Welcome Statistical Methods and Data analysis PSY-301
Welcome Statistical Methods and Data analysis PSY-301. Course Skills Objectives. Computer Analysis of Data Using SPSS (PASW) Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Interpretation of Results What do results mean? What conclusions can be drawn? Communication
Welcome Statistical Methods and Data analysis PSY-301
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Presentation Transcript
Course Skills Objectives • Computer Analysis of Data • Using SPSS (PASW) • Statistical Package for the Social Sciences • Interpretation of Results • What do results mean? • What conclusions can be drawn? • Communication • Written, oral, and graphical • Effectively communicate results and influence others ~
Statistics are Tools • Tools that: • are useful • don’t tell truth or lies • Are used by people • Statistics help us make decisions • About variable & fluctuating information • Guided by human wisdom & values ~
Application of Statistics • Opinion/Political Polls • Influence public policy • Benefits vs. safety risks • new drugs / medical procedures • Epidemiology (autism & vaccines) • Environmental issues • Emissions control vs. economics • Courts • Sentencing equity ~
Statistics & Psychology • The Science of Statistics • a set of methods & rules for organizing, summarizing, and interpreting information • The Science of Psychology • Behavior & cognitive processes • describe, explain, predict & control • Relationships between variables • Similarities & Differences ~
An observation on human behavior: You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins because he always treats me as a flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you because you treat me like a lady, and always will. Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion
Testing the Pygmalion Effect • Can the expectations of others influence one’s behavior? • Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968) • Predictor Variable • Teacher’s expectation of student • “bloomer” or “non-bloomer” • Outcome Variable • Change in student IQ score ~
Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968) • “Oak School” 2d graders given new test • “Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition”: HTIA • predicts learning spurts in top 20% • Informed only teacher of scores • End of school year test again • Test Of General Abilities: IQ test • HTIA actually was TOGA • pretest - posttest • Operational definition • Measure change in IQ scores ~
Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968) • Conclusions not readily apparent • “real” differences or normal variation • Sampling error? • Descriptive Statistics: Average IQ change • Bloomers: 16.5 • Nonbloomers: 7.0 • Inferential statistics • Did bloomers improve significantly more • Experimenter Bias in research • Importance of control ~
Why Statistics? • Tools to critically evaluate information • Help account for variations • differences & similarities • Psychology goals • describe, explain, predict, control • Statistics AID decision-making • Meaningful results from fluctuating data ~