Research Design and t Tests: How Are They Connected?

  
Week 6: t Tests
As a social scientist, you will often construct research designs that require some sort of comparison between groups. When constructing hypothesis tests, the t test allows you to evaluate estimates from samples to determine if differences exist between these groups in the population. You might want to know whether a specific educational intervention has benefit, whether a training program works, or under what conditions employees are most effective. These are just a few examples where you might make comparisons between two groups. The t test’s roots lie in solving practical questions about industrial quality control, which has led to it becoming one of the most fundamental and widely used tests in classical statistics.
In this week, you will examine t tests. In your examination, you will construct research questions, evaluate research design, and analyze results related to t tests. You also will critically evaluate research related to t tests.
Discussion: Research Design and t Tests: How Are They Connected?
Whether in a scholarly or practitioner setting, good research and data analysis should have the benefit of peer feedback. For this Discussion, you will post your response to the hypothesis test, along with the results. Be sure and remember that the goal is to obtain constructive feedback to improve the research and its interpretation, so please view this as an opportunity to learn from one another.
To prepare for this Discussion:

Review the      Learning Resources and the media programs related to t tests.
Search for      and select a quantitative article specific to your discipline and related      to t tests. Help with this task may be found in the Course guide and      assignment help linked in this week’s Learning Resources. Also, you can      use as a guide the Research Design Alignment Table located in this week’s      Learning Resources

By Day 3
Write a 3- to 5-paragraph critique of the article. In your critique, include responses to the following:

Which is      the research design used by the authors?
Why did      the authors use this t test?
Do you      think it’s the most appropriate choice? Why or why not?
Did the      authors display the data?
Do the      results stand alone? Why or why not?
Did the      authors report effect size? If yes, is this meaningful?  

Be sure to support your Main Post and Response Post with reference to the week’s Learning Resources and other scholarly Discussion: Research Design and t Tests: How Are They Connected?
Whether in a scholarly or practitioner setting, good research and data analysis should have the benefit of peer feedback. For this Discussion, you will post your response to the hypothesis test, along with the results. Be sure and remember that the goal is to obtain constructive feedback to improve the research and its interpretation, so please view this as an opportunity to learn from one another.
Scenarios
1.As an international development researcher ,you would like to know African Citizen ’sperceptions about current levels of democracy. You’re working hypothesis is that a series of reforms have increased African views of the level of democracy today. You do not have a good research design to compare attitudes before and after the reforms, but know that leaders and development experts would like to see a value of 6, on the scale of 1–10. Using the data from the 2015 Afro barometer, determine whether perceptions about current levels of democracy statistically differ from a value of6.Please provide: a 1–2APA style paragraph statement that furnishes an answer to this question, note the relevant statistics, comment on meaningfulness and include your relevant SPSS output. 2.As an international development researcher, you have already tested whether perceptions about the current levels of democracy differ from a value of 6. Given recent social change movements in North Africa, you now want to determine whether there is a statistical difference in these perceptions between North Africa and Southern Africa. Using the data from the 2015 A FRO barometer, please provide: a 1–2APA style paragraph statement that furnishes an answer to this question, note the relevant statistics, comment on meaningfulness, and include your relevant SPSS output.3.As an educational researcher, would like to know whether high school student’s perceptions about mathematical utility changed between their freshman and senior year. Each respondent is asked the same series of questions about the utility of mathematics in their future during their freshman and senior year. These questions are combined to form one variable of mathematical utility; higher values indicate higher levels of mathematical utility. Using the High School Longitudinal Survey, please provide: a 1–2 APA style paragraph statement that furnishes an answer to this question, note the relevant statistics, comment on meaningfulness, and include your relevant SPSS output.
Frankfort-Nachmias, C., & Leon-Guerrero, A. (2018). Social statistics for a diverse society (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
· Chapter 8, “Testing Hypothesis” (pp. 204-234)
Wagner, W. E. (2016). Using IBM® SPSS® statistics for research methods and social science statistics (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
· Chapter 6, “Testing Hypotheses Using Means and Cross-Tabulation” (previously read in Week 5)
· Chapter 11, “Editing Output” (previously read in Week 2, 3, and 4)
Walden University Library. (n.d.). Course Guide and Assignment Help for RSCH 8210. Retrieved from http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/rsch8210
For help with this week’s research, see this Course Guide and related weekly assignment resources.