In previous courses, you may have discussed the pertinent instruments of data collection, including their scales and their measures of reliability and validity. During this final week of instruction, you focus on how to explore, identify, and evaluate scales in quantitative research. This becomes a critical task when you create your own instruments or rely on surveys and questionnaires from other sources.
Without reliability and validity of measures, interpretation of results can lead to erroneous conclusions. A statistics professor concerned with student anxiety might have an instrument that measures anxiety. The professor can perform scale analysis to determine which questions on the test might collectively represent different aspects of anxiety, like test anxiety, math anxiety, or computer anxiety.
In addition to this topic, you also focus on your Final Project this week. In previous weeks, you were encouraged to use the Collaboration Labs to develop a research question, select a potential dataset, and identify the appropriate statistical test. If you have not already begun working in earnest to complete your Final Project (beyond those initial steps), this week is your opportunity to do so.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
Critique research studies based on reliability, validity, and a scale analysis
Identify the appropriate statistical test to answer a research question
Apply statistical tests to answer a research question
Analyze statistical results for a lay audience
Learning Resources
Required Readings
Warner, R. M. (2013). Applied statistics: From bivariate through multivariate techniques (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Chapter 21, “Reliability, Validity, and Multiple-Item Scales” (pp. 901–952)
This chapter provides an important nugget of wisdom: The analyses you explored in previous weeks will yield meaningful results only if you have a well-specified model and if all the measurements for the variables are reliable and valid. This chapter outlines reliability, validity, and multiple-item scales, which should be acknowledged when evaluating the quality of measurements.
Document: Final Project Guidelines (PDF)
Document: Final Project Template (Word document)
Datasets
In this course, your instructor will provide you with one dataset (Guided Sample Dataset: Statistics Anxiety) that will be used in several of the tutorial videos. You are encouraged to reproduce the analyses performed in the video using this dataset so you can compare your answers and check your understanding of how to do each analysis in SPSS. You will also be provided with three large datasets for you to use in application of the statistics you're learning each week. The Statistics Anxiety dataset is not for use in your weekly Assignments. Your instructor may also recommend using a different dataset from the ones we have provided here, which is fine. Your instructor will share these datasets in the Doc Sharing section of the classroom and as an Announcement.
In this course, your instructor will provide you with one dataset (Guided Sample Dataset: Statistics Anxiety) that will be used in several of the tutorial videos. You are encouraged to reproduce the analyses performed in the video using this dataset so you can compare your answers and check your understanding of how to do each analysis in SPSS. You will also be provided with three large datasets for you to use in application of the statistics you're learning each week. The Statistics Anxiety dataset is not for use in your weekly Assignments. Your instructor may also recommend using a different dataset from the ones we have provided here, which is fine. Your instructor will share these datasets in the Doc Sharing section of the classroom and as an Announcement.
Required Media
Laureate Education (Producer). (2017p). Introduction to reliability, validity, and scale analysis [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 1 minute 45 seconds.
Begin each week of the course by viewing the Weekly Introduction video, in which experienced statistics Instructors Dr. Matt [name removed] and Dr. Annie Pezalla provide context for new learning, explain statistical methods in easy-to-understand language, and describe the learning activities you will need to complete.
Accessible player
Collaboration Lab: Final Project
Important Note: This Collaboration Lab will extend into Week 11 to allow you to continue discussions during the 2-week period you are working on your Final Project.
Collaboration Labs are offered throughout the course as places of academic refuge, where you can ask questions, offer insights, and interact with the Instructor as they provide global feedback to the group based on trends, common problems, and common strengths in student posts.
As a peer, you are also encouraged to provide constructive, helpful feedback to your peers. Data analysts always benefit from the feedback of others. Your Collaboration Labs posts may be procedural (“How do I get the answer using the SPSS software?”), conceptual (“How does this relate to the other tests we have learned?”), or analytical (“What do my calculations actually mean in the context of my research question?”).
Although not mandatory, this is an opportunity to interact and practice as you navigate the assignments, so you are highly encouraged to take part in this activity. Full participation in activities like these is a statistically significant predictor of success.
This Collaboration Lab should contain only posts related to this week’s topic and the Final Project.
To participate in this Collaboration Lab:
Weeks 10 and 11 Collaboration Lab
Assignment: Article Critique
The practice of quantitative research not only involves statistical calculations and formulas but also involves the understanding of statistical techniques related to real-world applications. You might not become a quantitative researcher nor use statistical methods in your profession but as a consumer, citizen, and scholar-practitioner, it will be important for you to become a critical consumer of research, which will empower you to read, interpret, and evaluate the strength of claims made in scholarly material and daily news.
For this Assignment, you will critically evaluate a scholarly article related to reliability, validity, and scale analysis.
To prepare
Review the Article Critique Assignment Guide in the Walden Library, listed in the Week 2 Learning Resources.
Search the Walden Library for a quantitative article that utilizes scales.
By Day 7
The Assignment
Write a 2- to 3-page critique of the research you found in the Walden Library that includes responses to the following prompts:
Did the authors construct scales in a clear, concise manner?
Were the authors’ explanations clear regarding the reliability and validity of their measures?
What information did the authors provide about establishing reliability and validity?
Submission and Grading Information
To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:
Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK10Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
Click the Weeks 10 Assignment 2 Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
Click the Week 10 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK10Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.
Grading Criteria
To access your rubric:
Week 10 Assignment 2 Rubric
Check Your Assignment Draft for Authenticity
To check your Assignment draft for authenticity:
Submit your Week 10 Assignment draft and review the originality report.
Submit Your Assignment by Day 7
To submit your Assignment:
Week 10 Assignment
Project: Final Project
In previous weeks of this course, you began thinking about and planning for your Final Project. By now, you should have selected a research question that interests you, identified the dataset that you will use to answer that question, and chosen a statistical test to analyze that data.
Now it is time to move from the planning stages into the execution stage of your Final Project. It is due by Day 5 of Week 11 (next week). As you work on your Final Project, keep these guidelines in mind:
Present your research question clearly.
Explain why you selected your dataset and the statistical test you applied to that dataset.
Detail whether your test has statistical power or not.
Use one of the statistical tests covered in this course.
Visually display your results, in APA format.
Detail how your findings might impact social change.
Ensure that your Final Project is 7–10 pages in length, in APA format.
Be sure to review the two documents in the Learning Resources relating to the Final Project, both of which you originally reviewed in Week 3. Throughout this course, in Assignments that followed each new concept that you learned, you responded to questions and prompts. If you are not sure how to proceed with your Final Project, reviewing your responses to those questions and prompts may inform and shape your analysis. Remember to collaborate with your peers and the Instructor in the Collaboration Lab.
Week in Review
This week you critiqued research studies, based on reliability, validity and a scale analysis, analyzed statistical results for a lay audience, and applied statistical tests to answer research questions. In the final week you will be compiling the benefit of peer and instructor feedback to analyze, summarize and present findings of your Final Project.
To go to the next week:
Use this resource to support learning, planning and original work. Follow your institution’s academic integrity requirements.