PSYC2012 -
PSYCHOLOGY: AN EVIDENCE-BASED APPROACH 2
ASSESSMENT 2: Data Analysis Assignment
You have been provided with the data
for this assignment as an SPSS file. The data file has been provided with
generic variable names (V1, V2, etc.), which you should change. You will need
to provide more detailed VARIABLE LABELS and VALUE LABELS in the data file.
The hypothetical study examines the relationship between body mass
index (BMI), sex, and different measures of response inhibition, delay of
gratification, and positive/negative affect. The researchers recruited 120
adults and recorded their sex (V1: 1
= female; 2 = male) and BMI (V2: 1 =
underweight; 2 = normal; 3 = overweight). Participants reported their level of
hunger (V3) – at the start of the
study – on a Likert scale ranging from 1
= “not hungry at all” to 9 =
“extremely hungry”.
Participants then
completed a range of self-report measures:
·
Kirby Monetary Choice Questionnaire: 27 items, each presenting two
choices: either an immediate reward (e.g., “$55 today”) or a larger delayed
reward (e.g., “$75 in 61 days”). The higher the overall score (V4), the more likely is the person to
choose the smaller, immediate rewards.
·
Brief Sensation Seeking Scale: 8 items, scored on a Likert scale from 1 = “strongly disagree” to 5 = “strongly agree”. Example item: “I
like wild parties”. The higher the overall score (V5), the more likely is the person to seek novel and stimulating
experiences.
·
The Tightwad-Spendthrift Scale: 4 items, scored using either a 1-11 (item
no.1) or 1-5 (items 2-4) ratings. The higher the score (V8), the more difficultly people have in controlling their
spending. Tightwads (i.e., those with low scores), on the other hand, tend to
become anxious and experience pain when they have to spend money.
·
The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule – Expanded form (PANAS-X):
Participants are presented with a list of 60 adjectives (e.g., confident,
joyful, upset, angry), and are asked to indicate the degree to which they feel
each of these positive and negative emotional states in general. Items are
scored on a Likert scale ranging from 1 =
“very slightly or not at all” to 5 =
“extremely”. V9 includes
positive and V10 negative affect
scores. High scores on V9 and V10 represent high levels of positive and
negative affect, respectively.
Finally,
participants completed a Go/No-Go task, which measures inhibitory control. A
Go/No-Go task presents two stimuli; one is a “go” target to which participants
are instructed to respond as fast as they can (e.g., by pressing spacebar on a
keyboard), and the other is a “no-go” target to which one must withhold
responses. Failure to withhold responses to no-go targets is known as a
commission error. The lower the commission error, the better is the inhibitory
control. The current study used happy and sad faces as the stimuli. In the
first half of the task, happy faces were the go and sad faces were the no-go
targets. In the second half, the sad faces became the go while the happy faces
were the no-go targets. Previous literature suggests those with reduced
inhibitory control find it more difficult to resist responding to happy than
sad faces. V6 represents commission
errors to happy no-go targets, and V7
commission errors to sad no-go targets.
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