An Assignment Submitted by
Essay 1
The research question pursued by the researchers was the following: which of the vaccines, nasal spray or shot is more effective for preventing the flu? On the basis of the results it is possible to imply that the group of researchers developed two hypotheses: 1) vaccine in the form of shot is more effective than the spray to prevent the flu; 2) vaccine in the form of nasal spray is more effective than the one in the form of a shot for preventing the flu. The null hypothesis supposed that both vaccines have equal impact on the ability to prevent flu. The results of this research were statistically significant, as the analysis indicated that the significant difference between the proportions of people who get flu from each of the vaccines. As smaller proportion of people that were treated by the vaccine in the form of the shot got flu comparing to the group that were treated with nasal spray, it is possible to generate the conclusion that the vaccine in the form of a shot was more effective than its counterpart in the form of nasal spray. Also, the research rejected the null hypothesis due to the p-value was less than ≤0.05, which proves against the null hypothesis.
The researchers provide not enough evidence for supporting one of the alternative hypotheses. It is not clear what the criteria for the inclusion of the participants were. For instance, if the respondents were suffering from any immune or any other kind of health-related issue and what was the age of the respondents. Each of these factors can affect the results of the study. The size of the sample can be either relevant or not depending on the entire size of population that the researchers were going to equip with the vaccine. Major limitation of the research is the absence of clear information about the sample and its heterogeneity. Also, there is a limitation concerning the absence of other independent variables, like age, state of health, previous medical history. The follow-up study would be performed by examining the respondents with the similar characteristics by exposing them to the same treatment and comparing to the results of another group sample that were not treated with the vaccine. Practical significance refers to the question if the results are practically useful for the context, while the statistical significance indicates the relationship between variables (Gliner & Morgan, 2007).
Essay 2
The case study demonstrates that the correlation is positive and it is particularly strong because it is close to 1. Consequently, if the correlation was less than 1, it would be considered as negative correlation; if it resulted in 0, there would be no correlation. This result means that the levels of GPA would increase and decrease together with the IQ. Specifically, the higher level of IQ will generate higher GPA and vice versa. Overall, the study cannot demonstrate that people with high IQ will demonstrate high levels in GPA on the basis of only high correlation generated by the analysis.
The study did not provide enough evidence supporting the claim that the level of IQ causes certain level of GPA. It is important to admit that causation and correlation are not the same indicators, thus, while the correlation is significant, it is impossible to claim that higher IQ causes higher GPA. The main reason for this is the fact that the relationship between these variables is non-linear. The additional variables affecting this relationship are the following:
Population characteristics;
Size of sample;
The tests performed for IQ measurement;
The evaluation techniques of GPA
It is important to remember that the correlation simply predicts the relationship between the variables, while causation helps to determine if one event or variable was responsible for causing another event or variable. If the casual relationship between variables were observed, they have to be correlated (Wilcox, 2009). The factors affecting the size of the correlation are:
Characteristic of the participants recruited for the development of correlation;
Distinctions in the types of two distributions;
Mistakes in measurements;
The availability of multilayered dataset;
The correlation is a good test, but it has to be complimented with the other measures in order to generate casual relationship between variables. For this purpose, a regression analysis/t-test has to be performed.
Essay 3
The following table demonstrates the results of the statistical analysis:
It is possible to admit that there were no outliers in the information, so the average time of response was 6.36 seconds. The result of doubling the group results are:
If comparing two sets of results presented for two sets of data, it is possible to see that some of the data have changed, while the other information remained the same, like standard error, median, mean, and range. The other sets of data were changed due to the increase of the initial numerical information added to the analysis. Sample size affects the values in the research by increasing the load of data. Increased sample size enables the researcher to make more generalizable result and reveal more differences within the information.
Introduction
The study conducted by Minnotte, Pedersen, & Mannon (2013) investigates the impact of neighborhood resources on the father-child relationship. Particularly, the researchers explore if neighborhood resources can affect a person’s microsystems stressors that designate the quality and character of father-child relationship. The article performed the analysis of the previous research on the topic that revealed that, first of all, fatherhood plays crucial part in child development; secondly, the quality of father-child relationship is partially influenced by stressors fathers encounter with in their family and work microclimates; thirdly, some studies proved that neighborhood resources and community may mitigate the effect of stressors experienced by fathers. In order to pursue this topic, Minnotte, Pedersen, & Mannon (2013) used the ecological theoretical framework that emphasizes the importance of neighborhood and community the fathers and children reside in when evaluating the quality of their relationship. Therefore, the researchers have chosen to assess three microsystems, namely, work, family, and neighborhood.
