Social Psychology – Research Exercise (AJW)



Quantitative Data AnalysisThe first piece of analysis you are going to complete looks the ages at which participants think that youth ends, old age starts and the age at which people ought to retire from paid work. The DV is this case is age and the IV will be the nationality of the Pps. If you don’t want to analyse all the data, just select 10 Pps from each of two nationalities. You will need to draw up tables of raw data and write all the workings out neatly so that they can be checked. In the exam you may get marks for the workings and need to be aware of this.Choose two at least two nationalities, e.g. English and Danish (IV) and calculate the mean/standard deviation for the age at which Pps think that youth ends( Q1) (4) the mean/standard deviation for the age at which Pps think old age begins (Q2) (4)create a summary table (12) and comparative bar chart (tables and graphs must be fully labelled to gain maximum credit) (8)explain your findings in words talking about the size of the difference between the means for example and what we can deduce from the standard deviations. explain why the mean and standard deviation were the appropriate measure of central tendency and measure of dispersion for this data.give one strength and one weakness of using the mean and standard deviation and relate your points to this investigation.NationalityAge at which Pps think that…English Danish MeanStandard DeviationMeanStandard DeviationQ1 “Youth ends”Q2 “Old age begins”Q3 “People should retire from paid work”The next set of analysis that I would like you to perform is to work out is to draw a frequency table (tally chart) to find out how many people strongly agree, agree, neither agree/nor disagree, disagree and strongly disagree with a range of statements. You don’t have to analyse all the likerts that we asked but again compare 10 or so Pps from each of two countries. You can then work out the percentage of Pps from that nationality that strongly, agree, agree, neither agreed nor disagreed, disagreed or strongly disagreed and these can be compared across the two countries , even if you don’t have the same number of Pps in each of your groups. Again, you don’t have to do analyses for all of these statements but maybe choose the ones you find most interesting or that you came up with some of the original ideas.Once you have made the frequency tables and calculated the percentages, draw pie charts to make sure you remember how to do this. I have given you some sheets to help with this in case you have forgotten. You may need to do this in the exam so you need to practice.No. of Pps who agreed with the following statements…I would feel comfortable chatting with an elderly stranger, e.g. whilst queuing at the shopsStrongly AgreeAgreeNeither agree/nor disagreeDisagreeStrongly disagreeIcelandEnglandIf I had an elderly friend, I?would be as happy talking to them?about a sensitive personal issue as a younger friendStrongly AgreeAgreeNeither agree/nor disagreeDisagreeStrongly disagreeIcelandEnglandI would be very willing to help out in an old people's home for work experienceStrongly AgreeAgreeNeither agree/nor disagreeDisagreeStrongly disagreeIcelandEnglandI would be very willing to work in a nursery for young children, (0-5 yrs) for work experienceStrongly AgreeAgreeNeither agree/nor disagreeDisagreeStrongly disagreeIcelandEnglandOlder adults, e.g. over 70 should have to retake their driving testStrongly AgreeAgreeNeither agree/nor disagreeDisagreeStrongly disagreeIcelandEnglandIf I see an older person on public transport(bus/train), I always offer them seat so they don't have to stand up or make their way to a seat that is further awayStrongly AgreeAgreeNeither agree/nor disagreeDisagreeStrongly disagreeIcelandEnglandI feel sorry for older adults in my communityStrongly AgreeAgreeNeither agree/nor disagreeDisagreeStrongly disagreeIcelandEnglandWe also collected some data that relates to how comfortable Pps feel when interacting with people over 60 and how often this happens. If you are interested in these questions, you need to complete the following frequency tables and pie charts, again comparing two nationality groups.How regularly do you interact with anyone aged?over 60, e.g. in a social situationFrequently throughout the dayOnce a dayOnce a weekOnce a monthRarelyNeverEnglandDenmarkHow comfortable do you feel around people aged over 60?Very comfortableComfortable Neither comfortable nor uncomfortableUncomfortableVery uncomfortableEnglandDenmarkWe also asked …Compared with people your own age, to what extent do you agree that older adults (70+)Strongly Agree1Agree2Moderately agree3Neither agree nor disagree4Moderately disagree5Disagree6Strongly Disagree7…more friendlyIcelandEngland…have higher moral standardsIcelandEngland…behave more respectfully to each otherIcelandEngland…are more honestIcelandEngland…are wiserIcelandEngland…are more grumpyIcelandEngland…are more capableIcelandEngland…are more competentIcelandEngland…are more forgetfulIcelandEnglandWe also asked…Thinking about people aged 70+, tick the three words which you think best describe people in this age groupBoringLovingWiseKindShort sighted SlowInterestingKnowledgeableQuickMeanIllogicalTrustworthyIcelandEnglandThe next section is the open ended questions, requiring a qualitative analysis where we will “identify emergent themes”. You will need to decide which two nationalities you want to compare. You must analyse the data for at least one of the open questions so that you can talk about it in the exam if needs be.You need to copy and paste the quotes from the spreadsheet into a table where you can conduct your qualitative analysis of the quotes across each nation and see whether there are differences in the frequencies with which each theme arises in the two groups and whether any themes are specific only to one of the two nationality groups.You will need to conduct the following stages of analysis…“Close reading” where you highlight the answers and pick out themes/issues that seem to arise in what they are sayingWrite the issues into the emergent themes box and tally similar examples of this theme in all the other answers that you read, soon you will discover whether theme is only apparent in the Pps answers from one nation or both or in which nation the theme is more common. Keep on adding more lines to this table for each emergent theme in the answers.Describe a time when you feel that you have been treated differently by an older person because of your ageEmergent themes in the open ended answersIcelandEnglandWhat do you think life is like for older adults living in your community?Emergent themes in the open ended answersIcelandEnglandIf you had an elderly relative in your family who was not able to live independently any more, what do you think could be done to help them?Emergent themes in the open ended answersIcelandEnglandWhat do you think are the?disadvantages of being elderly, e.g. over 70?Emergent themes in the open ended answersIcelandEnglandWhat do you think are the?advantages of being elderly, e.g. over 70?Emergent themes in the open ended answersIcelandEnglandThe final questions in our spreadsheet were about such matters as religion, country of origin and parents ages. If you wish to comment on these things it will go in your write up where you talk about how representative your sample were. You may decide that you want to run some additional analyses looking at religion or parents ages.I hope this helps with the results section of your lab report ................
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