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Week 5 - Hypothesis, Effect Size, and Power: Problem Set 5.1

This document provides instructions and problems for a statistics course's week 5 assignment on hypothesis testing, effect size, and power. Students are asked to complete 5 problem sets that involve interpreting population parameters, comparing effect sizes and sample sizes and their impact on power, identifying directional vs nondirectional hypotheses, and generating a hypothesis for their final research project using data from the GSS dataset.

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Tanya Alkhaliq
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141 views

Week 5 - Hypothesis, Effect Size, and Power: Problem Set 5.1

This document provides instructions and problems for a statistics course's week 5 assignment on hypothesis testing, effect size, and power. Students are asked to complete 5 problem sets that involve interpreting population parameters, comparing effect sizes and sample sizes and their impact on power, identifying directional vs nondirectional hypotheses, and generating a hypothesis for their final research project using data from the GSS dataset.

Uploaded by

Tanya Alkhaliq
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PSYC4700 - Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences

Week 5 – Hypothesis, Effect Size, and Power


Complete the following problems within this Word document. (Do not submit other files.) Show your
work for problem sets that require calculations. Ensure that your answer to each problem is clearly
visible. (You may want to highlight your answer or use a different type of color to set it apart.)
Submit the document to your instructor by Sunday, 11:59 p.m. central time.

Problem Set 5.1: Sampling Distribution of the Mean Exercise


Criterion: Interpret population mean and variance.
Instructions: Read the information below and answer the questions.
Suppose a researcher wants to learn more about the mean attention span of individuals in some
hypothetical population. The researcher cites that the attention span (the time in minutes attending
to some task) in this population is normally distributed with the following characteristics: 20  36
2
(μ  σ ) . Based on the parameters given in this example, answer the following questions:
1. What is the population mean (μ)? M = 20

2. What is the population variance ? Population Variance = 6


3. Sketch the distribution of this population. Make sure you draw the shape of the distribution
and label s the mean plus and minus three standard deviations.

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PSYC4700 - Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences

Problem Set 5.2: Effect Size and Power


Criterion: Explain effect size and power.
Instructions: Read each of the following three scenarios and answer the questions.
1. Two researchers make a test concerning the effectiveness of a drug use treatment. Researcher
A determines that the effect size in the population of males is d = 0.36; Researcher B
determines that the effect size in the population of females is d = 0.20. All other things being
equal, which researcher has more power to detect an effect? Explain. Researcher A has more
power to detect an effect because we know that the larger the effect size the higher is the
power to detect an effect.
2. Two researchers make a test concerning the levels of marital satisfaction among military
families. Researcher A collects a sample of 22 married couples (n = 22); Researcher B collects
a sample of 40 married couples (n = 40). All other things being equal, which researcher has
more power to detect an effect? Explain. Researcher B has a more power to detect an effect as
researcher b has a larger sample size and as sample size increases, the more power to detect
an effect.
3. Two researchers make a test concerning standardized exam performance among senior high
school students in one of two local communities. Researcher A tests performance from the
population in the northern community, where the standard deviation of test scores is 110 (
); Researcher B tests performance from the population in the southern community,
where the standard deviation of test scores is 60 ( ). All other things being equal, which
researcher has more power to detect an effect? Explain. Researcher B would have more power
to detect an effect as researcher b has less standard error and therefore increasing its power
for effect.

If each community has 90 senior students:


Researcher A
90/110 = .87 or 81% probability of passing

Researcher B
90/60 = 1.5 or 150% probability of passing

Problem Set 5.3: Hypothesis, Direction, and Population Mean


Criterion: Explain the relationship between hypothesis, tests, and population mean.
Instructions: Read the following and answer the question.
Directional versus nondirectional hypothesis testing. Cho and Abe (2013) provided a commentary on
the appropriate use of one-tailed and two-tailed tests in behavioral research. In their discussion, they
outlined the following hypothetical null and alternative hypotheses to test a research hypothesis that
males self-disclose more than females:
 H0: µmales − µfemales ≤ 0
 H1: µmales − µfemales > 0
1. What type of test is set up with these hypotheses, a directional test or a nondirectional test?
This is a directional test as there are hypotheses for both directions of conversation where
from the data input we can find the mean of males or females is greater with respect to self-
disclosure.
2. Do these hypotheses encompass all possibilities for the population mean? Explain. Yes, the
given set of hypotheses encompass all possibilities for the population mean as the mean of
mails and females hold the ability of equality, in addition, the mean can be both less than and

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PSYC4700 - Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences

greater than for each as well.

Problem Set 5.4: Hypothesis, Direction, and Population Mean


Criterion: Explain decisions for p values.
Instructions: Read the following and respond to the prompt.
The value of a p value. In a critical commentary on the use of significance testing, Lambdin
(2012) explained, “If a p < .05 result is ‘significant,’ then a p = .067 result is not ‘marginally
significant’” (p. 76).
Explain what the author is referring to in terms of the two decisions that a researcher can make. If
the p-value is < .05 the null hypothesis is rejected and if the value is > .05 the null hypothesis is
accepted and the altenative hypothesis is then rejected.

Problem Set 5.5: Create Your Hypothesis


Criterion: Create a hypothesis and a null hypothesis for a research project.
Instructions: Write a hypothesis and a null hypothesis for the two variables you downloaded from
GSS. This hypothesis and null hypothesis will be part of your final project.

Null Hypothesis: Married women can be trusted more than married men
Hypothesis: There is no significant difference between trust in women and men.

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