Scenario
A researcher has administered an anxiety survey to students enrolled in graduate level statistics courses. The survey included three subscales related to statistics anxiety: (a) interpretation anxiety, (b) test anxiety, and (c) fear of asking for help. For the items that comprised the scales, students were asked to respond using a 5 point likert-type scale ranging from (1) No Anxiety to (5) High Anxiety. Therefore, higher scores on the anxiety subscales implied higher levels of anxiety.
In addition to the statistics anxiety subscales, the survey contained a subscale related to the use of statistical software and asubscale related to self-perceived confidence concerning general computer use. Students responded to items on the statistical software subscale using a response range from (1) Strongly Disagree to (7) Strongly Agree. For the computer confidence subscale, students responded to items using a range from (1) Strongly Disagree to (5) Strongly Agree. For each of these subscales, higher scores implied higher levels of confidence.
The researcher determined the score for each subscale by computing the mean response for the items associated with the subscale. This technique resulted in subscales that had the same possible range and the items that made up the subscale.
A subsample of the researcher's dataset contains the following variables that should be used for completing the four final projects. The variables included in the dataset are:
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Variable name:
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Label:
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Values:
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gender
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1:Female
2:Male
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race
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1: White
2: Non-White
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age
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courses
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Number of online courses completed
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1: 0-2 courses
2: 3-7 courses
3: 8 or more courses
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interpret
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Anxiety associated with reading and interpreting output from analyses
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test
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Anxiety associated with taking a test in a statistics course
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help
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Anxiety associated with asking for help during a statistics course
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software
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Self-reported level of confidence is using statistical software
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computer
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Self-reported confidence in general computer use
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Another of the researcher's questions involved the difference in scores on the Asking for Help subscale based on the respondents' reported number of online courses completed. Use SPSS to conduct the analysis that is appropriate for this research question and answer each of the questions. If a statistical significance test is used, you should use .05 as the critical level of significance.
Questions:
1. Based on the scenario, what is the appropriate analysis for examining differences among the Asking for Help subscale scores based on the number of online courses completed?
2. Write an appropriate null hypothesis for this analysis.
3. What is the mean Asking for Help score for each number of online courses completed?
4. What is the standard deviation for each number of online courses completed?
5. What is the observed or computed value of the test statistic comparing the Asking for Help subscale scores based on the number of online courses completed?
6. What are the reported degrees of freedom for the Between Groups variance?
7. What are the reported degrees of freedom for the Within Groups variance?
8. What is the reported level of significance?
9. Based on the results of the Scheffe post hoc test, which groups are significantly different?
10. Present the results as they might appear in an article. This must include a table that reports the results of the analysis and narrative statement that reports and interprets the results of the analysis and Scheffe post hoc test.