Complete the following problems within this Word document. (Do not submit other files.) Show your work for problem sets that require calculations. Ensure that your answer to each problem is clearly visible. (You may want to highlight your answer or use a different type color to set it apart.) Submit the document to your instructor by Sunday, 11:59 p.m. central time.
Problem Set 1.1 : Identifying Variables (Dependent, Independent, Quasi-Independent) Criterion: Identify dependent and independent variables.
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Instructions: For the following list of examples, identify the dependent variable and independent (or quasi-independent) variable.
A researcher tests whether cocaine use increases impulsive behavior in a sample of cocaine-dependent and cocaine-inexperienced mice.
Independent Variable: Cocaine Use
Dependent Variable: Impulsive behavior
A professor tests whether students perform better on a multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank test format.
Independent Variable: Test Format
Dependent Variable: Performance of students
A researcher tests whether smoking by parents influences children’s attitudes toward smoking status.
Independent Variable: Parents’ behavior of smoking
Dependent Variable: Children’s attitude towards smoking
A social scientist tests whether attitudes toward morality differ based on political affiliation (Democrat or Republican).
Independent Variable: political affiliation
Dependent Variable: attitude towards morality
A cultural researcher tests whether individuals from different cultures share or differ in the belief that dreams have meaning.
Independent Variable: Culture
Dependent Variable: Belief that dreams have meaning
Problem Set 1.2: Understanding Descriptive and Interferential Statistics Criterion: Explain data in a table.
Instructions: Read the following and answer the question. Gun ownership in the United States. Data from Gallup polls over a 40-year period show how gun ownership in the United States has changed. The results are described in the table below, with the percentage of Americans who own guns given in each of 5 decades:
|
Year 1972 1982 1992 2002 2012 |
% 43 42 48 40 43 |
Source: Reported at http://www.gallup.com/poll/1645/Guns.aspx
Are the percentages reported here an example of descriptive statistics or interferential statistics?
The percentage reported in the table above is an example of a descriptive statistics because it gives the description of gun ownership over the years only and ignores any other data inferential to the gun ownership. For instance, the data does not demonstrate whether the trend appreciates or depreciates.
Based on the percentages given in the table, how has gun ownership in the United States changed over the past 40 years? The data provided in the table demonstrates a mixed trend in the gun ownership. As such, one cannot give any inferential conclusion on the trend of gun ownership using the data. For instance, in 1992, the number increased with 6%, in 2002 it decreased with 8% and then in 2012 it increased with 3%. Generally, the trend cannot be described to be increasing, decreasing or same.
Problem Set 1.3: Understanding Sample and Population Criterion: Describes the relationship between population and sample.
Instructions: Read the following and answer the question.
Height and educational attainment. Szklarska, Koziel, Bielicki, and Malina (2007) hypothesized that taller young men are more likely to move up the scale of educational attainment compared with shorter individuals from the same social background. They recruited 91,373 19-year-old men to participate in the study. Do these participants most likely represent a sample or population? Explain. The participants in this case are more likely to represent sample than population. We don’t know whether the researchers randomly recruited the participants or not. Besides, there is a possibility that the participants do not represent the targeted population proportionally. It is therefore right to say that the participants represent sample . (Assignment continues on next page.)
Problem Set 1.4 : Constants and Variables Criterion: Identify constants and variables.
Instructions: Identify whether the following are constants or variables.
8: Constant
− 5: Constant
– x: Variable since x can be any value
y: Variable since y can be any value
0: Constant
xy: Variable since we don’t know the exact value of both x and y which can be any value.
Problem Set 1.5 : SPSS Enter Data Criterion: Enter and display data in SPSS. Instructions: Use the supplied data to complete Steps 1–8 below. Data: Five social media users spent the following number of minutes viewing Twitter: 15.21, 46.18, 12.45, 65.486, 26.852.
Steps:
Open SPSS.
Click New DataSet in the New Files area and then click Open.
Click the Variable View tab at the bottom.
In the cell under Name, type Minutes.
The variable of Minutes is continuous. In the Decimals column, type 2.
Click on the Data View tab at the bottom of the screen.
Enter data in the column labeled Minutes.
Take a screenshot of your data in SPSS and paste it below.
Note: I have used the software: IBM SPSS statistics 20
