Psychology 340 Syllabus
Statistics for the Social Sciences
Illinois State University
J. Cooper Cutting
Fall 2002
Final Project
Assignment
1) Download the datafile
Majors.sav
(note: while this file looks familiar to the datafile used in our
lectures on multiple regression, the data are different)
2) The datafile contains
- GPA: university GPA after the first 3 semesters for Computer Science
majors (4 point scale, 4 = A)
- SATM: Math SAT score
- SATV: Verbal SAT score
- HSM: Average High School Math grade (10 point scale, 10 = A, 9 = A-,
etc.)
- HSS: Average High School Science grade (10 point scale, 10 = A, 9 = A-,
etc.)
- HSE: Average High School English grade (10 point scale, 10 = A, 9 = A-,
etc.)
- Sex: The sex of the student
- Major: Computer science major, Engineering major, other sciences majors
3) Answer each of the following research questions.
To do this you will need to identify what analysis is appropriate,
carry out that analysis, and know how to interpret the output of that
analysis.
4) Write up the results.
a. You must use full sentences & paragraphs
(I recommend at least separate paragraphs for each research question).
b. Feel free to use any graphs, figures, and/or tables to supplement your text
(include these on separate sheets of paper, but refer to them (and label them) in the text.
c. APA style is not required (but is suggested).
d. Make sure to provide the relevant descriptive statistics as well as the
inferential results.
e. For simplicity, assume an alpha level of 0.05 for all tests
(make sure that you state this somewhere).
f. Remember to report degrees of freedom when appropriate
(along with computed test statistics, DON'T just report p-values)
g. Papers should be typed, double spaced.
Research Questions:
1) Are there any GPA differences between the three different major categories?
2) Are there any GPA differences between men and women?
3) Is there an interaction effect in GPA between Sex and Major?
If so, describe the interaction and provide a bar graph of these means.
4) What's the "best model" to predict University GPA?
5) Should the same model be used to predict University GPA across both Sex's?
(hint: you'll want to use the select cases function to select only males for a set
of analyses, and use it (select cases) again to select only females for another set
of analyses.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at
jccutti@mail.ilstu.edu.