Comm/300 Week 1 Practice Problems
University of Phoenix Material
Week One Practice Problems
Prepare a written response to the following questions.
Chapter 1
12. Explain and give an example for each of the following types of variables:
a. Equal interval: Variable in which the numbers stand for approximately equal amounts of what is being measured (Aron, 2013).
b. Rank-order: Numeric variable in which the values are ranks, such as class standing or place finished in a race. Also called ordinal variable (Aron, 2013).
c. Nominal: Variable with values that are categories (that is, they are names rather than numbers). Also called categorical variables (Aron, 2013).
d. Ratio scale: An equal-interval variable is measured on a ratio scale if it has an absolute zero point, …show more content…
meaning that the value of zero on the variable indicates a complete absence of the variable (Aron, 2013).
e. Continuous: Variable for which, in theory, there are an infinite number of values between any two values (Aron, 2013).
f. Discrete: Variable that has specific values and that cannot have values between these specific values (Aron, 2013).
15.
Following are the speeds of 40 cars clocked by radar on a particular road in a 35-mph zone on a particular afternoon:
30, 36, 42, 36, 30, 52, 36, 34, 36, 33, 30, 32, 35, 32, 37, 34, 36, 31, 35, 20
24, 46, 23, 31, 32, 45, 34, 37, 28, 40, 34, 38, 40, 52, 31, 33, 15, 27, 36, 40
Make a frequency table and a histogram, then describe the general shape of the distribution.
Please see excel worksheet submitted separately.
21. Raskauskas and Stoltz (2007) asked a group of 84 adolescents about their involvement in traditional and electronic bullying. The researchers defined electronic bullying as “…a means of bullying in which peers use electronics {such as text messages, emails, and defaming Web sites} to taunt, threaten, harass, and/or intimidate a peer” (p.565). The table below is a frequency table showing the adolescents’ reported incidence of being victims or perpetrators or traditional and electronic bullying.
a. Using this table as an example, explain the idea of a frequency table to a person who has never had a course in …show more content…
statistics.
By looking at the Table below we can see that most bullies seem to prefer traditional methods (face-to-face contact) over electronic methods (texting, chat rooms, emailing, or websites), and victims of bullying seemed to be bullied more the traditional way, rather than through electronics. Next to each form of bullying you can see how many people claimed to be victims of bullies, and how many incidences they have had. By the bullies and victims answering which methods occur more we can get a general percentage from the results.
b. Explain the general meaning of the pattern of results.
Victims bullied by electronic methods is 48.8%, victims bullied by traditional methods is 71.4%. Bullies who used electronic methods is 21.4%, and bullies who use traditional methods is 64.3%. Both still occur, but one just seems to occur more than the other. There also seems to be a larger number of traditional victims (60) over electronic victims (41), this means that more people are going to create a larger percentage. There are also a very small number of bullies; 18 electronic bullies and 5 traditional bullies. Each person is reporting how many incidences they have had with bullying, so the less people the less incidences recorded. Since there are less bullies their number of incidences are going to be less, and they will have lower percentages. Since there are more victims they will have more incidences and higher percentages.
Incidence of Traditional and Electronic Bullying and Victimization (N=84)
Forms of Bullying
N
%
Electronic victims
41
48.8 Text-message victim
27
32.1 Internet victim (websites, chatrooms)
13
15.5 Picture-phone victim
8
9.5
Traditional Victims
60
71.4 Physical victim
38
45.2 Teasing victim
50
59.5 Rumors victim
32
38.6 Exclusion victim
30
50
Electronic Bullies
18
21.4 Text-message bully
18
21.4 Internet bully
11
13.1
Traditional Bullies
5
64.3 Physical bully
29
34.5 Teasing bully
38
45.2 Rumor bully
22
26.2 Exclusion bully
35
41.7
22.
Kärnä and colleagues (2013) tested the effects of a new antibullying program, called KiVa, among students in grades 1–3 and grades 7–9 in 147 schools in Finland. The schools were randomly assigned to receive the new antibullying program or no program. At the beginning, middle, and end of the school year, all of the students completed a number of questionnaires, which included the following two questions: “How often have you been bullied at school in the last couple of months?” and “How often have you bullied others at school in the last couple of months?” The table below is a frequency table that shows students’ responses to these two questions at the end of the school year (referred to as “Wave 3” in the title of the table). Note that the table shows the results combined for all of the students in the study. In the table, “victimization” refers to students’ reports of being bullied and “bullying” is students’ reports of bullying other
students.
a. Using this table as an example, explain the idea of a frequency table to a person who has never had a course in statistics.
