Good day, I am seeking assistance with a project. The class is Psychology 219 Adulthood and Aging.

219

­­­­­­Psychology of Adulthood and Aging

The project: Correlations

The project is worth 25% of your grade. This packet includes details for the mini-steps, grading, and assignments.

Mini-steps 5%

Presentation 5%

Report 15%/

______

25%

The project includes individual and group components. The mini-steps (steps 1, 2, etc.) will be worth 5% total. The presentation will be worth 5%. The report will be worth 15%.

Your task will be to conduct a small research project This will include the following steps:

1. In class on research day, we will discuss operationalization, correlations, correlation coefficients, and scatterplots. You will complete a pre-project assessment (not graded, but will count credit/no credit towards the mini-steps grade)

2. In a group, you will:

   1. Decide on two research questions

   2. Complete a hypothesis generation worksheet to decide on the hypothesis for your research project

3. You will collect data, and analyze the data (in Google Forms and a Google spreadsheet)

4. You will calculate a correlation to analyze the data on your research question, and create a scatterplot of the relationship

5. You will present and submit a short report of your findings

Example Research Questions

Life span development

emerging adulthood

Relationships and social interactions

Cognition, intelligence, wisdom

Personality and the self

Work and retirement

Death and dying

Morality, emotion

Mental health- depression, anxiety, dementia

Successful aging

Meaning in later life

You may choose two of the following variables:

• Anxiety about death

• Happiness

• Attitudes about aging

• Prosocial behavior (helping)

• Agreeableness

• Assertiveness

• Creativity

• Generosity

• Regret

• Humor

• Loneliness

• Self-confidence

• Subjective age

(sample- I’ll bring in hard copies and will post on blackboard)

GROUP NAME:________________________________________

Group members :

Hypothesis Generation Worksheet (Loosely based on McGuire, 1989)

In its simplest form, a hypothesis expresses the relationship between two (or more) variables. Thus, it is important to define the variables in question. A variable is a characteristic (usually of a person or situation) that can have at least two different values (sometimes called “scores” or “levels”). The phrase, “violent television,” does not refer to a variable, as there is no indication of how it can vary. The phrases: “Amount of exposure to violent television,” or “Exposure to violent television versus exposure to nonviolent television,” both describe variables as they indicate the possibility of different values. The different values of a variable can be measured either qualitatively (for example, male / female if the variable is gender) or quantitatively (for example, a certain number of pounds if the variable is weight).

1. First psychological variable : Age

A. Give it a label Age in years

B. Briefly describe this variable. chronological age of the participant in years

2. Second variable that you believe is related to your first variable.

A. Give it a label.

B. Briefly describe this variable (include how it can be operationalized):

Once the variables are defined, the next step is to predict the relationship between these two variables by writing a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a prediction about the relationship between two or more variables. For now, assume that there is a causal relationship between the two variables even if it would be impossible or unethical to test a causal hypothesis. This means that changing a person’s score on one of the variables would be related to change in the other variable. For example, you might say, “Increasing the amount of violent television that a person watches will cause that person to exhibit more aggressive behaviors.”

3. State a hypothesis.

Hypotheses are not mere guesses. Although there is never 100% certainty that a hypothesis is true, there are usually good reasons why the researcher believes that the hypothesis is true.

4. Why does this relationship exist? Give a short theoretical explanation for this hypothesis.

It is not interesting to predict something so obvious that there is a certain or near certain chance that the predicted result will occur. More interesting hypotheses have a possibility that the opposite would be true. For example, it is possible that increasing the amount of violent television that a person watches would decrease the number of aggressive behaviors that that person exhibits.

5. State a hypothesis that predicts the opposite relationship of what you predicted in part 3.

6. Why do might this relationship exist? Give a short theoretical explanation of this new hypothesis.

Data collection page

Enter your data on the Google spreadsheets page for your group (link to this page will be posted in project folder (in course materials) on blackboard.

(sample- I’ll bring in hard copies and will post on blackboard)

Literature review worksheet- Journal article for each group available in blackboard

These articles describe a study that evaluated (among other variables and correlations/ relationships) the correlation between your group’s variables. Below, answer the questions about the journal article.

First Actions to Take:

Skim the article without taking notes:

1. Read the abstract. The abstract will tell you the major findings of the article and why they matter

2. Read first for the “big picture.”

3. Note any terms or techniques you need to define

4. Jot down any questions or parts you don’t understand.

Introduction/ hypotheses/aims

1. Describe the purpose of this study (as you understand it) in your own words.

Methods

1. Who were the participants?

2. What other materials did they use (that are relevant to your two variables), in other words, how did they measure those two variables?

3. What was the procedure for collecting the data?

Results

1. What were the findings of the study (relevant only to your two variables) Were the hypotheses/ aims of the authors confirmed?

2. How do these results relate to your hypotheses for your research project?

Summary Information

1. What question(s) do you have after reading this article? What would you like to learn more about?

APA citation

1. Using APA format (available in the powerpoints on blackboard), provide the citation for this article.

Informational materials: The concept of covariance

• Is it true that as X increases …

Y also increases, and to what extent?

• Or, is it true that as X increases …

Y decreases, and to what extent?

The mere that two variables covary (i.e. correlate) is no proof that one is the cause of the other. Correlation does not necessarily prove causation.

