How are group means, percentages, and correlations used to describe research results?

6 Individual Assignment

Answer the following questions, covering material from Ch. 12 of Methods in Behavioral Research:

1. Define the following terms:

2. How are group means, percentages, and correlations used to describe research results?

3. How can graphs be used to describe and summarize data?

4. A researcher is studying reading rates in milliseconds per syllable. What scale of measurement—nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio—is time in milliseconds? Explain your response.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

5. Under what circumstances is the median or mode a better measure of central tendency than the mean? Explain your response.

6. True or false: The standard deviation and the range are sensitive to outliers. Explain your response.

7. True or false: The standard deviation can never be 0. Explain your response.

8. A researcher is investigating the effects of anxiety on creativity. Individuals with varying levels of anxiety are asked to complete a measure of creativity. The results show a classic U-shaped distribution; that is, individuals with moderate levels of anxiety score the highest on tests of creativity. Individuals with very low or very high levels of anxiety score much lower on tests of creativity. What would be a good statistic to use in this case? Explain your response.

9. What are some applications of multiple regression models (equations / techniques)? Provide an example.

10. Explain how and why multiple correlations are used as prediction variables?

6 Individual Assignment