Looking at the tables below we can see how many kids, grades 1-3 and grades 7-9, have either been victims of bullying, or been the bully themselves. We can also see how often they are bullied, and the percentage of each occurrence. There are more kids who answered the questionnaire in grades 7-9 than grades 1-3, but the results are somewhat similar.
b. Explain the general meaning of the pattern of results. (You may be interested to know that the KiVa program successfully reduced victimization and bullying among students in grades 1–3 but the results were mixed with regards to the effectiveness of the program among those in grades 7–9.).
From the results of this table most of the children grades 1-3 answered that they do not get bullied at all, or they do not bully others at all. The number of victims and bullies goes down as the number of occurrences goes up. Except in grades 7-9, the number of victimization and bullying goes down as occurrences goes up until the occurrence gets to “about once a week”, then the number of victims and bullies seems to go up.
Frequencies of Responses in the Five Categories of the Self-Reported Bullying and Victimization Variables at Wave 3
Grades 1–3
Grades 7–9
Victimization
Bullying
Victimization
Bullying
Variable
Freq.
%
Freq.
%
Freq.
%
Freq.
%
Occurrence
Not at all
3,203
53.6
4,296
72
10,660
77.4
10,880
79.5
Only once or twice
1,745
29.2
1,333
22.3
2,031
14.7
1,987
14.5
2 or 3 times a month
446
7.5
197
3.3
402
2.9
344
2.5
About once a week
297
5
90
1.5
312
2.3
196
1.4
Several times a week
281
4.7
49
0.8
375
2.7
279
2
Participants
Respondents n
5,972
100
5,965
100
13,780
100
13,686
100
Missing n
955
962
2,723
2,817
Total N
6,927
6,927
16,503
16,503
References
Copyright ©2013 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Aron, A., Aron, E. N., & Coups, E. J. (2013). Chapter 1: Displaying the Order in a Group of Numbers Using Tables and Graphs. In Statistics for Psychology, Sixth Edition (pp. 1-33). Pearson.
Week One Practice Problems
Prepare a written response to the following questions.
Chapter 1
12. Explain and give an example for each of the following types of variables:
a. Equal interval: Variable in which the numbers stand for approximately equal amounts of what is being measured (Aron, 2013).
b. Rank-order: Numeric variable in which the values are ranks, such as class standing or place finished in a race. Also called ordinal variable (Aron, 2013).
c. Nominal: Variable with values that are categories (that is, they are names rather than numbers). Also called categorical variables (Aron, 2013).
d. Ratio scale: An equal-interval variable is measured on a ratio scale if it has an absolute zero point, …show more content…
meaning that the value of zero on the variable indicates a complete absence of the variable (Aron, 2013).
e. Continuous: Variable for which, in theory, there are an infinite number of values between any two values (Aron, 2013).
f. Discrete: Variable that has specific values and that cannot have values between these specific values (Aron, 2013).
15.
Following are the speeds of 40 cars clocked by radar on a particular road in a 35-mph zone on a particular afternoon:
30, 36, 42, 36, 30, 52, 36, 34, 36, 33, 30, 32, 35, 32, 37, 34, 36, 31, 35, 20
24, 46, 23, 31, 32, 45, 34, 37, 28, 40, 34, 38, 40, 52, 31, 33, 15, 27, 36, 40
Make a frequency table and a histogram, then describe the general shape of the distribution.
Please see excel worksheet submitted separately.
21. Raskauskas and Stoltz (2007) asked a group of 84 adolescents about their involvement in traditional and electronic bullying. The researchers defined electronic bullying as “…a means of bullying in which peers use electronics {such as text messages, emails, and defaming Web sites} to taunt, threaten, harass, and/or intimidate a peer” (p.565). The table below is a frequency table showing the adolescents’ reported incidence of being victims or perpetrators or traditional and electronic bullying.
a. Using this table as an example, explain the idea of a frequency table to a person who has never had a course in …show more content…
statistics.
