Download PSY 440 Summer 2008 Midterm Examination: Analyzing Data on Panic Disorder Treatment - Prof and more Exams Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! PSY 440 Summer 2008 Midterm Examination Before you begin the exam, you will need to retrieve the dataset called midterm1.sav (it can be found on the resources page for the class website). The file contains six columns of data representing information about participants in a study designed to test two interventions (exposure therapy or relaxation training) for treating panic disorder. Fifty- three people with a history of panic attacks were enrolled in the study, and randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions (exposure therapy, relaxation training, or waitlist control group). At the end of the 12-week treatment period, participants were asked to respond to a survey with the following questions: a. Have you had any panic attacks in the past week? b. What is your gender? c. Rate how you feel about your panic symptoms by responding to the following questions: i. Panic attacks are a major problem for me currently ii. I worry a lot about having another panic attack iii. My panic symptoms have improved a lot recently The data in the SPSS file are arranged as follows: Var00001 reflects treatment condition (1=exposure, 2=relaxation training, 3=waitlist control group) Var00002 reflects responses to question a (whether the respondent had any panic attacks in the past week), with 1=no and 2=yes Var00003 reflects responses to question b (about gender) with 1=male and 2=female Var00004 reflects responses to question ci (panic attacks are a major problem for me currently) with 1= strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral, 4=agree, 5=strongly agree Var00005 reflects responses to question cii (I worry a lot about having another panic attack) with 1= strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral, 4=agree, 5=strongly agree Var00006 reflects responses to question ciii (My panic symptoms have improved recently) with 1= strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral, 4=agree, 5=strongly agree After you have downloaded the file, please respond to the exam questions beginning on the next page. You will need to make changes to the data file and save it so that you can submit it along with your responses. Part I (20 points): Perform the following manipulations to the data file (when you are done with this part of the exam, save the data file and email it to Anna): a. Create variable labels and value labels for each of the six variables in the file. (10 points) b. Create a summary variable that reflects participants’ subjective level of symptom severity, as measured by questions i, ii, and iii. Your summary variable should be the sum (not the average) of the three items, and you should create it in such a way that higher scores on the summary variable reflect more severe symptoms. (10 points) Part II: (20 points): Perform the following operations on the summary variable you computed in Question #1 above (you may copy and paste relevant parts of SPSS output into a word document to respond to this question and/or you may type in your answers): a. Generate a frequency table (2 points) b. Draw/type a stem-and-leaf plot (2 points) c. Generate a histogram (2 points) d. Comment on the distribution: In what ways (if any) does it appear to be normal, and in what ways (if any) does it appear to violate some of the properties of a normal distribution? (3 points) e. Provide the mean and standard deviation for this variable (4 points) f. Convert the variable to z-scores. You may either save the z-scores in the spss data file or print them out and paste them into your word document (3 points) g. What happens to the mean and standard deviation of the distribution after the raw scores are converted to z-scores. (4 points) Part III (10 points): Based on previous research on the prevalence of panic disorder in men and women, you expected your sample to be about 30% male and 70% female. You will need to use a chi- squared test to determine whether the gender composition of your sample differs significantly from your expectation. You may perform your calculations by hand or using SPSS (SPSS hint: in the chi-square dialogue box, click on the “values” button to specify your expected values for the frequencies of men and women). You may type your answers into your word file. It is not necessary to provide SPSS printouts. a. Based on the expected proportions of men and women, how many men and how many women would you expect in your sample of 53 patients? (1 point) b. What is the null hypothesis for the analysis testing whether your sample’s gender composition differs from the expected frequencies for gender? (2 points)
