Why might a statistical decisions model be useful in statistics and research methods?

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Statistical Decisions Model

It is clear from the material in this course that descriptive and inferential statistics play a critical role in research in the behavioral and social sciences. Since you will further your education via coursework and application in your respective fields, it is important to reflect on the knowledge you have gained and its applicability to your future in your chosen profession. Utilizing all that you have learned and been exposed to in this course, write a paper or presentation providing an overview of your knowledge of basic and inferential statistics, specifically discussing how you would go about deciding upon the appropriate statistical tests to use for a study.

Include the following in your assignment:

  • Create and present a decision tree, outline, or other model that includes a series of questions to help someone decide what statistical test is appropriate for a study. Consider the number, type, and scale of measurement of the variables, as well as what you may want to know about the variables (e.g., relationship, difference, etc.). This may be presented as a chart, table, mindmap, or other visual representation, or simply formatted as an outline.
  • Explain the steps involved in the model and how you created this model for making statistical decisions. What were the easiest and most difficult parts of this process?
  • Describe two different studies of interest to you. (Note: Neither study should be one that you focused on in any of the assignments during the course.) Include the following in the description:
    • Research Question – List the research question for each study.
    • Hypotheses – List the statistical notation and written explanations for the null and alternative hypotheses for each study.
    • Variables – Identify the variables and each of their attributes: discrete or continuous, quantitative or categorical, scale of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio), and independent or dependent.
  • Demonstrate how you would utilize the statistical decisions model you created to choose the appropriate, specific test(s) for each study. What is your conclusion using this model? Did the model lead you to the correct test(s)? If not, how do you know and what changes might need to be made to the model?
  • Why might a statistical decisions model be useful in statistics and research methods? What are its limitations?
  • What did you learn or gain from creating this model and applying it to the study of interest? How might you use this model in the future?

The format for this presentation can take the form of a paper. The paper should be a minimum of 2100 to 2800 words long (excluding title and references pages) and include a title page, introduction, conclusion, and references page. APA formatting should be used for the paper. Utilize at least four resources for this paper, which should be cited accordingly. You can use PowerPoint, video presentation with visual aids, or other format preapproved by the instructor.

Point Value: 15 Points
Weekly Learning Outcome Alignment: 1, 2, 3

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RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

1. How does the employees’ motivation affect the organization Productivity?

In this research there are two main variables that is independent variable which in this case are the motivational factors to employees which include favorable working environment, compensation strategy, business culture and the management strategy. The dependent variable in this study is the organization productivity. The best effective scale for measuring these variables is ordinal scale basically because some variables have more impacts than the others.

2. What are the factors that affect the patient’s reaction to treatment?

The variables in these case include the type of medication, the lifestyle of the patient and the degree of the effect of the health condition has affected the patient. These variables have different effect on the patient’s reaction to treatment, the variables are categorical in nature. In this case the most effective measurement scale is the ordinal scale as well (Celli, Decramer, Wedzicha, Wilson, Agustí, Criner & Vogelmeier, 2015).

3. Does increase in gun ownership affect the crime level in the society?

This question has several variables that increase in criminal related deaths, criminal activities, assault cases. A rational scale level of measurement can be used in this research because of the nature of these variables. The variables depict some categorical characteristics they have different degrees of impact to the dependent variable in the question.

4. How does the school environment affect the student performance?

The security level in the school, the type of rules and the consequences of going against the rules and the level of strictness of the teacher in the school are the main variables in the research question. The rules and regulations is can be grouped into some category as well as the level of strictness of the teachers another subordinate staff, in this case the best scale of measurement to be used is the ordinal scale. The variables also have some categorical characteristics they are not numerical.

5. What is the probability that randomly selected teenager watches movie over three time in a week?

The possibility or the variables in this case is that the student watches three times, less, or even more in a week. In this case the main scales of measurement will be internal level, this is basically because they can be quantified but the decimal or rather the zero point is not relevant to the study or rather is meaningless (Pratt, 2015).

6. Is there any relationship between the traffic congestion and the price of fuel? 

The research questions in this has only one variable of interest which is the fuel prices which may or may not affect the traffic congestion. This is a question that is meant towards finding the if there is relationship between the variables in the study. The level of measurement in this case is therefore ordinal scale. The data in this case may have some continuous characteristics.

7. Is there any relationship between gender and student performance in statistics and science subjects?

The variables in this case will be the average performance of the students in the subjects of focus, they will be categorized according to their gender. These variables can actually be measured using the ratio level of measurements by some mathematical operations. In this case an average will be calculated of both genders performance on the subjects being studied. The data in this study will depict some continuous characteristics.

8. How does the training frequency affect muscle growth for body builders?

The variables in this case are time, the intensity of training and the diet. These are the three basic factors that affect muscle growth. These variables can be measured using some interval level of scale because they affect muscle growth differently in body builders. This scale will be giving some difference in categories in the manner they affect the dependent variable here which is muscle growth. The data in this case will be analyzed mathematically and so will give some discrete results (Sahin, Serdar, Serteser, Unsal & Ozpinar, 2018).

9. What is the relationship between mortality rates and poverty level?

This research question is intended to establish the existence of any relationship between the mortality rates within a population and the poverty level of that population. The variables in these case will be poverty and death rate which will be measured using the ordinal level scale because it will be giving the degree to which these variables affect each other. The variables in this case will be having some continuous characteristics because they rise and fall at some level.

10. How does technological development impact learning in schools?

This research question has two directions, that is, the dependent variable may affect the independent in two ways either positively or negatively. The variables in this case will include the teaching techniques used by the teachers, the accessibility of the learning materials and so on this will have some positive impact on the learning processes. These variables will be measured using the ordinal level scale because they will be categorized and rated on the impact they have on the subject of study.

References

Pratt, M. G. (2015). Crafting and Selecting Research Questions and Contexts in Qualitative Research. Handbook of Qualitative Organizational Research: Innovative Pathways and Methods, 177.

Celli, B. R., Decramer, M., Wedzicha, J. A., Wilson, K. C., Agustí, A., Criner, G. J., … & Vogelmeier, C. (2015). An official American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society statement: research questions in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 191(7), e4-e27.

Sahin, O. N., Serdar, M., Serteser, M., Unsal, I., & Ozpinar, A. (2018). Vitamin D levels and parathyroid hormone variations of children living in a subtropical climate: a data mining study. Italian journal of pediatrics, 44(1), 40.

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Resources

Required Text

Sukal, M. (2013). Research methods: Applying statistics in research. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Chapter 12: Choosing an Appropriate Statistical Test

Recommended References

American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, D.C.: Author.

Cengage Learning (2005). Statistics Workshops. Available from: http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/templates/student_resources/workshops/stats_wrk.html (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Choosing the Correct Statistical Test

MicrOsiris. (n.d.).The decision tree for statistics. Adapted from Andrews, Klem, Davidson, O’Malley, and Rodgers, A guide for selecting statistical techniques for analyzing social science data (2nd ed.).Retrieved fromhttps://www.microsiris.com/Statistical%20Decision%20Tree// (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Trochim, W. M. K. (2006). Selecting statistics. In Research methods knowledge base (2nd ed.).Retrieved from Web Center for Social Research Methods Web