Reference no: EM132311452 , Length: word count : 1400

Assignment : Data Analysis

This assignment is divided into two parts. Each part requires you to perform, interpret and report a different data analysis. Instructions for each part are presented below.

Your submission will include the following

1. Word (or pdf)1 document with the answers to Part A and Part B, clearly labelled. Specific requirements for the answers on each part are included below. This document must adhere to APA formatting. This includes table format, captions (both content and format), headings (if you are using any), statistics reporting in text, when applicable, etc. Have your APA manual handy or look for other resources.

2. An SPSS output file with the results of the analysis for Part A and Part B, clearly labelled. Delete all the attempts that are not relevant. Your output should include one set of analyses for Part A and one set of analyses for Part B.

3. A data file for Part B, with all variables and levels clearly labelled.

PART A

In this part of the assignment, you are provided with a brief introduction to a research question relating to the study of body appreciation in a student population. In addition to this, you are provided with a set of de-identified data that includes variables relevant to that research question. Your job is to identify the research question and conduct the data analysis appropriate for that question (note that this might require recoding of one variable).

After having obtained all the relevant statistics, you will write a results section presenting the results of your analysis. In addition to this you will write a brief paragraph in which you interpret the results (i.e. in this paragraph you will say what the answers to the research questions are).

You should be able to answer all questions without any further reading (i.e. you don’t need to go to the literature of body appreciation, intuitive eating, etc. That is, there is no requirement for you to read any articles on body appreciation, intuitive eating, etc.

Your answer to this question should include the following components.

1. A paragraph describing the participants included in the study (number, age, gender). Note that we acknowledge this would normally be included in the method section, which we are not asking you to write. However, it is important that you characterize the sample.

2. A paragraph describing the descriptive information that precedes the model. This paragraph will be accompanied by a table including means and SD for each of the variables relevant to the analysis, as well as the correlations for every pair of variables.

3. You must make reference to what statistical analysis you conducted and to the tests of the relevant assumptions. You must state whether the assumptions were met and how you determined this, and your SPSS output must contain evidence of assumption tests.

If there are any outliers, you must note how many you identified and how you identified them. Make reference to the extent to which the identified outliers may influence your data (if they don’t, you can say that there is no cause for concern). Your SPSS output must include evidence that you looked at outlier information.

4. A table presenting the results of the regression. Not all results need to be included in the table. For example, you may refer to overall model stats (such as R-sq or F) in the body of the text.

5. A paragraph describing what it all means. In particular, here you want to make clear reference to what the answer to the research questions was (e.g. were the variables related in the expected way? Did the addition of the new variable improve prediction?

What can the researchers conclude?). Remember that in this section you must not repeat the numerical results values. You don’t need to include limitations to the study, as you do not know anything about the methodology.

Note that every time you present information on a table you must first introduce the table in the text (the table should appear after the first in-paragraph mention of that table).

Also, you want to draw the attention of the reader to the relevant parts of the table without repeating the contents of the table. For example, you may say “Table X presents the correlation  between the variables. As expected the correlation between apples and pears was positive and significant”. Here, in the text, you don’t report the actual r or p values because you already have reference to them on the table where they appear.

Part A: Introduction

Research on body image has shifted attention from the construct of body dissatisfaction, shame and preoccupation, to the study of positive body-related cognitions and emotions. In particular, recent research has focused on the construct of bodyappreciation, defined as “accepting, holding favourable opinions toward, and respecting the body” (Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015; p. 53). It has been shown that body appreciation is predictive of eating disorder symptomatology, self-esteem and proactive coping, even after controlling for body dissatisfaction (Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015).

Thus, it seems important to investigate potential correlates of body appreciation. In particular, a researcher is interested in investigating the predictive value of positive weight-related behaviours, such as intuitive eating and motivation to exercise for health-related reasons. She hypothesizes that both intuitive eating and the motivation to exercise for health related reasons will positively predict body appreciation. However, she is interested in exploring the predictive value of these two variables after controlling for body mass index (BMI) and gender. She expects that BMI will be negatively related to body appreciation but has made no prediction for gender.

