• Quantitative Research Plan

Please review the attached document for further instruction ,

      

Review the Final Project Description document located in the Learning Resources to ensure you have completed each section of the Final Project.

The assignment:

       Craft a 20-page quantitative research plan.

 

o   

Introduction to Statistics” featuring Jennifer Ann Morrow (5:44) Click here to download a transcript of this video segment. In this interview, you will have the opportunity to hear from an expert in the field of statistics, Dr. Jennifer Ann Morrow. Dr. Morrow has a PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Rhode Island and teaches graduate statistics at Old Dominion University. During this interview, Dr. Morrow discusses ways to overcome common barriers to learning statistics as well as practical applications for the statistics concepts you will learn in this course. This video will be used in the SPSS Practice activity. To view this video program, use the media player located at the top of this page.

o    “Introduction to SPSS” featuring Gary Burkholder (33:23) Click here to download a transcript of this video segment. In this program, Dr. Gary J. Burkholder, Vice President of Academic Affairs at Walden University, outlines the components of SPSS data files and demonstrates the steps necessary to run a simple statistical analysis. This video will be used in the SPSS Practice activity. To view this video program, use the media player located at the top of this page.

       Software:
SPSS You will begin to use this software in this week’s SPSS Practice activity

Statistics and SPSS

       Web Site: SPSS Student Resource Center http://www-01.ibm.com/software/analytics/spss/academic/students/resources.html The student section of the
SPSS Academic Resource Center
is your one-stop shop for all your statistics and data-mining needs, including tutorials, reading lists, and training courses.

       Web Site: SPSS Technical Support http://www.spss.ie/support/index.html The SPSS student support site provides a knowledge base and assistance from SPSS Technical Support staff.

       Web Site: Web Center for Social Research Methods http://www.socialresearchmethods.net This Web site is for people involved in applied social research and evaluation. You’ll find resources and links to other locations on the Web that deal in applied social research methods.

       Web Site: Choosing the Correct Statistical Test in SAS, Stata and SPSS http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/mult_pkg/whatstat/default.htm UCLA’s Academic Technology Services statistics table shows general guidelines for choosing a statistical analysis, and links showing how to do such tests using SAS, Stata, and SPSS.

Optional Resources

       Course Text: Frankfort-Nachmias, C., & Nachmias, D. (2008). Research methods in the social sciences (7th ed.). New York: Worth

   

RSCH 8200: Quantitative Reasoning and Analysis

Final Project: Developing a Quantitative Research Plan

For the final project, students will develop a quantitative research plan. As such, students have two choices:

· Continue to develop the abbreviated quantitative plan completed in RSCH 8100, or

· Develop a new plan

Please note:

This is not meant to be a full research plan in that students will not be constructing data collection instruments or generating data to use. The final project is meant to develop understanding about the relationships between research questions and hypotheses, research design, and statistical tests. For this project, students will consider more the design and methodology of the quantitative research they propose.

The Final Project should include the following:

Title

Introduction

A. Opening statement

B. Background of the study

a. Summary of the literature framing history of the project, using 5 articles related to the problem

b. Gaps and/or deficiencies in prior research

c. Importance of present study

i. Why the study should be pursued

ii. For whom is it important

C. Problem statement

D. Purpose of the statement

a. Research design (experimental, quasi-experimental, or non-experimental)

b. Theory tested or described

c. Intent (describe, compare, relate)

d. Variables (independent, dependent, controlling, intervening)

E. Research question(s) and hypotheses

a. Research question(s)

b. Null and alternative hypotheses for each research question, including how each of the variables will be operationalized

F. Nature of the study

a. Design

i. Paradigm (quantitative)

ii. Design

1. Experimental, quasi-experimental, or pre/non-experimental

2. Specific design (e.g., pre-post test control group, time-series, etc. See Campbell & Stanley 1963.)

iii. Rationale for the design

b. Methodology

i. Population

1. Definition

2. Size, if known, or approximate/estimated size

ii. Sampling

1. Type of sampling

2. How the sample will be drawn

3. Sample size and why chosen in relation to population size

iii. Instrumentation and materials

1. Identify instrument

2. Establish reliability

3. Establish validity

iv. Data analysis plan: indicate what analytical tools will be applied to each set of data collected.

c. Limitations

i. Potential design and/or methodological weaknesses of the study

ii. Explain how the weaknesses will be addressed

iii. Threats to validity and how they will be potentially addressed in the study

d. Ethical Concerns

i. Describe your proposed procedure for providing informed consent and any ethical concerns you may need to address.