A Correlation Coefficient

• The magnitude (strength)

• The closer to 1 or -1 (the further from 0), the stronger the correlation (a general guide below):

• Between 0 and .1, or 0 and -.1, no relationship

• Between .1 and .3, or between -.1 and -.3, weak relationship

• Between .3 and .7, or between-.3 and -.7, moderate relationship

• Between .7 and 1.0, or between -.7 and -1.0, strong relationship

• The direction of the relationship between two variables

• Positive- as variable X increases, variable Y increases

• Negative- as variable X increases, variable Y decreases

It is designed to range in value between -1.0 and 1.0

A tool for visually identifying the presence of a possible relationship between two variables. Data points are plotted on an X an Y axis.

Example:

X axis- age

Y axis- days spent with family

Correlation r = +0.83

Days spent with family

Age

Do the two variables appear to be related? – yes-as age increases, so does the number of days spent with family

What is the magnitude of the relationship on a scale of -1.0 to 1.0? r= .83

Is this a strong, moderate, or weak relationship? Strong (between .7 and 1.0)

What is the direction of the relationship, positive or negative? Positive

Describe this relationship in words.
There is a strong, positive relationship between age and days spent with family during a year. As age increases, people spend more days with their family members.

Data worksheet –I have posted an excel spreadsheet with your data in the project folder on blackboard (if you do not have excel, you can upload the excel sheet to Google Sheets).

Below are details regarding how to calculate the following in google spreadsheets. Once you have calculated the means of the two variables (age and your variable) and the correlation between them, and created a scatterplot, enter those answers below. I will also post videos on how to do these calculations on blackboard. USE ALL DATA from your group, not just your data.

To calculate a mean:

1. Click on a blank cell and enter (without the quotation marks) - "=AVERAGE("

2. Click on the top cell of the data you want to include, and then hold the mouse button and drag to the bottom of the data you want to include (example, all of the data listed below the header “age”)

3. Type “)” and click enter

4. Or-in the blank cell, type "=AVERAGE(b1:b25)” (without the quotation marks), adjusting the letter and numbers in quotations so that they are the first and last cells of data in the column

5. Press "Enter" to complete the formula and the mean of your numbers will appear in the cell. Do this for both the age variable data and your other variable data

To calculate the correlation coefficient :

1. Click on a blank cell and enter (without the quotation marks) - "=CORREL("

2. Click on the top cell of the first variable data you want to include, and then hold the mouse button and drag to the bottom of the data you want to include (example, all of the data listed below the header “age”)

3. Type “,”

4. Click on the top cell of the second variable data you want to include, and then hold the mouse button and drag to the bottom of the data you want to include (example, all of the data listed below the header “_____”)

5. Type “)” and click enter

6. Or-in the blank cell, type "=CORREL(b1:b25, c1:c25)” (without the quotation marks), adjusting the letter and numbers in quotations so that they are the first and last cells of data in the columns

To create a scatterplot:

1. In Google Sheets:

   1. Drag to select all of the data in the two columns

   2. Click Insert- Chart

   3. On the right, in the Chart Editor, click on Chart Type and select Scatter

   4. Click Customize (in chart editor on right), Series, and click to turn on Trendline

2. In Excel

   1. Drag to select all of the data in the two columns

   2. Insert- Recommended Charts- Scatter

   3. If Scatter doesn’t appear in the recommended charts, click on the All Charts tab after you’ve selected Recommended Charts, and select Scatter (Or X Y scatter), select the first scatter chart

   4. On the right of the Scatter plot is a + sign- click it and select trendline

Data worksheet – (bring to class). I will make this page available in blackboard so that you can type in your results and copy/paste your scatterplot here.

1. Mean of age:

2. Mean of your variable _________:

3. Correlation:

   1. Name the two variables:

   2. Do the two variables appear to be related?

   3. What is the magnitude of the relationship on a scale of -1.0 to 1.0?

   4. Is this a strong, moderate, or weak relationship?

   5. What is the direction of the relationship, positive or negative?

   6. Describe this relationship in words.
      

4. Scatterplot:

Copy and paste your scatterplot here

Presentation

Presentation- 12/12 (please email to me by end of 12/11-, I will grade individual slides, but you can work as a group)- present a 5 minute discussion of your study – please use powerpoint, and send to me in advance. When you send me the slides, describe the contributions of each group member (AL evaluated reliability and created the slide, JQ found the popular media article and created the introduction slide, etc.). The grading rubric for the presentation will be on blackboard.

The slides should include the following (see the information on the report/ the sample report below as well- it will help you understand what should be in the presentation)

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Introduction with a brief description of the literature (from the introduction of the journal article I gave you)

            2. Methods of your study- see handout- how many people interviewed, average age, what was asked, what you hypothesize(d) about the variables

            3. Results of your study- discuss your two variables, how they are correlated (strength, direction, describe in words, also show r value), include averages of each variable (means)

            4. Relationship of your results to the results in the journal article

            5. General discussion of why you might have gotten those results (Why does this relationship exist? Give a short theoretical explanation for this hypothesis.

Report- due _ via blackboard (assignments tab). This is an individual assignment! Due 12/19.

Approximately 2-page report (single or 1.5 spaced, 11 or 12 point font). I will provide an outline of an example report on blackboard, along with the grading rubric. The report should include the following:

1. Introduction

1. 1. Background (from your journal article, with a citation in APA style)

2. Discussion of your survey:

   1. Method:

      1. Participants (who, how many, average age)

      2. Variables, defined

      3. Procedure (how was the data collected)

   2. Results

      1. Results of your study- discuss the two variables, how they are correlated (strength, direction, describe in words, also show r value)

   3. Discussion

      1. Discussion of the results in the context of your journal article- did you find what the article found? Why/why not?

      2. What did you learn about the experience of conducting a study about psychological topic?

      3. What did you learn about how your topic is understood in the research literature? (be detailed! Discuss the limitations of the study described in your journal, for example)

   4. Reference page- reference your journal article using APA style