Week #12 Assignment

• For your Week #12 assignment, you will write your Methods and Results Chapters for your descriptive statistics.

Methods Chapter

• Format– Sources of Data– Measurements– Descriptive Statistics– Inferential Statistics**

• **Will be added for last section of the project

Sources of Data

• Who are your subjects?

• Why were they selected?

• How many will be surveyed?

• How will your subjects be selected?

• Briefly describe the survey instrument and data collection process

Sampling Methods

• Probability Sampling– Simple Random Sample– Stratified Random Sampling– Cluster Sampling

• Non-probability Sample– Quota Sample– Chunk Sample– Convenience Sample

Measurements

• How will you collect the data?

• How was the survey developed?

• Validity and reliability issues?

Descriptive Statistics

• Format of the variables– 1 survey item = 1 variable

• Formats– Ratio– Interval– Ordinal– Nominal

Statistics and Data Formats

• Descriptive stats (and inferential) are tied to the data format

Descriptive Statistics

Variable Format Typical Descriptive Stats

Categorical Frequencies, percentages, mode

OrdinalFrequencies, percentages, median, mode, range (Controversy over using averages)

RatioFrequencies, pecentages, averages, median, mode, range

IntervalFrequencies, pecentages, averages, median, mode, range

Example

• Survey Item– What is your gender?

• Categorical variable

• Descriptive stats available– Frequencies– Percentages

• The researcher will be collecting data on the gender of the respondents. Frequencies and percentages will be used to describe the respondents’ gender.

Results Chapter

• Provide the results in the order presented in the Methods Chapter

Results Chapter

• Sources of Data– Describe how the sampling and data

collection process occurred– What was your response rate? (Critical

information in a study)– Is the response rate acceptable?

Results Chapter

• Measurements– Address any issues related to validity and

reliability– Any issues with the survey methods?

Results Chapter

• Descriptive Statistics• Typically, results are in table format• Provide a sentence or two before the table

the table describing what was done and the results

• Example: The researcher collected data describing the gender of the respondents. The majority of the respondents in the study were males (See Table 1).

Tables

• Follow APA on table formatting, titles, etc.

Example Table

Table 1

Frequency and Percentage of Respondents by Gender

Gender N PercentMale 30 60Female 20 40Total 50 100

Testing Your Research Hypotheses

• To test your hypotheses looking at the relationship between two variables, you will be using correlation procedures.– The correlation procedures you use will be

based upon the formats of your dependent and independent variables.

– This will be covered in upcoming classes.