G. Significance of the study

a. Practical contributions of the study

b. For whom the study is important

c. Implications for social change

RSCH 8200: Introduction to Statistics
Video Podcast Transcript

JENNIFER ANN MORROW: My name is Dr. Jennifer Ann Morrow,
and I’m an assistant professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk,
Virginia. I have a bachelor’s degree in general psychology, which I
received from the University of Rhode Island, and a master’s degree
in general psychology, which I received from Rhode Island College.
And I have my PhD in experimental psychology, also from the
University of Rhode Island, where I specialized in research
methodology and program evaluation. A lot of the research that I am
doing currently is looking at effective pedagogies in how to teach
statistics. And so I look at the effectiveness of various teaching
methods and how that impacts students’ anxiety towards statistics
and their usefulness of using statistics in psychological research.
Most of what I teach is statistics and research methods, both at the
undergrad level as well at the graduate level. So I teach
undergraduate research methods. I teach a graduate statistics and
research methods course. And I’m also teaching social psychology,
program evaluation, and health psychology courses. My teaching
philosophy around statistics and research methods is to teach it from
a conceptual and applied approach. Formulas are not enough. I need
to make sure students understand why you’re using statistics and
how you’re using statistics and why it’s so important to understand
them.

What Can You Expect in This Course

JENNIFER ANN MORROW: Over the next few weeks, you’ll be
exposed to various methods of using statistics, from the basic
descriptive statistics to a univariate statistics, such as analysis of
variants, independent T tests, and dependent T tests. Most weeks,
you’ll see me doing a demonstration of a particular statistic from the
beginning to the end and understanding how to interpret it and use it
in your own research area. As researchers, we have to digest lots of
information in journal articles and newspapers where people are
using statistics, and if we don’t understand how they’re used, we can’t
critique whether or not they’re used properly. One advantage of this
course is, I’ll be using practical examples throughout the semester.
We’re going to be using one data set for all of the analyses, and
these hopefully will have real-world data that you can see why
statistics is used and understand it in a more detailed fashion. I would
say that most students feel a bit anxious when they’re taking a

statistics course, and a lot of research shows that even almost up to
80% of graduate students feel some type of statistics anxiety. And
what statistics anxiety is is that apprehension that, “Oh, my God, I
have to take a statistics course,” or, “How do I understand this
information in order to get through to my degree?” And so it’s very,
very common. And there’s a lot of reasons for it. One of the main
reasons is, a lot of students feel a fear of failure that they’re going
into this class, and they’re going to not do well, and they’re not going
to be able to get their degree because they’re very math-phobic. And
I would say nine times out of ten, students come up to me and say,
“Dr. Morrow, I’m so math-phobic. I can’t do math.” Statistics is not
just about math. It’s how to use that math in order to understand the
research that’s around you.

Tips for Managing Statistics Anxiety

JENNIFER ANN MORROW: Statistics anxiety can have a profound
impact on students’ performance in a statistics course. Research
shows that students that just dive into a statistics course, that have a
lot of anxiety and then don’t deal with it, don’t find ways to combat
this anxiety and to try to perform better are not going to do well in the
course. So there’s many things that you, as a student, can do in order
to alleviate that anxiety and for you to perform well in that course.
One of the things that I always suggest to my students is to find a
stats buddy. Couple up with somebody else in the classroom. One
suggestion I can give to you in order to help you relieve some of the
statistics anxiety and to do better in this course is to form online chats
with some of your classmates. Share your work. Email your
homework. Have them review your homework, and you review theirs.
Go into the chat rooms and talk about what things you’re clear and
not clear on in regards to what you’re learning in your course. You’re
going to become much more confident if you have someone look at
your work and give you that extra feedback that, yes, you’re on the
right track, or also give you suggestions for where you are doing
poorly so you can study a little bit more in that area. It is so important
to ask for help if you’re not doing well. Contact the faculty member if
you’re struggling in any particular area. And a suggestion that I have
for all students is to keep a weekly log of what you’re clear and not
clear on in terms of statistics. Write down what you understand and
what you don’t understand. And if there’s something that you don’t
understand, email the professor and ask him or her to explain it in
more detail. There is also the main Walden University website where
you can get a lot of information on how to find tutors and other

additional resources to help you out throughout this course. Students
always ask me, “Why is it important to understand statistics? “Why
do I have to take this course? “I want to be a clinician. I’m never
going to use statistics again.” And I tell them, “You need to
understand research.” You should be able to go in and read a journal
article and look at the results section. So many of my students, when
I ask them, they skip right to the discussion, and they just take facevalue
what the author said: “Yes, I found a gender difference here,”
or “Yes, these two things are related.” If you understand statistics,
you can be critical of that results section and really understand, “Did
they use those statistics right? “Did they actually find what they were
supposed to? And are these conclusions valid?” So if a medical
journal comes out with research that says this little pill is going to
make you lose 100 pounds, you can be critical of that research. My
best advice to you as a student in order to do well in this class is to
walk in with an open mind and to alleviate your fear to understand
that you will learn statistics. You’ll be able to understand from
beginning to end how to conduct statistics in your area of research.
And hopefully by the end of this semester, you’ll feel as excited about
statistics as I do.