Answer, Opinion module 5.2

John conducted his study to measure self-esteem among victims of domestic violence before and after they complete an 8-week program for abuse victims with 10 individuals. He calculated t = 1.9 from his data.  He had a directional hypothesis (i.e., self-esteem would be higher after attending the program). Write up the summary of his results and his conclusion regarding his hypothesis. Mark replicated John’s experiment in every way except he used 100 women in his study. He also calculated t = 1.9 from his data.  He also had the same directional hypothesis. Write up the summary of his results and his conclusion regarding his hypothesis. What observations would you make from the findings of these two studies?

The results of the 8-week program involving 10 individuals had a calculated t-score of 1.9. With the alpha level at .05, the critical value is +1.833, since this is a one-tailed test because the hypothesis is directional(Gravetter & Wallnau, 2010). A t-score of 1.9 falls in the critical region for this test because it is greater than the critical value for a study involving 10 subjects. Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis, that self-esteem is improved after an 8-week program for abuse victims, is retained.

The results of an 8-week program involving 100 women had a calculated t-score of 1.9. With an alpha level at .05, the critical value for this one-tailed test is +1.658 (Gravetter & Wallnau, 2010). The t-score of 1.9 falls in the critical region for this test because the t-score is greater that the critical value. Therefore we must reject the null hypothesis and retain the alternative hypothesis that self-esteem is improved after and 8 week program for abuse victims.

The observations I made from these two studies is that the 8-week program does improve self-esteem. These studies show that the more individuals that are tested the more it shows that this program works. If more individuals were tested there is a good possibility that a similar t-score would be obtained but that the critical value would decrease even more showing a stronger connection between the 8-week program and improvement in self-esteem. This is a program that should be implemented with abuse victims.

Reference:

Gravetter, F. J., & Wallnau, L. B. (2010). Statistics for the behavioral sciences (9th ed