The Case of Eddie

Eddie, age 9, has been a difficult student in school for years. Eddie’s school requested that he be evaluated by a child psychiatrist due to the difficulty school representatives were having in controlling Eddie. He has been suspended twice during the current school year. His teacher complains that he is so restless that his classmates are unable to concentrate. Eddie is hardly ever in his seat and roams around the class, talking to other children while they are working. When the teacher is able to get him to stay in his seat, he fidgets with his hands and feet and drops things on the floor. He never seems to know what he is going to do next, and those around him fear that Eddie may suddenly do something quite outrageous. His most recent suspension was the result of Eddie’s swinging from the fluorescent light fixture over the blackboard. The class was in an uproar because Eddie was unable to climb down again.

Eddie’s mother says that Eddie’s behavior has been difficult since he was a toddler, and that at the age of 3, he was unbearably restless and demanding. He has always required little sleep and has always awakened before everyone else. When he was small, his mother stated that he got into everything, particularly in the early morning, when he would awaken at 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. and go downstairs by himself. Eddie’s parents would awaken to find the living room or kitchen demolished. When he was 4, Eddie managed to unlock the door of the apartment and wander off into a busy main street, but fortunately, he was rescued from oncoming traffic by a passerby. He was rejected by a preschool program because of his difficult behavior, and eventually, after a very difficult year in kindergarten, he was placed in a special behavioral program for first- and second-graders. He is now in a standard classroom for most subjects, but spends a lot of time in a resource room alone with a special education teacher. When he is in his classroom, Eddie is unable to participate in games because he does not have the patience to wait for his turn.

Eddie’s abilities have been found to be average through psychological testing, and his achievements are only slightly below the expected level. His attention span is described by the psychologist as virtually nonexistent. He has no interest in television and dislikes any games or toys that require attention or patience. He is not popular with other children, and at home he prefers to be outdoors, playing with his dog or riding his bike. If he does play with toys, his games are messy and destructive, and his mother states that she cannot get Eddie to keep his things organized.

PSYC 355

Lab Project Phase 2: Raw Data Scoring Instructions

How to Create SPSS Data File

Open a new data file in SPSS. You will create a file containing 1 variable for each item on the survey (for a total of 10). You will score each individual survey and enter the values into the appropriate column of the SPSS data file for later analysis.

How to Score Survey and Enter Results into Data File

All questions on the survey except the last one are written as Likert-type items, with choices ranging from “Strongly agree” to “Strongly disagree.” In order to enter these into the data file for analysis, each of the answer choices will be given a corresponding score ranging from 1 to 5. NOTE: It is important to pay attention to the following directions, as some of the items will be reverse-scored (see below).

1. Gather your completed surveys. It will be necessary to enter data from each individual survey into SPSS. If you have used the online method, you must follow these steps to access each individual survey:

a) Sign into your account and go to “My Surveys.” Your survey title will appear with 3 icons to the right: Design, Collect, and Analyze. Click on the pie graph under “Analyze.” This will take you to a Response Summary page.

b) On the menu bar to the left, click on “Browse Responses.” This allows you to view each individual survey, which is necessary in order to enter and analyze data in SPSS. Within “Browse Responses,” you can move from one individual survey to the next by clicking on the “Next” and “Prev” arrow buttons at the top.

2. All items on the survey will be scored from 1 to 5 except for item 10. You will enter the scores for each survey into your SPSS data file under the corresponding variable, case by case. If you have 10 surveys, you will have 10 cases (rows); if you have 25 surveys, 25 cases (rows), etc.

a) Scores for items 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 9 are as follows:

Strongly agree = 5

Agree = 4

Neither agree nor disagree = 3

Disagree = 2

Strongly disagree = 1

b) Scores for items 4 and 6 are reversed. This is because, in opposition to the other items, these items indicate a fundamentally different worldview than the Christian worldview, so the scoring must be reversed; this allows higher scores on all items to reflect an understanding of Christian doctrine, while lower scores indicate misunderstanding or disagreement. This is a method commonly used in survey research.

c) Scores for items 4 and 6 are as follows:

Strongly agree = 1

Agree = 2

Neither agree nor disagree = 3

Disagree = 4

Strongly disagree = 5

d) For item 10, you will simply enter the exact number that the respondent filled in on the survey (for example, 10 or 63, etc.) under the appropriate variable in the SPSS data file.

3. Remember that the original research question is about the relationship between church attendance and understanding of Christian doctrine. We have one variable that represents church attendance (item 10), but we do not have one sole variable to compare it to—a total score that represents doctrinal understanding. Based on what you have learned, how do you think we should create this variable?

Answer: After you have entered all of your survey data, create a new variable called Tot_Und (which is shorthand for “total understanding”). Define this variable as the sum of items 1–9; see Lesson 19 in Green & Salkind (2011) to review this procedure.

Refer to the “Lab Project Overview and Instructions” in addition to this document when completing this phase.

Lab Project Phase 2 Grading Rubric

Lab Project Phase 3: SPSS Output Instructions

After completing Phase 2 of the Lab Project, you now have 2 important variables in relation to your research question: a score representing understanding of Christian doctrine, and a variable representing amount of church attendance. It is time for you to decide how to analyze the data! Think about what the research question is asking, and think about your 2 important variables. Then think about the methods that you have learned over the past several weeks. Which statistical test is the best choice for this particular situation? There is a “right” answer to this question, so think carefully and review your text and notes if necessary.

Once you have decided on which test is the best, you can run the analysis just as you did in your SPSS homework assignments. You are required to turn in the output file for your analysis and the related SPSS generated graph (also covered in SPSS homework assignments). You do not need to interpret these results, as this will be done in Phase 4 (APA Results section).

Refer to the “Lab Project Overview and Instructions” in addition to this document when completing this phase.

Lab Project Phase 3 Grading Rubric

Lab Project Phase 4 Grading Rubric

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