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Key Points about Statistical Test Sample Homework Problem Solving the Problem with SPSS Logic for One-sample T-Test of a Population Mean Power Analysis
Social work students have higher GPAs than other students Social work students volunteer for more than 5 hours a week UT social work students score higher on licensing exams than graduates of other programs Social work students are getting younger every year
Null: population mean = specified value Versus Research: population mean < specified value Research: population mean specified value Research: population mean > specified value
Decision:
Reject null hypothesis if pSPSS alpha ( relationship) Reject null hypothesis if pSPSS2 alpha (< or > relationship)
Variable is interval level (ordinal with caution) Variable is normally distributed Acceptable degree of skewness and kurtosis or Using the Central Limit Theorem
One-sample T-Test: APA Style A one-sample T-test is presented as follows: t(75) = 2.11, p = .02 (one tailed), d = .48
Value of statistic Significance of statistic Include if test is one-tailed Effect size if available
Degrees of freedom
This is the general framework for the problems in the homework assignment on onesample t-tests of population means. The description is similar to findings one might state in a research article.
Previous research on survey respondents who favored the death penalty for persons convicted of murder found that the average "income" was 12.30. Based on a one-sample t-test, the average "income" for survey respondents who favored the death penalty for persons convicted of murder (M = 13.41) is significantly different from the expected average based on previous research (mu = 12.30).
The answer to a problem will be False if the t-test does not support the finding in the problem statement.
The problem statement tell us The subset is based on the variable "favor or oppose death penalty for murder" [cappun]. and that we are specifically interested in survey respondents who favored the death penalty for persons convicted of murder Our first task is to find the data value for cappun which represents survey respondents who favored the death penalty for persons convicted of murder. We go to the Variable View in the SPSS Data Editor and locate the variable.
The Values Labels dialog box shows us the text labels that the creator of the data set assigned to each of the possible numeric responses for this variable. 1 = FAVOR would be the logical choice to indicate respondents who favored the death penalty . This analysis will include cases who have a score of 1 for the variable cappun.
To select the subset of cases for this analysis, we return to the Data View of the SPSS Data Editor and we choose the Select Cases command from the Data menu.
In the Select Cases dialog box, we mark the option button If condition is satisfied, and click on the If button which becomes active when the option button is marked.
First, we highlight the variable we want to use, cappun, in selecting the subset.
Second, we click on the right arrow button to move the variable to the text box where we will compose our selection criteria.
Second, we click on the Continue button to close the Select Cases: If dialog box.
When we return to the Select Cases dialog, we see that SPSS has printed our selection criteria next to the If button.
When we return to the Data Editor, we scroll the variables to the right until we see the column for cappun. We see that SPSS has marked out the cases that will be excluded by drawing a diagonal slash through the row number. The cases that are excluded have either a 2 for OPPOSE answers or an 8 or 9 which indicate missing data specified by the creator of the data set. The cases with a value of 1 for cappun do not have the slash and will be included in the analysis.
The one-sample t-test uses the t-distribution for the probability of the test statistic. To obtain accurate probabilities, the variable must follow a normal distribution. We will generate descriptive statistics to evaluate normality.
Select the Descriptive Statistics > Descriptives command from the Analysis menu.
First, in addition to the statistics, SPSS has checked by default, mark the Kurtosis and Skewness check boxes on the Distribution panel.
"Income" [rincom98] satisfied the criteria for a normal distribution. The skewness of the distribution (-.723) was between -1.0 and +1.0 and the kurtosis of the distribution (-.234) was between -1.0 and +1.0.
For this problem, we have a sample size, N, of 111, clearly large enough to apply the central limit theorem if needed.
If we are unable to establish normality either by the distribution or by the central limit theorem, we should not use the t-test.
Having satisfied the level of measurement requirement for the t-test, and the assumption of normality, we now do the actual ttest.
Select Compare Means > OneSample T Test from the Analyze menu.
First, move the variable rincom98 to the Test Variable(s) list box.
Second, enter the population mean, mu, into the Test Value text box.
Second, we verify that the mean of our sample, as computed by SPSS, matches the value of the sample mean stated in the problem.
First, we check to make certain we have entered the population mean correctly as the Test Value.
Since the problem states that the mean for our data is significantly different from the mean found in previous research, we test the two-tailed hypothesis that mu is not equal to12.30 versus the null hypothesis that mu is equal to 12.30. The one-sample t-test for this problem produced the statistical result: t(110) = 2.180, p = .03.
The answer to the question is True with caution. The caution is added because the variable rincom98 was ordinal level. Our sample is either unlikely to be from the same population reported in previous research, or some event has altered the population mean.
SPSS only produces the two-tailed probability, but we can easily obtain the one-tailed probability by dividing the two-tailed probability by 2. If this problem has stated a one-tailed research hypothesis, we would have compared 0.015 (.031 2) to the alpha level of .05 to make our decision about the null hypothesis.
We have selected a specific subset of cases for this problem. To make sure we do not use the wrong subset for the next problem, we will restore all of the cases to the data set. Click on the Select Cases command from the Data menu.
The slashes through the case numbers are removed, indicating that all of the cases are available to the next command.
No
Yes
Probability for t-test less than or equal to alpha? Yes Add caution for ordinal variable. No
True
False
The answer to the problem was false because the one-tailed significance was p = .02 (.04 2), greater than the alpha of .01.
Using Microsoft Excel for the calculations, we find that the effect size is 0.27. Using Cohens interpretative guidelines, an effect size of 0.27 would be characterized as small.
The power analysis question in this case will enable us to answer the question of whether or not the number of cases available for this analysis was sufficient to detect an effect size that was this small.
The UT license for SPSS does not include SamplePower, the SPSS program for power analysis. However, the program is available on the UT timesharing server. Information about access this program is available at this site.
In the SamplePower program on the ITS Timesharing Systems, select the New command from the File menu.
Second, since the one-sample t-test evaluated our data against a specific value for the population mean, select the option button for One sample t-test that mean = specific value.
Third, click on the Ok button to enter the specific values for our problem.
SPSS sets the default test to a twotailed test with an alpha of .05. Since our test was a one-tailed test with an alpha of .01, we click on the text specified as the SPSS default.
We enter the values from the SPSS output from the one-sample t-test: 45.71 for Expected mean 41.52 for Test against the constant 15.34 for Standard Deviation 59 for the N of Cases When we enter the values, SPSS computes the power of our test on the slider bar.
Power of 0.39 is well below Cohens recommendation of 0.80. At, 0.39, we have less than a 5050 chance of finding statistical significance for a small effect.
To find the sample size we would have needed to achieve power of 0.80, we can click on the up-arrow of the spin box, and watch the power value in the slider bar. Increasing the sample size to 90 would have increased our power to 0.59.
We would have needed a sample of about 140 to reach the target of power = 80%.
To find the exact sample size needed, select Find N for power of 80% from the Tools menu.
The power analysis question in this case will enable us to answer the question of whether or not the number of cases available for this analysis was sufficient to detect an effect size that was this small.