Time to Practice – Week One

Complete both Part A and Part B below.

 

 

 

Some questions in Part A require that you access data from Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics. This data is available on the student website under the Student Test Resources link.

 

 

 

1.     By hand, compute the mean, median, and mode for the following set of 40 reading scores:

 

SUMMARY

 

 

 

 

2.     Compute the means for the following set of scores saved as Ch. 2 Data Set 3 using IBM^®SPSS^® software. Print out a copy of the output.

 

 

WEEK 1 PSYCHOLOGY STATISTICS

 

 

 

3.     You are the manager of a fast food store. Part of your job is to report which special is selling best to the boss at the end of each day. Use your knowledge of descriptive statistics and write one paragraph to let the boss know what happened today. Use the following data. Do not use IBM^®SPSS^®software to compute the statistics needed; rather, do it by hand. Include a copy of your work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.     Suppose you are working with a data set that has some different (much larger or much smaller than the rest of the data) scores. What measure of central tendency would you use and why?

 

 

 

5.     For the following set of scores, compute the range, the unbiased and the biased standard deviations, and the variance. Do the exercise by hand.

 

 

 

31, 42, 35, 55, 54, 34, 25, 44, 35

 

 

 

Why is the unbiased estimate greater than the biased estimate?

 

 

 

6.     Use IBM^®SPSS^®software to compute all the descriptive statistics for the following set of three test scores over the course of a semester. Which test had the highest average score? Which test had the smallest amount of variability?

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.     This practice problem uses the data contained in the file named Ch. 3 Data Set 3. There are two variables in this data set.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using IBM^®SPSS^®software, compute all of the measures of variability you can for height and weight.

 

 

 

8.     Review the following frequency distribution. Create a histogram either by hand or by using some other application such as a Microsoft^®Excel^®document.

 

 

 

 

 

 

9.     A third-grade teacher is looking to improve her students’ level of engagement during group discussions and instruction. She keeps track of each of the 15 third graders’ number of responses every day for 1 week. This information is available in Ch. 4 Data Set 2. Use IBM^®SPSS^®software to create a bar chart (one bar for each day).

 

 

 

10.  Identify whether these distributions are negatively skewed, positively skewed, or not skewed at all, and why.

 

 

 

a.     This talented group of athletes scored very high on the vertical jump task.

 

b.    On this incredibly crummy test, everyone received the same score.

 

c.     On the most difficult spelling test of the year, the third graders wept as the scores were delivered.

 

 

 

11.  For each of the following, indicate whether you would use a pie, line, or bar chart, and why.

 

 

 

a.     The proportion of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors in a particular university

 

b.    Change in GPA over four semesters

 

c.     Number of applicants for four different jobs

 

d.    Reaction time to different stimuli

 

e.     Number of scores in each of 10 categories

Complete the questions below. Be specific and provide examples when relevant.

Cite any sources consistent with APA guidelines.

Question		Answer
Salkind (2011) describes statistics as a “set of tools” (p. 18). How do behavioral scientists use those tools?
How would you use descriptive statistics to report the effectiveness of a baseball team? How would you use inferential statistics to report the effectiveness of a baseball team? In this example, what is the sample and what is the population?
What does a measure of central tendency tell us about a data set? Identify the three common measures of central tendency used in descriptive statistics and give an example of each. How do you calculate them?
What is variability in a data set? Identify three measures of variability used in descriptive statistics, explain how to calculate each, and give an example of each.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basic Concepts in Statistics

 

 

 

Complete the following questions. Be specific and provide examples when relevant.

 

 

 

Cite any sources consistent with APA guidelines.

 

 

Question	Answer
What are statistics and how are they used in the behavioral sciences? Your answer should be 100 to 200 words.
Differentiate between descriptive and inferential statistics. What information do they provide? What are their similarities and differences? Your answer should be 250 to 400 words.
What is a population? What is a sample? How are they similar and how are they different? When would you use one or the other? Your answer should be 250 to 400 words.
Complete the following problem:   Go to the library and find a journal article in your area of interest that contains empirical data, but does not contain any visual representation of the data. Use the data to create a chart. Specify what type of chart you are creating, and why you chose the one you did. You can create the chart manually or using IBM® SPSS® software or a Microsoft® Excel® document. The chart may be pasted into this document or submitted as an attachment with this document.   From Salkind (2011), p. 75. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education. All Rights Reserved. Adapted with permission.

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.