Demonstrate your understanding of statistical analysis and its interpretation

General Instructions

Below you will find three studies described, including some background information and hypotheses. Demonstrate your understanding of statistical analysis and its interpretation by completing the tasks detailed below. Complete all components of each task in a single Word document and submit that document via Turnitin. Where you base an argument on lecture notes and the course materials, no citation is required. If any other sources (e.g., books or articles) are used in support of decisions or arguments you make, you will need to appropriately cite them (none are required, but you may do so if you choose). No literature need be reviewed or cited in relation to the hypotheses only for analytical issues encountered, and only if you opt to cite sources other than the course materials.

You must ensure that the work you submit is your own original work, based on your own independent judgement and understanding. Where collusion is identified (i.e., students have jointly prepared work) students will be reported for academic misconduct and appropriate penalties will be applied.

Task One

You have been employed as a research assistant on an educational psychology project investigating factors that predict performance on the reading skills component of the NAPLAN test in school children. The team is investigating the factors that contribute to change in reading performance between Years 7 and 10 as measured by the NAPLAN test.

The team's lead investigator has a theory that children's reading ability is impacted by self-perception factors between Grades 7 and 10. Earlier literature has suggested that girls feel social pressure to under-report both academic competence and self-efficacy. While this may no longer be the case, gender should be excluded as a possible explanation for the results obtained.

This leads to the hypothesis that, independent of gender, higher self-efficacy and higher self-perceived competence (also measured in Grade 7) will be associated with better reading skills in Grade 10 over and above what Grade 7 scores can explain. Specifically, it is hypothesised that, after controlling for gender and grade 7 reading scores, better self-perceptions in Grade 7 (including both greater academic self-efficacy and higher self-perceived competence) will help predict better reading ability in Grade 10.

Undertake and report an appropriate analysis to test the above hypothesis using the Reading data file. Include concise comments on the suitability of the data for the analysis. In addition to a Results section, you might include in an article or fourth-year thesis, add an additional Discussion section that briefly interprets the results do not include any discussion of relevant literature, just interpret the results. In this section comment on whether gender could potentially have explained the results or whether concerns about the effects of gender were unnecessary. You are encouraged to use appropriate tables to ensure concise reporting.

Task Two

Proponents of positive psychology, in particular Martin Seligman, have suggested optimism is a protective factor that makes people resilient in times of stress. Research has found that optimistic people are less prone to the negative psychological impacts of stressful environments.

Another characteristic considered to help people in times of stress is a sense of humour. While it has long been said that laughter is the best medicine, research has found that certain types of humour (but not others) can help people cope with life's difficulties. The humour found helpful has been termed adaptive humour and includes affiliative humour (humour that enhances social connections) and self-enhancing humour (humour that helps a person feel better about themself).

Considerable research has been undertaken around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic to try to identify how people do or do not cope with the disruptions the pandemic has brought. A research team recognised that this provided an opportunity to see if optimism and the use of humour help people cope with significant life disruption. You have been invited to join the team. Your task is to conduct the statistical analysis and provide a concise report of the results as well as a brief summary of the conclusions that can be drawn from the data.

Data was collected in Melbourne during the lockdown in September 2021 using an online questionnaire that included the Life Orientation Test (Revised; a well-validated measure of optimism), the Humour Styles Questionnaire, and the Perceived Stress Scale. The team leader has proposed the hypothesis that optimism makes people more inclined to use effective coping behaviours (i.e., adaptive humour) and, as a result, they experience less stress in difficult situations. Another researcher on the team disagrees and believes optimism itself reduces perceptions of stress regardless of coping behaviour, not because of it. The team would therefore value your opinion on which interpretation is more consistent with the data: that optimism leads to the use of adaptive humour which in turn leads to reduced stress or that optimism leads to reduced stress regardless of the use of adaptive humour.

Use the Optimism data set to analyse the data. Report the data as you might for a fourth-year thesis and add a separate Discussion section outlining the appropriate interpretation of the results. Do not include discussion of literature or past findings just interpret the results as analysed.

Task Three

Vision changes in a number of ways over the adult lifespan. Consequently, the kinds of driving accidents experienced by older and younger drivers changes. One of the keys to safe driving is to keep paying attention to the road ahead, while also monitoring peripheral vision for potential obstacles. Older drivers are known to narrow the focus of their attention to compensate for other declines in their vision. As a result, compared to younger drivers, older drivers are less distracted by things occurring in their periphery but are also more distracted by things happening close to the focus of attention.

A researcher sought to test this theory in a driving simulator by measuring driving errors made by younger and older drivers in three conditions: no distractions, near peripheral distractors (just beside the focus of attention), and far peripheral distractors (near the outer edge of peripheral vision). The following hypotheses were made:

1. Older drivers would make more errors than younger drivers in all distractor conditions.
2. 2. Because they fail to notice distractors in their peripheral vision it was hypothesised that:
   • The older drivers would make more errors when given distractors in the near periphery compared to the no distractors condition.
   • The older drivers would make more errors when given distractors in the near periphery compared to the far periphery condition.
   • The older drivers would make no more errors when given distractors in the far periphery than when given no distractors.
3. Because younger drivers would be equally impacted by near and far periphery distractors it was hypothesised that:
   • Compared to the no distractor condition, errors would increase to a similar degree in the near and far peripheral distractor conditions for the younger drivers.