Psyc

PSYC 545

SPSS: Descriptive Statistics Assignment Instructions

Overview

The Grit Scale (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007) is a 12-item measure of psychological “grit” or perseverance to a goal. According to the scoring instructions: items 1, 4, 6, 9, 10, and 12 need to be reversed-scored prior to scoring. This means that the responses to those items must be flipped before computing a total score. To create a total score, add up all the points and divide by 12 . The maximum score on this scale is 5 (extremely gritty), and the lowest scale on this scale is 1 (not at all gritty).

12-Item Grit Scale Directions for taking the Grit Scale: Please respond to the following 12 items. Be honest – there are no right or wrong answers! 1 2 3 4 5 Very much like me Mostly like me Somewhat like me Not much like me Not like me at all 1. I have overcome setbacks to conquer an important challenge. 2. New ideas and projects sometimes distract me from previous ones. 3. My interests change from year to year. 4. Setbacks don’t discourage me. 5. I have been obsessed with a certain idea or project for a short time but later lost interest. 6. I am a hard worker. 7. I often set a goal but later choose to pursue a different one. 8. I have difficulty maintaining my focus on projects that take more than a few months to complete. 9. I finish whatever I begin. 10. I have achieved a goal that took years of work. 11. I become interested in new pursuits every few months. 12. I am diligent.

The “PSYC545_Grit_Scale.sav” file contains data from 4,000+ respondents who completed the measure online. There are also several demographic variables in the data set and several other questions from the Big-Five Inventory (BFI; Goldberg, 1992), a measure of personality constructs. This will become relevant in a future assignment.

All item responses are in their “raw” form meaning they have not been scored yet. Your job is to describe the sample demographically, reverse-score the appropriate respondent’s Grit Scale answers, and calculate a total Grit score for a descriptive analysis.

Instructions

For this assignment, you will:

1. Create three (3) tables and three (3) figures displaying three demographic variables. Choose three demographic variables and generate the appropriate figure for each. Be sure to copy your graph to Word and create an APA-formatted figure statement. Be sure to also create an APA-formatted table that displays the frequency or descriptive statistics (e.g., mean, standard deviation, etc.), whichever is more appropriate, of each demographic variable.

1. Reverse-score the appropriate Grit Scale items. This means that items GS1, GS4, GS6, GS9, GS10, and GS12 will have the “1” recoded to “5”, “4” recoded to “2”, etc. This is so that higher scores mean higher levels of grit. Use the naming convention for reverse-scored items: “GS1” becomes “GS1r” as a separate variable.

1. Compute a total score for the Grit Scale. Using the reverse-scored item where appropriate, sum responses and divide by 12 (the number of items). Calculate a mean and standard deviation (SD), skewness, and kurtosis of the total score variable for this sample and create one (1) figure displaying this distribution.

1. Write a verbal summary of all your findings. This summary section will include 2 elements:

1. Summarize the results of the demographic variable analysis. What descriptive statistics did you report? What does the distribution look like? What is the total score mean and SD? Is the total score variable normally distributed? How do you know?

1. Interpret the values that you found from the various analyses. Does this sample look like the general population in the US? Worldwide? All people with an Internet connection? Do you have any critiques for how the researchers collected their data?

1. Format your table headings and figure captions according to current APA guidelines.

Each of these steps are to be completed in SPSS using the SPSS Tutorials as a guide. Please submit a Word document with your table(s) and figure(s).

Note: Keep your data set handy. The next assignment will build upon the progress you have made on this data set.

Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.

References

Duckworth, A.L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M.D., & Kelly, D.R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 1087-1101.

Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4, 26-42.

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