Formation of relationships Matching Hypothesis Introduction to Year 2 Psychology

Starter Can you recall a definition of each of the following key terms? Mean Mode Median Range Standard deviation Can you give a strength and weakness of each?

Learning Objective: To continue your personal investigation into the matching hypothesis. Success Criteria 1) Recap key terms from the research methods topic. 2) Finish writing up your method. 3) Create a scattergraph of your result. 4) Begin conducting statistical analysis of your data. Challenge Check that you have calculated Spearman’s rho correctly by comparing to the Excel correlation coefficient.

Task Make sure that your method is complete. Copy it onto your own template for write up.

Results There are two sections to this, descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics* – Descriptive statistics describe the main features of the data e.g. graphs and averages. Refer to your raw data, calculate average scores and plot male and female scores against one another on a scattergraph. What does your graph show? Inferential statistics – Inferential statistics help us to make conclusions e.g. are the findings significant? Justify why you used the Spearman’s Rho test. Your actual calculations should be in the appendix. Are your results significant? You will have more direction in the lesson on how to write this section.

Scattergraph Go to the weebly. Open the document called Scattergraph. Calculate the mean score of attractiveness for each male based on your data collection sheets. Repeat for each female. Place the data into the table on Excel. Copy the graph onto your template for write up. Make a note of the correlation coefficient on a scrap of paper.

Statistical Analysis Spearman’s rho

Why do you choose a Spearman’s rho test? Testing for a correlation Two co-variables Ordinal data

Step 1: Hypotheses Write your hypotheses onto your worksheet.

Step 2. Record the data Calculate the ranks by ordering the mean ratings from 1 to 10 (i.e. the lowest mean is a score of 1). If there are two or more with the same rating, then you calculate the mean of the ranks. Now calculate the difference of the ranks (Rank F – Rank M) This is the mean attractiveness rating, rated out of 10. How do you calculate the mean? Now finally square the differences 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6 4 3 7 1 8 10 5 6 3 10 2 8 6 4.5 2.5 7.5 1 9 10 5 7.5 2.5 10 1 9 1 -0.5 -2.5 -1.5 -1 1.5 2 1 0.25 6.25 2.25 4 18

Step 3. Find the observed value of rho (correlation coefficient) rho = 1 – (6 x 18)  10(100-1) rho = 1 – (108  990) rho = 1 – 0.11 rho = 0.89 Is your answer the same as the Excel calculation? Numbers in red are taken from the previous slide. You will enter your own numbers here.

Step 4. Find the critical value of rho You need to know: the value of N whether the hypothesis is directional or non-directional Is the result significant?

Step 5. State the conclusion Write the conclusion using the template in your booklets. For example: As the calculated value of rho (______) is higher/lower than the critical value (___), the null hypothesis can be accepted/rejected and the experimental hypothesis can be accepted/rejected. It can be reported that there is not/is a significant positive correlation between the attractiveness of married couples (rho = ____, N=___, p0.05, one-tailed).

Learning Objective: To continue your personal investigation into the matching hypothesis. Success Criteria 1) Recap key terms from the research methods topic. 2) Finish writing up your method. 3) Create a scattergraph of your result. 4) Begin conducting statistical analysis of your data. Challenge Check that you have calculated Spearman’s rho correctly by comparing to the Excel correlation coefficient.