Thus, this researcher is interested the following:

1) What is amount of variance in body appreciation that can be accounted for by intuitive eating and motivation to exercise for health-related reasons, after controlling for body mass index (BMI) and gender?

2) Does the addition of these two variables to the model that includes only BMI and gender as predictors result in a significant increase in the proportion of variance accounted for?

3) What is the nature of the contribution of each variable in the final model? What is their relative contribution to the model? What proportion of variance in the outcome do each variable uniquely account for?

References

Tylka, T.L., & Wood-Barcalow, N.L. (2015). The Body Appreciation Scale-2: Item refinement and psychometric evaluation. Body Image, 12, 53-67.

Part B

In this section of the assignment you will use SPSS to answer a different research question (see next page). In contrast to Part A, in this section of the assignment, only the raw data are provided. You will be required to enter these data into the SPSS Data Editor in a manner that allows you to run the appropriate analyses, including all relevant variable codes to specify the different groups in the design. Similarly to Part A, you will need to decide which statistical analysis is appropriate to answer the research question, run this analysis and report your
findings in APA style.

1. Enter the data provided at the end into the SPSS Data Editor. Ensure that you label all variables, and assign value labels to each level of the independent variable(s)

2. Conduct the analysis required to answer the research question

3. The written portion of your answer should include:

a. An introductory paragraph in which you make reference to the relevant descriptive statistics and go over the pattern of results. That is, describe with words what the descriptive statistics show (who performed better/worse, etc). Present these descriptive statistics using a Figure (must be a bar graph with SE bars)2

a. The Figure must conform to APA formatting standards (including clear labels and captions). It is not acceptable to simply copy and paste an SPSS output Figure.

b. A paragraph in which you (a) indicate what analysis you conducted and (b) provide the results of the main analysis. Ensure that you explore any significant interactions with appropriate follow-up tests and that you report those results.

c. A paragraph discussing the results of the analysis in relation to the research question. That is, what is the answer to the research question? Remember, as in Part A, you do not need to discuss limitations.

Part B: Background

NOTE: the following is a made up research scenario and set of data Research has shown a differential effect of the type of feedback children receive when solving problems on their subsequent motivation.

In particular, it has been shown that person-based feedback leads to lower perseverance and lower motivation than processbased feedback. That is, when a child’s successful problem solving is praised in terms of their ability (e.g. “You are so clever!”) the child is less likely to persevere in the face of difficulty later on, than when the praise is in terms of their effort (e.g. “You are working so hard!”).

A researcher was interested in understanding whether these observed effects are moderated by gender. In particular, she believes that although the previously observed pattern of results will be found both for girls and for boys (where person-based feedback leads to lower perseverance), the effect will be more pronounced for girls than for boys.

She predicts that girls will persevere significantly longer than boys in the process but not the person based feedback condition. For completeness, she decides that it is important to include a control condition, in which the feedback does not focus on the person or the process to determine whether the previously observed effect is due to improved perseverance for process-based feedback or decreased perseverance for person-based feedback.

The researcher recruited 90 participants (45 boys and 45 girls) who were randomly assigned, within gender, to one of three praise conditions.

Thus 30 children (15 boys and 15 girls) were assigned to a person-based feedback condition; 30 children (15 boys and 15 girls) were assigned to a process-based feedback condition; and 30 children (15 boys and 15 girls) were assigned to a control (neutral) feedback condition. Children were asked to solve a series of easy anagrams.

During this anagram-solving period, the experimenter provided feedback after the successful completion of each anagram. In particular, person-based feedback consisted of sentences like “You are so clever!”, “You are really good at solving problems!”, “You are so good at this!”. Process-based feedback involved sentences like “That’s a good effort!”, “You are concentrating so hard!”, “You are using good strategies!”. Control (neutral) feedback involved sentences like “You have now finished”.

After completing this part of the experimental session, children reported how much they liked solving anagrams and, immediately after this, they were given the opportunity of solving another anagram (a considerably harder one). Experimenters measured the amount of  time, in seconds, that children persevered while trying to solve this harder puzzle. The data are presented below (larger numbers represent more perseverance).