Week Four Practice Problems PSY/315 Version 4 1
Prepare a written response to the following questions.
Chapter 7
- The table below shows ratings of various aspects of work and home life of 100 middle-class men in India who were fathers. Pick three rows of interest to you and explain the results to someone who is familiar with the mean, variance, and Z scores, but knows nothing else about statistics.
| Comparison of Fathers’ Mean Psychological States in the Job and Home Spheres (N = 100) | ||||
| Sphere | ||||
| Scale | Range | Work | Home | Work vs. home |
| Important | 0-9 | 5.98 | 5.06 | 6.86*** |
| Attention | 0-9 | 6.15 | 5.13 | 7.96*** |
| Challenge | 0-9 | 4.11 | 2.41 | 11.49*** |
| Choice | 0-9 | 4.28 | 4.74 | -3.38*** |
| Wish doing else | 0-9 | 1.5 | 1.44 | 0.61 |
| Hurried | 0-3 | 1.8 | 1.39 | 3.21** |
| Social Anxiety | 0-3 | 0.81 | 0.64 | 3.17** |
| Affect | 1-7 | 4.84 | 4.98 | -2.64** |
| Social Climate | 1-7 | 5.64 | 5.95 | 4.17*** |
| Note: Values for column 3 are t scores; df = 90 for all t tests. | ||||
| **p < .01 | ||||
| ***p < .001 | ||||
Chapter 8
- Barker and colleagues (2012) compared 61 parents fo children who had a serious mental illness (SMI) to 321 parents of children withour such an illness. The researchers examined the parents’ reported levels of stress, their levels of a hormone called cortisol (levels of this hormone provide an indication of chronic stress), and their use of several types of medication. The table below shows the results of the study. Focusing on the parents’ number of stressors (the first row of the table) and the parents’ use of medications for anxiety or depression (the last row in the table), explain these results to a person who knows about the t test for a single sample but is unfamiliar with the t test for independent means.
| Descriptive Statistics and Mean-Level Comparisons | |||||||||
| SMI Parents | Comparison Parents | ||||||||
| N = 61 | N = 321 | ||||||||
| Mean | SD | Mean | SD | t | p | ||||
| Stress | |||||||||
| Number of stressors | 0.65 | 0.56 | 0.42 | 0.37 | -3.08 | 0.00 | |||
| Stress severity sum | 1.89 | 1.63 | 1.16 | 1.1 | -3.3 | 0.00 | |||
| Cortisol (nmol/L) | |||||||||
| Wake | 17.46 | 10.72 | 16.75 | 7.38 | -0.14 | 0.90 | |||
| Out of bed | 22.83 | 11.48 | 24.19 | 10.59 | 1.13 | 0.26 | |||
| Bed | 5.72 | 8.56 | 4.22 | 5.57 | -1.86 | 0.06 | |||
| Cortisol awakening response | 5.62 | 9.7 | 7.48 | 8.34 | 1.55 | 0.12 | |||
| Decline from out of bed | 17.13 | 11.35 | 20.11 | 10.71 | 1.97 | 0.05 | |||
| Medication use (proportion) | |||||||||
| Allergy | 0.26 | 0.44 | 0.16 | 0.37 | -1.71 | 0.09 | |||
| Steroid | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.12 | 0.33 | -1.32 | 0.19 | |||
| Hormone | 0.13 | 0.34 | 0.14 | 0.35 | 0.25 | 0.80 | |||
| Anxiety or depression | 0.26 | 0.44 | 0.12 | 0.33 | -2.36 | 0.02 | |||
14. For each of the following studies, say whether you would use a t test for dependent means or a t test for independent means.
a. A researcher measures the heights of 40 university students who are the firstborn in their families and compares the 15 who come from large families to the 25 who come from smaller families.
b. A researcher tests performance on a math skills test of each of 250 individuals before and after they complete a one-day seminar on managing test anxiety.
c. A researcher compares the resting heart rate of 15 individuals who have been taking a particular drug to the resting heart rate of 48 other individuals who have not been taking the drug.
Chapter 9
- An experiment is conducted in which 60 participants each fill out a personality test, but not according to the way the participants see themselves. Instead, 15 are randomly assigned to fill it out according to the way they think theur mothers see them (that is, the way they think their mothers would fill it out to describe the participants); 15 as their fathers would fill it out for them; 15 as their best friends would fill it out for them; 15 as the professors they know best would fill it out for them. The main results appear in Table 9-17. Explain these results to a person who has never had a course in statistics.
| Means for Main Personality Scales for Each Experimental Condition | |||||
| Scale | Mother | Father | Friend | Professor | F(3, 56) |
| Conformity | 24 | 21 | 12 | 16 | 4.21** |
| Extroversion | 14 | 13 | 15 | 13 | 2.05 |
| Maturity | 15 | 15 | 22 | 19 | 3.11* |
| Self-Confidence | 38 | 42 | 27 | 32 | 3.58* |
| *p < .05, **p < .01 | |||||
24. Rosalie Friend (2001), and educational psychologist, compared three methods of teaching writing. Students were randomly assigned to three different experimental conditions involving different methods of writing a summary. At the end of the two days of instructions, participants wrote a summary. One of the ways it was scored was the percentage of specific details of information it included from the original material. Here is a selection from her article describing one of the findings:
The effect of summarization method on inclusion of important information was significant F(2, 144) = 4.1032, p < .019. The mean scores (with standard deviations in parantheses) were as follows: Argument Repetition, 59.6% (17.9); Generalization, 59.8% (15.2); and Self-Reflection, 50.2% (18.0). (p.14)
a. Explain these results to a person who has never had a course in statistics.
b. Using the information in the preceding description, figure the effect size for the study.
References
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
- Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
- Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
- One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
- I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
- Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
- In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
- Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
- Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
- Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
- Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
- I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
- I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
- As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
- It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
- For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
- Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
- Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
- Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
- The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
- Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
- If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
- I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
- As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
- Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
- Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
- Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
