MANOVA Problem Set
we are covering the MANOVA, which is basically just like the ANOVA except that you can have more than on dependent variable and the dependent variables may be related in some way. This week, you have two discussion questions due, and the Module 8 problem set*******. Also, please make sure to fill out the end of class surveys.
· Just as with other problem sets, you are supposed to work through the answers on your own before looking at the problem set solutions page. Answers should be in your own words.
· Please make sure to write your results section in APA format including all the information that is required for results presentation in APA format. For more details on what belongs in a results section, see your APA publication manual’s guide to the results section (2.07) starting on page 32 in addition to the section on proper formatting of statistical information that starts in section 4.41.
· Although the assignment states where the location of the data file is that you should be using for the problem set, I think that location is from the old Loudcloud menus. To find the data file in the current Loudcloud, go to the Path tab and scroll down to topic 8, then click on study materials, the datafile to use for the Problem set 8 is in that list of study materials. You should not be making up data for this assignment.
· Skipping #8 where you write the results section in paragraph format would hurt your score a great deal. This is where you really demonstrate that you understand the steps to take when running the analysis starting from the data cleaning and assumptions through the statistical test (in this case the MANOVA), through any relevant follow-up and post-hocs that need to be run, and then finally presenting the answer to the researcher’s questions.
· As a reminder, any time you write a sentence that presents quantitative results, you should back it up by presenting the actual statistics obtained in APA format.
What is a MANOVA anyways?
The video in the course materials gives the steps on how to do MANOVAs in SPSS, but it doesn’t give a lot of good information on what a MANOVA is and why it is used. If you prefer a more visual way of learning that and more examples of when a MANOVA would be used (albeit not from psychology), then I would like to recommend a video below. The first example given is not very clear about the distinction between the two dependent variables, but there are some additional examples that start around 2:07 that give some examples from other fields. For each of those examples given, there is more than one dependent variable in the analysis (which is a requirement for the MANOVA), and the scores on those dependent variables are going to be related in some way (also a requirement for the MANOVA).
At the end of this video (starting at 6:22), it shows you how to do a MANOVA using a different statistical analysis program called R. Unlike SPSS, R is a free statistical analysis program that actually has more functionality than SPSS in that you can run both linear analyses (Think about those straight lines for correlations) and nonlinear analyses (What happens if you graph your scatterplot and you get a “W” pattern instead of a straight line?). However, R also can be more challenging to learn how to use. If you think you might be in a situation after graduation where you won’t have access to SPSS or would like to have access to do more complicated statistical analyses, you may want to check out R. Otherwise, I recommend skipping the final portion of that video on how to do a MANOVA in R. With that said, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUksjmKvwos
The SPSS printout for the MANOVA can be pretty confusing, especially because multiple sets of p values and F values are listed for each treatment effect. If you would like a more detailed rundown of what all the things on the MANOVA printout mean, here is a good link for you: https://ncss-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/themes/ncss/pdf/Procedures/NCSS/Multivariate_Analysis_of_Variance-MANOVA.pdf