An EasyGuide to Research Design & SPSS

Beth M. Schwartz is the Provost and Professor of Psychology at Endicott College. Previously she served as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost and Professor of Psychology at Heidelberg University, in Tiffin, Ohio. Dr. Schwartz started her career on the faculty at Randolph College (founded as Randolph-Macon Woman′s College) in Lynchburg, VA, where she served for 24 years. At Randolph she was the William E. and Catherine Ehrman Thoresen ‘23 Professor of Psychology and Assistant Dean of the College. She received a BA at Colby College (Maine) and a PhD in cognitive psychology at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her scholarship focuses on the scholarship of teaching and learning/pedagogical research, in particular the issues surrounding academic integrity and honor systems. In addition to numerous professional presentations at conferences, she has published many book chapters and articles in a variety of scholarly journals, including the Journal of Higher Education, Ethics and Behavior, Law and Human Behavior, and Applied Developmental Science. She has also edited and coauthored books, including Child Abuse: A Global View(Schwartz, McCauley, & Epstein, 2001), Optimizing Teaching and Learning (Gurung & Schwartz, 2012), and Evidence-Based Teaching for Higher Education (Schwartz & Gurung, 2012). She is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the American Psychological Society and is a Fellow of Division 2 of APA (Society for the Teaching of Psychology). She was an award-winning teacher at Randolph College, where she taught Introduction to Psychology, Research Methods, Cognitive Psychology, and the capstone course. She received the Award for Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring from the American Psych-Law Society, the Gillie A. Larew Award for Distinguished Teaching at Randolph College, the Katherine Graves Davidson Excellence in Scholarship Award from Randolph College, and the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Certificate from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.     Janie Wilson received her PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of South Carolina in 1994. Since that time, she has been teaching and conducting research at Georgia Southern University. In the classroom, Dr. Wilson specializes in teaching and learning in statistics and research methods. Research interests include rapport in teaching based on empirical data on the first day of class, electronic communications, interactions with students in a traditional classroom, syllabus design, and the development and validation of the Professor-Student Rapport Scale. Recent publications include two brief texts with SAGE: An EasyGuide to Research Presentations and An EasyGuide to Research Design and SPSS. Along with her colleague, Shauna Joye, she recently published Research Methods and Statistics: An Integrated Approach with SAGE. Dr. Wilson has contributed numerous chapters to edited books and has co-edited several books related to teaching and learning. She has published extensively on the scholarship of teaching and learning and has offered over 60 conference presentations, including several invited keynote addresses. Dr. Wilson is the Past President of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP), Division Two of APA.  Dennis M. Goff received his PhD in Experimental Psychology from Virginia Tech in 1985. He has been teaching and conducting research at Randolph College (formerly Randolph-Macon Woman’s College) since 1986. He specializes in teaching and learning in statistics and developmental psychology with a burgeoning interest in evolutionary psychology. In the past 27 years, he has mentored hundreds of senior psychology majors as they completed their independently designed research projects. In recent years, all of those seniors have presented their work at regional conferences, and a few have earned recognition for best undergraduate research projects. He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. He has been recognized at Randolph by being named a Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology and given the Gillie A. Larew Award for Teaching Excellence and the Katherine Graves Davidson Award for Excellence in Promoting the College.

Section 1: Overview Basic Design Decisions
Chapter 1: Marriage – ‘Til Death Do Us Part
We Want to Help
Basic Steps of Research
Chapter 2: The Two Faces of Correlation
Correlation as a Research Design
Correlations as a Statistic
Chapter 3: Why Your Type fo Data Really Does Matter: Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, or Ratio
Nominal Data
Ordinal Data
Interval Data
Ratio Data
Chapter 4: To KISS (Keep It Simply Student) or to Complicate Matters: Nominal Data
How Many Variables Should I Include?
How Many Participants Should I Include
How Many Independent Variables ( IVs) Should I Include
Including More Than One Independnt Variables (IV)
Choosing the Number of Levels of Each Variable
Choosing Your Dependent Variables (DVs)
Avoiding the Un-Measurable Dependent Variables (DVs)
How Many Dependent Variables (DVs) To Include
Section II: Your Basic SPSS Tool Box
Chapter 5: Why SPSS and Not Other Software, Your Calculator, Fingers, or Toes
The Structure of SPSS
Chapter 6: SPSS Data Hygiene: Columns, and Labels, and Values….Oh My.
When to Create Your Data File: Yes Even Before Data Collection
Setting Up Your Data File
Naming and Labeling Your Variables
How to Keep Track and Remember the Details of Your Data File
Creating New Variables in Your Data File: Transformations
Conducting Analyses With Only Parts of Your Collected Data
Chapter 7: Tell Me About It: Descriptive Statistics
Describing Nominal Data
Describing Ordinal Data
Describing Interval of Ratio Data
Describing Data with Two Samples
Section III: Designs, Statistics, Interpretaion, and Write-Up in APA Style
Chapter 8: Celebrate Your Independence!: Between-Groups Designs
One IV, Two Levels
Between Groups with 2 Levels of an IV
Independent-Samples T-Test with a Pseudo-IV
Between Groups with More than 2 Levels of an IV
Chapter 9: Everybody Plays!: Repeated-Measures Designs
One Independent Variable (IV) with Two-Levels
Expanding the Number of Levels for Your Independent Variable
Adding Another Factor: Within-Subjects Factorial Designs
Chapter 10: Complicating Matters: Advanced Research Designs
Mixed Designs: One Between Variable and One Repeated-Measures
A Multivariate Design: Measuring It All Including More Than One Dependent Variable In Your Design
ANCOVA
Chapter 11: How do I know if That Relationship is Real? Correlations
Correlational Design: Two Variables
Interpreting Pearson’s r
Analyzing Your Data
Prediction with Two Variables: Simple Linear Regression
Prediction with Several Variables: Multiple Linear Regression
Chapter 12: Statistics Charades: Two Variables, Two Categories…..is it a Chi Square?
I Only Have One Question
One-way Chi Square With More Than Two Levels
Now I Only Have Two Questions
Section IV: Summary
Chapter 13: Mapping Your Decisions: You Can Get There From Here
Making Basic Decisions About Your Design
Data with Distinct Groups
Interval or Ratio Data with Many Levels
Chapter 14: Sample Results Sections for Each Type of Design
Independent-Samples T-Test (True IV)
Independent-Samples T-Test (Pseudo-IV)
One-Way, Between-Groups ANOVA (True IV)
Paired-Samples T-Test
One-Way, Within-Groups (Repeated-Measures) ANOVA
Two-Way, Within-Groups (Repeated-Measures) ANOVA
Pearson’s r Correlation
Pearson’s r Correlation and Regression
One-Way ?2
Two-Way ?2
Chapter 15: Did I do that? Taking Advice From the Experts
Questions About Research Design
Questions About Analyzing Your Data
Questions About Interpreting Your Data and Presenting Your Results
When Interpreting Your Data