PSY315 Week 1 Practice Worksheet
PSY315 Week 1 Practice Worksheet
Provide a response to the following questions. Written responses should be at least 30 to 45 words each.
1. Explain and provide an example for each of the following types of variables:
Nominal:
Ordinal:
Interval:
Ratio scale:
Continuous:
Discrete:
Quantitative:
Qualitative:
2. The following are the speeds of 40 cars clocked by radar on a particular road in a 35 miles-per-hour zone on an afternoon:
30, 36, 42, 36, 30, 52, 36, 34, 36, 33, 30, 32, 35, 32, 37, 34, 36, 31, 35, 20
24, 46, 23, 31, 32, 45, 34, 37, 28, 40, 34, 38, 40, 52, 31, 33, 15, 27, 36, 40
Create a frequency table and a histogram. Then, describe the general shape of the distribution.
3. Raskauskas and Stoltz (2007) asked a group of 84 adolescents about their involvement in traditional and electronic bullying. The researchers defined electronic bullying as “…a means of bullying in which peers use electronics (such as text messages, emails, and defaming Web sites) to taunt, threaten, harass, and/or intimidate a peer” (p. 565). The table below is a frequency table showing the adolescents’ reported incidence of being victims or perpetrators of traditional and electronic bullying.
a. Using the table below as an example, explain the idea of a frequency table to a person who has never taken a course in statistics.
b. Explain the general meaning of the pattern of results.
| Incidence of Traditional and Electronic Bullying and Victimization (N = 84) | |||
| Forms of bullying | N | % | |
| Electronic victims | 41 | 48.8 | |
| Text-message victim | 27 | 32.1 | |
| Internet victim (websites, chatrooms) | 13 | 15.5 | |
| Camera-phone victim | 8 | 9.5 | |
| Traditional victims | 60 | 71.4 | |
| Physical victim | 38 | 45.2 | |
| Teasing victim | 50 | 59.5 | |
| Rumors victim | 32 | 38.6 | |
| Exclusion victim | 30 | 50 | |
| Electronic bullies | 18 | 21.4 | |
| Text-message bully | 18 | 21.4 | |
| Internet bully | 11 | 13.1 | |
| Traditional bullies | 54 | 64.3 | |
| Physical bully | 29 | 34.5 | |
| Teasing bully | 38 | 45.2 | |
| Rumor bully | 22 | 26.2 | |
| Exclusion bully | 35 | 41.7 |
4. Describe whether each of the following data words best describes descriptive statistics or inferential statistics. Explain your reasoning.
Describe:
Infer:
Summarize:
5. Compare the three types of research methods and statistics.
6. Regarding gun ownership in the United States, data from Gallup polls over a 40-year period show how gun ownership in the United States has changed. The results are described below, with the percentage of Americans who own guns given in each of the 5 decades.
| Year | % |
| 1972 | 43 |
| 1982 | 42 |
| 1992 | 48 |
| 2002 | 40 |
| 2012 | 43 |
Are the percentages reported above an example of descriptive statistics or inferential statistics? Why?
Based on the table, how would you describe the changes in gun ownership in the United States over the 40 years shown?
7. Refer to the Simpson-Southward et al. (2016) article from this week’s electronic readings. Was this an example of inferential statistics and research or descriptive statistics and research? Justify your response.
