Description:

The master spreadsheet for the Happiness Questionnaire Data is available here.

First, some notes on the master spreadsheet. It contains the data from the questionnaires given out by class members, in the general format we have used in class.

Paul sorted the data by various demographics, and copied the data for each demographic category to its own separate spreadsheet.

Paul computed a summary happiness score for each participant. This was the average of the scores on the nine happiness questions, with the ratings reversed for the three questions in which lower scores indicated higher happiness.

I moved the column for the demographic data to the left in each of the sheets so it is easy to see the demographic data that differentiates each sheet.

In order to protect participant confidentiality, I deleted various potentially identifiable data. I realized that if a student in the class gave out a questionnaire, for example, to a 42 year old female biology major, that student could look at these data and see that there was only one 42 year old female biology major, and then would know who that person was and would be able to see the person’s answers to all other questions. Therefore, in order to protect confidentially, we did three things. First, Paul combined the ages into three groups and removed the individual ages. Second, I removed all the demographic data from the master data sheet. Finally, on the individual sheets, I removed the entire data set for any individual where there were only a small number of people in the category. For example, I removed all majors except EDUC, PSYC, and N (none or not applicable).

Homework:

Copy the master data onto your own p drive. Save it as "master" and also make a copy to work with. Do the assignments below on your copy and save it on your p drive so we can access it in class on Thursday. Also write up a separate 1-2 page summary of what you found as described below, and turn that in on Thursday.

1. compute the mean score for females and the mean for males on the question “I consider myself physically healthy.” Compute the difference between the means. Do a t test on the difference. Is it statistically significant? Write a description of what you found as it would appear in the results section of a journal article. Example: “The mean score for … was … and the mean score for … was …. The difference between the means was …. This [was] [was not] statistically significant by a t-test (p<……..).”

2. Do the same for the question “I have lots of friends,” again comparing males and females on their answer to this question.

3. Compare average scores on the question “my life is meaningful and has direction” for the participants who answered “C” and those who answered “S” to the demographic question on education. Again write a description of what you found as it would appear in the results section of a journal article.

4. Using the master sheet, compute a correlation between the overall happiness score and the answer to the question, “my family is supportive.” Describe this as you would describe it in the results section of a journal article. (Hint: you should say something about statistical significance!)

5. Using the master sheet, compute a correlation between the overall happiness score and the answer to the question, “I drink alcohol when I’m upset.” Describe this as you would describe it in the results section of a journal article. (Hint: you should say something about statistical significance!)

4/2/05