenario B. You are interested in knowing whether more exercise is related to less
stress in college professors. You collect data from professors at a large Southeastern university.
Each professor indicates the amount of stress they experience on average day to day on a scale of
0 to 10. Then, by accessing the university’s gym records, you find out how many times each
professor has been to the gym in the past academic year.

4. What is/are the IV(s)? ______________________________________


5. What is the DV? _____________________________________
6. From the following list, which test would you run to analyze the data (correlation,
regression, z-test, independent t-test, dependent t-test, one-way ANOVA)?
__________________

Research scenario C. You are interested in knowing whether the type of therapy used
differentially affects the severity of symptoms in a group of patients with phobias. You assign
patients to one of four groups: systematic desensitization, prolonged exposure, supportive
counseling (in which patients were taught coping strategies), or a control group (patients were
put on a waiting list). After a week of treatment you assess patient ratings of the severity of their
symptoms.

7. What is/are the IV(s)? ______________________________________


8. What is the DV? _____________________________________
Name __________________________________________

9. From the following list, which test would you run to analyze the data (correlation,
regression, z-test, independent t-test, dependent t-test, one-way ANOVA)?
__________________

Research scenario D. You are interested in knowing whether babies have better memory at 2
years old than 1 year old. You go to a local daycare and measure 40 1-year-olds’ memory using a
standard memory test designed for very small children (on a scale of 0 to 100). A year later, you
go back and test the memory of the same 40 children.

10. What is/are the IV(s)? ______________________________________


11. What is the DV? _____________________________________
12. From the following list, which test would you run to analyze the data (correlation,
regression, z-test, independent t-test, dependent t-test, one-way ANOVA)?
__________________

Research scenario E. You are interested in knowing whether age and the number of pets a
person owns predict their level of happiness later in life. You go to a local senior citizens’ center
and interview 40 older adults. You ask them for their age, the number of pets they own, and how
happy they consider themselves to be generally speaking day-to-day on a scale of 1 to 7.

13. What is/are the IV(s)? ______________________________________


14. What is the DV? _____________________________________
15. From the following list, which test would you run to analyze the data (correlation,
regression, z-test, independent t-test, dependent t-test, one-way ANOVA)?
__________________

Part II. Examine the following SPSS output and answer the questions below each. (5 pts
per output display)

Output A. t-Test
Name __________________________________________

Group Statistics

Std. Error
gender N Mean Std. Deviation Mean
GPA females 6 3.2667 .37771 .15420
males 6 3.2167 .49160 .20069

Independent Samples Test

Levene's Test for


Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means

Mean Std. Error


F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed) Difference Difference
GPA Equal variances
.666 .434 .198 10 .847 .05000 .25309
assumed
Equal variances
.198 9.378 .848 .05000 .25309
not assumed

1. According to this output, can you reject the null hypothesis? ______________

2. Describe what the results of this test mean. (For example, “Group X’s mean is greater than
group Y’s,” or “Higher X scores predict lower Y scores” depending on what is appropriate for
this specific statistical test. Please do not write “the test is significant” or “the test is not
significant.”)

Output B. Correlations
Name __________________________________________

Correlations

cigarettes doctorsvisi
perweek tsperyear
cigarettesperweek Pearson Correlation 1 .727**
Sig. (2-tailed) .005
N 13 13
doctorsvisitsperyear Pearson Correlation .727** 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .005
N 13 13
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

3. According to this output, can you reject the null hypothesis? ______________

4. Describe what the results of this test mean. (For example, “Group X’s mean is greater than
group Y’s,” or “Higher X scores predict lower Y scores” depending on what is appropriate for
this specific statistical test. Please do not write “the test is significant” or “the test is not
significant.”)

Output C. One-way ANOVA

Note: The IV in this example is "city of residence" and the DV is "stress level".

Descriptives

stresslevel
95% Confidence Interval for
Mean
N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Lower Bound Upper Bound Minimum Maximum
new york 7 7.5714 1.71825 .64944 5.9823 9.1605 5.00 10.00
LA 7 6.0000 1.15470 .43644 4.9321 7.0679 5.00 8.00
atlanta 7 4.2857 1.70434 .64418 2.7095 5.8620 2.00 7.00
Total 21 5.9524 2.01187 .43903 5.0366 6.8682 2.00 10.00
Name __________________________________________

ANOVA

stresslevel
Sum of
Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups 37.810 2 18.905 7.887 .003
Within Groups 43.143 18 2.397
Total 80.952 20

5. According to this output, can you reject the null hypothesis? ______________

6. Describe what the results of this test mean. (For example, “Group X’s mean is greater than
group Y’s,” or “Higher X scores predict lower Y scores” depending on what is appropriate for
this specific statistical test. Please do not write “the test is significant” or “the test is not
significant.”)

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