Psy 210 Data Analysis Assignment

							Psy 210                       Data Analysis Assignment #17          Due: Thurs April 29
                 Independent Sample T-Test and Writing a Research Report       3 Marks
Open the Recoded Research Data available from Dr. Barchard’s website.
The data that you have been using in the lab assignments came from a real study conducted at
UNLV last year. Participants completed these questions using an on-line survey. The
participants were told on the computer about the study, using a webpage. If they decided to
consent, they were then sent to a short questionnaire, which asked them the questions that we
have data for. This took about 20 minutes in total. After they had finished filling out the
questions, they were told more about how this data would be used in Psy 210 lab assignments
and were invited to email Dr. Barchard if they had any questions.
Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to teach you how statistics are incorporated into a research
report. This assignment is the same as the Writing a Research Report assignment, but now we
will add an Independent Sample t-test to our results section. You will calculate an independent
sample t-test to compare the number of cats and dogs owned by men and women, and then you
will write a report describing your findings
Please note: Although only a few sections of this report have changed, you must hand in the
entire report, and your entire report will be marked. Therefore, you must fix anything that you
did wrong the first time.
Part I: Descriptive Statistics for the Sample
There is a part of the report that describes our participants. It’s in the Method Section, and the
section is called Participants. We need to calculate descriptive statistics regarding our
participants, to put in this section.
1. Find out how many subjects were male and how many were female
2. Calculate the average and standard deviation of the ages of the subjects. Calculate these
    descriptive statistics for ages for men and women combined, not separately.
Part II: Calculating the Mean the Number of Cats and Dogs Owned for Men and Women
In the Results section of the report, we will give the statistical results for the main research
question. In this case, the purpose of the research is to compare the number of cats and dogs
owned by men and women. Therefore, we’ll put the results of that analysis in the Results
section.
1. In a previous assignment, you learned three different ways to obtain descriptive statistics for
    men and women separately. Using one of those three methods, calculate the mean and
    standard deviation for the number of cats owned and the number of dogs owned, for men and
    women separately.
Part III: Using an Independent Sample t-test to Compare the Number of Dogs and Cats
Owned by Men and Women
1. Conduct an Independent Sample T-test to compare the number of dogs owned by men and
   women. Use Analysis, Compare Means, Independent Samples T. Use dogs as the test
   variable. Use sex# as the grouping variable, and define groups as having values 1 and 2.
2. Conduct an Independent Sample T-test to compare the number of cats owned by men and
   women.
These results will be put in your results section below.
Part IV: Writing your Report
Write a short research report, comparing the number of dogs and cats owned by men and women.
Your research report should be NO MORE THAN ONE DOUBLE-SPACE PAGE, and should
have the following sections:

Introduction     Explain the research question you are studying

Method           Participants
                    Using the results from Part I above, describe the number and type of
                    subjects, giving the gender composition of the sample, and the mean and
                    standard deviation of the ages. Also mention that these subjects were
                    university students who participated in return for course credit.
                 Procedures
                    Describe how the measures were administered to the research participants,
                    and how long the study took. They were administered on UNLV campus
                    computers, over the Internet, without supervision, and it took participants
                    about 20 minutes to complete the study.
                 Measures
                    Describe the measures by specifying the precise wording of the two items
                    asking about cat and dog ownership. The wording is given in the SPSS
                    database, under label

Results          Using the results of Part II above, give the sample means and standard
                 deviations for each question, for men and women separately. Using the results
                 of Part II above, report the results of your Independent Sample T-tests that
                 tested the hypotheses that men and women own equal numbers of dogs and
                 cats. Give your results in the format discussed in class: test statistic (degrees
                 of freedom) = observed value, p = p-value. Example: t(231) = 1.98, p = .046.

Conclusion       Make a short general statement about what you found. You may need two
                 sentences, one for each hypothesis test.

Write your research report like a short essay. Put titles on each section. The titles are
Introduction, Method, Results, and Conclusion. Under the Method section, there should be
subheadings for Participants, Procedures, and Measures. Write each section as a paragraph.
Your report MUST be typed.

                                     What to Hand In
Hand in your SPSS output, and your short double-spaced, typed essay.