Finale Project Assignment

The assignment is to write a research report describing the purpose of your research, research hypotheses, methodology, observed data, statistical findings, and conclusions appropriate for each research question below.

This research report is to be formatted as a MS word document, single spaced, with 1" margins, 12 point fonts for narrative text, and spaces between paragraphs. It should include a cover page and page headers and footers with page number identifying it as your project. It should utilize bold sections headings and subheadings. In other respects and with in reason, it should conform to APA publication style and include appropriate tables and/or figures, labeled and referenced in the narrative as Figure 1, Table 2, etc,. Tables and figures may be imported from computer program output but should be examined and edited for appearance and to eliminate extraneous material.

These should be resized and placed as appropriate within the narrative and NOT appended at the end of the document.

You are expected to use Excel, SPSS or SAS to perform appropriate analyses. Do not submit raw or edited computer outputs. Rather, import relevant information from theses outputs into your research report and explain it.

PROBLEM CONTEXT

A school is interested in studying the effects occupational stress on the health and well-being of its employees. A number of interesting questions concerning aspects of stress were raised from a review of the literature and an initial pilot survey study. The initial survey instrument was re-designed to explore some of these issues as greater depth in the school environment. A copy of the revised survey and codebook developed to describe the data layout are included below.

Further Information:

The final data set differs from the midterm data set in several respects. It is reasonable that stress could be a function of the season during the school year. Thus the researcher deliberately administered the survey to \(1 / 3\) of the school employees at the beginning of Fall Semester, to another \(1 / 3\) near the end of Fall Semester, and to the final 1/3 shortly after the beginning of Spring Semester. The date was marked on surveys when they were returned. This variable was named survey and coded \(I=\) Early Fall, 2=Late Fall, and 3=Early Winter.

Second, rather than ask about time spent in specific duties, the researcher has redesigned the survey to ask respondents to indicate the amount of time they spent in general job-related tasks.

Finally, the researcher wants to avoid TYPE II errors and increase the power of the research design. To do this, a greater risk of TYPE I "false positives" is assumed. Set alpha \(=.10\) for this study. However, the researcher remains interested in estimating and reporting the observed power of each test to avoid TYPE II errors.

Part #1 (5 pts)

Appearance, formatting, and layout of research paper, including tables and figures.

Step 1: Import Excel database into SPSS or SAS. If you use SPSS, create a codebook containing variable labels, value labels, and other option settings as appropriate for each variable. If you use SAS, include command statements to provide these labels.

Step 2: Create a new variable called stress, defined as the average stress score for the variables cowork and gowork.

Note that the appearance of your tables and charts in SPSS or SAS is in part a function of how thoroughly you construct your codebook or use format statements. Address in the narrative where appropriate (e.g., Purpose, Results, etc.) all effects in all models but CLEARLY indicate your specific Ho and answer to each specific EXAM question.

Part #2 (10 pts)

It is reasonable to suspect that dynamically generated stress on-the-job might be more important than anticipatory stress caused by facing up to going to work each day. Is there a difference in degree between these two sources of stress for school employees and, if so, which source appears most important?

Part #3 (25 pts)

In an earlier study, stress was shown to be a function of job classification. School employees in different job classifications differed in mean stress. However, stress could also be a function of the seasonal school calendar. Do mean stress patterns among job classifications also differ at key points in the school calendar - i.e., early fall and start of classes, end of fall semester before holiday break, and at the beginning of spring semester after holiday break?

Part #4 (10 pts)

The researcher wants the results of this study of stress and job classification to be generalizable at any point during the school year and selected these three points as "typical" times. Are any differences in stress as a function of job classification still apparent when survey is regarded this way?

Part #5 (40 pts) (two questions)

1. Are there differences among job classifications in the mean number of hours spent in the three main job-related tasks, controlling for survey administration? (B) Do any differences among job categories in terms of differences between measures of time spent in various activities also differ as a function of season during the school year?

Part #6 (10 pts) (two questions)

Age may well be related to stress. Create a new variable agecat, defined as equal to age. Then recode agecat so that \(1=25\) yrs of age or less; \(2=26-35\) yrs; \(3=36-45 y r\); and \(4=46\) yrs and older. (A) Does stress differ across job classifications, controlling for levels of categorical age? (B) Is there an age effect on stress for school employees and, if so, where?

Price: $26.28

Solution: The downloadable solution consists of 17 pages, 928 words and 17 charts.
Deliverable: Word Document