Research methods in Psychology (use SPSS and Excel to finish)
Assignment 1
Answer all questions. Download the relevant datasets from the OLE platform. Use SPSS to perform the data analysis (or Excel functions when specified) and include the output in your answers. Put all your answers, SPSS outputs, and graphs in a single Word file. (You may visit the computer labs C0411, C0412, C0413, D0625, D0626, and D0627 to find computers with SPSS installed.)
1. A standardized IQ test has a population mean score of 100 and population standard deviation of 15.
a. If a person obtains an IQ score of 128, how many % of people in the population is having a score lower than him? (Write down the Excel function you used.)
b. For a person with a Z-score of -0.55, how many % of people in the population is having a score higher than her? (Write down the Excel function you used.)
c. What is the Z-score below which includes 35% of people in the population? (Write down the Excel function you used.)
2. Data in the “PSYC A331F Assignment 1 Q2.sav” file show the mid-term test scores in the social psychology test and the biological psychology test of 25 male students and 30 female students in a university. Using SPSS, compute the mean and standard deviation of the scores in each test, separately for each gender.
3. A professor wants to test whether the population mean score of the female students in the social psychology test is different from the hypothesized value of 70. Use the data in the “PSYC A331F Assignment 1 Q2.sav” file, conduct an appropriate statistical test to obtain the results. Do the test results support the professor’s hypothesis? List all the following steps:
a. Name of the statistical test
b. Null hypothesis and research hypothesis
c. Distribution and its degree of freedom
d. t-value and p-value
e. Whether the research hypothesis is supported
f. Conclusion in the context of the question
4. Use the data in the “PSYC A331F Assignment 1 Q2.sav” file, conduct an appropriate statistical test to test whether the population mean scores of the male and female students are different in the biological psychology test (assuming equal variances in the two groups).
List all the steps as required in Q3.
5. Because of the low performance in the social psychology test, the group of male students joined a special enhancement class for two weeks. Their test scores before and after the special class are shown in the “PSYC A331F Assignment 1 Q5.sav” file. Conduct an appropriate statistical test to test whether the special class has led to an improvement in social psychology of the male students. List all the steps as required in Q3.
6. A psychologist recruited three groups of participants with different personality types to perform a memory experiment on memorizing a set of emotional pictures. He hypothesized that memory performance on emotional pictures would be different among people with different personality types. The data of their performance is shown in the “PSYC A331F Assignment 1 Q6.sav” file. Conduct an appropriate statistical test to test whether the psychologist’s hypothesis is supported. List the following:
a. Name of the statistical test
b. Null hypothesis and research hypothesis
c. F-value with degrees of freedom, and p-value
d. Whether the research hypothesis is supported
e. Conclusion in the context of the question
f. If necessary, conduct post-hoc tests (with Bonferroni correction) on the data and interpret the results.
7. A psychologist wants to investigate whether the study major of university students is related to their logical thinking ability. In addition, she is also interested in knowing whether logical thinking ability is different between male and female students. Data in the “PSYC A331F Assignment 1 Q7.sav” file show the scores of some psychology major and economic major students in a logical ability test.
a. Conduct an appropriate statistical analysis to answer the two research questions of the psychologist.
b. Is any significant interaction shown? Interpret the results.