In the result, the scholars developed four hypotheses, specifically: a) work stressors affect strongly and negatively father-child relationship; b) family stressors have significant and negative impact on father-child relationship; c) neighborhood satisfaction mediates the connection between work stressors and father-child relationship; d) neighborhood satisfaction mediates the link between family stressors and father-child relationship. It has to be noted that Minnotte, Pedersen, & Mannon (2013) have specified the work- and family-related stressors, limiting them to work hours, inflexibility of work, and work-related conflict to the family; and housework and family-related conflict to the job. Also, it was planned to evaluate the neighborhood satisfaction and informal support from the community as the single variable in terms of neighborhood resources.
Methods
The researchers used self-administered questionnaire for collecting the data for the analysis. The sample included 96 couples, which is relevant to 192 participants. Only the information gathered from employed fathers were analyzed statistically. The criteria for inclusion were the marital status of fathers, employment, availability of one child younger than 18 years old, and the desire to participate. Dependent variable in the research was father-child relationship quality that was measured on the basis of fathers’ expression of respect, effective communication, and proper supervision of their children. Independent variables included work-related and family-related stressors mentioned earlier, informal support, and household income. It has to be noted that the theoretical discussion of the topic did not include the financial situation in the families. Moreover, the researchers did not justify the inclusion of economic status into the measurements. It was admitted by the scholars that their initial intention to compare the results between fathers and mothers was not supported because there was insignificant amount of employed mothers in the sample.
Minnotte, Pedersen, & Mannon (2013) used the means of descriptive statistics and bivariate correlation that were compiled for the analysis of the data. In order to address the hypotheses, the researchers utilized several sets of ordinary-least squares (OLS) regression analyses. The analysis was divided into four models that tested the relationship between the family-, work-related stressors, father-child relationship, and the neighborhood resources. Four models were divided into the groups for two in order to distinguish between the mediating effect of neighborhood resources on the relationship between each set of variables. It is important to admit that the scholars included the control variables to set the parameters for both dependent and independent variables.
Results
The descriptive statistics produced several results claiming that the participants demonstrated strong relationship with their children. As to work-related stressors, the respondents worked around 45 hours each week and claimed moderate results in the inflexibility of their job and conflict between work and their family. In the result, the participants claimed that they rarely engage into the household hours, and low level of family-related conflict to work. Also, the respondents emphasized they are highly satisfied with the neighborhoods and the informal support of their community.
According to the researchers, the statistical analysis partially supported the hypothesis that father-child relationship quality is negatively affected by work-related stressors, as the analysis revealed that the inflexibility of work and conflict between family and job influences the relationship between fathers and their children. It was also partially supported that the neighborhood resources mediate the connection between the relationship and work-related stressors; however, the correlation between the working hours and the engagement into the community was statistically high. It can be one of the limitations that did not assess the involvement of the fathers into the community. Both hypotheses concerning the relationship between father and child and the mediating role of neighborhood resources regarding family-related stressors were partially supported as well. At the same time, the research revealed that there is no statistically significant correlation between family-related work conflict and the dependent variable.
One of the vivid drawbacks of the research is the absence of any explanation regarding the financial status of the participants and its impact on the results of the study. Apparently, the scholars did not include it in the interpretation of their results and also did not indicate its role and effect on the dependent and independent variables. In addition, the study did not indicate if the households had enough income or oppositely, were financially struggling and if it influenced any of the variables. As the research did not initially aimed to measure the financial status of the families, it is not clear why the researchers included it into the list of independent variables.
Discussion
It is possible to imply that apart from the unclear reasons to implement financial status of households into the independent variables, the findings of the research performed by Minnotte, Pedersen, & Mannon (2013) matched their aims and objectives. The study has the goal to reveal the correlation between the variables, which was attained. The fact that the hypotheses were only partially supported indicate that the researchers have chosen the indicators characterizing the independent variables that did not directly affected the dependent variable in context of the participants recruited for the research. Overall, the utilization of descriptive statistics and (OLS) regression analysis corresponds with the initial goal of the study and the results generated with the help of these methods.
There are several limitations in the research. Firstly, the participants were recruited only from the Western part of the country; secondly, the researchers recruited a small sample of respondents; thirdly, the scholars recruited the participants on the basis of at least one parent to be employed, which affected the heterogeneity of the sample. If the scholars were not going to include the economic status of the respondents, it would be useful to eliminate this factor from the possible impacts by recruiting the parents that were both employed. It would enable the scholars to compare the results obtained from mothers and fathers for the reasons of comparison. The future investigation of this topic has to include the propositions regarding the limitations of the current research by exploring the impact of financial status and the role of mothers in this subject matter. Also, the statistical analysis that could be performed in this study is the two-way ANOVA and the descriptive statistics.
References
Gliner, J. A., & Morgan, G. A. (2007). Research methods in applied settings: An integrated approach to design and analysis. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Wilcox, R. R. (2009). Basic statistics: Understanding conventional methods and modern insights. New York: Oxford University Press.
Minnotte, K. L., Pedersen, D. E., & Mannon, S. E. (2013). Work and family stressors and the quality of father-child relationships: Do neighborhood resources matter? Sociological Focus, 46(1), 68-84.