By looking at the Table below we can see that most bullies seem to prefer traditional methods (face-to-face contact) over electronic methods (texting, chat rooms, emailing, or websites), and victims of bullying seemed to be bullied more the traditional way, rather than through electronics. Next to each form of bullying you can see how many people claimed to be victims of bullies, and how many incidences they have had. By the bullies and victims answering which methods occur more we can get a general percentage from the results.
b. Explain the general meaning of the pattern of results.
Victims bullied by electronic methods is 48.8%, victims bullied by traditional methods is 71.4%. Bullies who used electronic methods is 21.4%, and bullies who use traditional methods is 64.3%. Both still occur, but one just seems to occur more than the other. There also seems to be a larger number of traditional victims (60) over electronic victims (41), this means that more people are going to create a larger percentage. There are also a very small number of bullies; 18 electronic bullies and 5 traditional bullies. Each person is reporting how many incidences they have had with bullying, so the less people the less incidences recorded. Since there are less bullies their number of incidences are going to be less, and they will have lower percentages. Since there are more victims they will have more incidences and higher percentages.
Incidence of Traditional and Electronic Bullying and Victimization (N=84)
Forms of Bullying
N
%
Electronic victims
41
48.8 Text-message victim
27
32.1 Internet victim (websites, chatrooms)
13
15.5 Picture-phone victim
8
9.5
Traditional Victims
60
71.4 Physical victim
38
45.2 Teasing victim
50
59.5 Rumors victim
32
38.6 Exclusion victim
30
50
Electronic Bullies
18
21.4 Text-message bully
18
21.4 Internet bully
11
13.1
Traditional Bullies
5
64.3 Physical bully
29
34.5 Teasing bully
38
45.2 Rumor bully
22
26.2 Exclusion bully
35
41.7
22.
Kärnä and colleagues (2013) tested the effects of a new antibullying program, called KiVa, among students in grades 1–3 and grades 7–9 in 147 schools in Finland. The schools were randomly assigned to receive the new antibullying program or no program. At the beginning, middle, and end of the school year, all of the students completed a number of questionnaires, which included the following two questions: “How often have you been bullied at school in the last couple of months?” and “How often have you bullied others at school in the last couple of months?” The table below is a frequency table that shows students’ responses to these two questions at the end of the school year (referred to as “Wave 3” in the title of the table). Note that the table shows the results combined for all of the students in the study. In the table, “victimization” refers to students’ reports of being bullied and “bullying” is students’ reports of bullying other
students.
a. Using this table as an example, explain the idea of a frequency table to a person who has never had a course in statistics.
Looking at the tables below we can see how many kids, grades 1-3 and grades 7-9, have either been victims of bullying, or been the bully themselves. We can also see how often they are bullied, and the percentage of each occurrence. There are more kids who answered the questionnaire in grades 7-9 than grades 1-3, but the results are somewhat similar.
b. Explain the general meaning of the pattern of results. (You may be interested to know that the KiVa program successfully reduced victimization and bullying among students in grades 1–3 but the results were mixed with regards to the effectiveness of the program among those in grades 7–9.).
From the results of this table most of the children grades 1-3 answered that they do not get bullied at all, or they do not bully others at all. The number of victims and bullies goes down as the number of occurrences goes up. Except in grades 7-9, the number of victimization and bullying goes down as occurrences goes up until the occurrence gets to “about once a week”, then the number of victims and bullies seems to go up.
Frequencies of Responses in the Five Categories of the Self-Reported Bullying and Victimization Variables at Wave 3
Grades 1–3
Grades 7–9
Victimization
Bullying
Victimization
Bullying
Variable
Freq.
%
Freq.
%
Freq.
%
Freq.
%
Occurrence
Not at all
3,203
53.6
4,296
72
10,660
77.4
10,880
79.5
Only once or twice
1,745
29.2
1,333
22.3
2,031
14.7
1,987
14.5
2 or 3 times a month
446
7.5
197
3.3
402
2.9
344
2.5
About once a week
297
5
90
1.5
312
2.3
196
1.4
Several times a week
281
4.7
49
0.8
375
2.7
279
2
Participants
Respondents n
5,972
100
5,965
100
13,780
100
13,686
100
Missing n
955
962
2,723
2,817
Total N
6,927
6,927
16,503
16,503
References
Copyright ©2013 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Aron, A., Aron, E. N., & Coups, E. J. (2013). Chapter 1: Displaying the Order in a Group of Numbers Using Tables and Graphs. In Statistics for Psychology, Sixth Edition (pp. 1-33). Pearson.