It is easiest to create 8 different scenarios and data set
SPSS Assignment Example: One Possible Outline
Greetings Folks,
Below is one possible outline for how to tackle the different scenarios of the SPSS Assignment. If you
follow it great, if not, and submit something that we can easily follow when marking, that is fine too.
The more detail you provide the better – in most instances.
Key aspects:
Your research idea and design needs to match the statistical procedure you are using. To that end;
1. It is easiest to create 8 different scenarios and data sets.
2. We need to know your hypothesis – make sure they are easy to find.
3. You need to include the key SPSS outputs for each scenario (no SPSS notes) – and you need to
explain the most critical components of those outputs. You need to determine what those
outputs and components are.
4. We need to see a conclusion, both in terms of the hypotheses and in terms of your study. In
other words, saying you reject or retain Ho is fine, but you will NOT get full marks. State that
you reject or retain Ho, and then state what that means in terms of your study.
A Possible 5-Step Outline Example
Step 1: An Idea: The Canadian government estimates that the average debt load for a student who
recently graduates with an undergraduate degree is $20000. You believe that Covid-19 and its
economic impact will significantly increase this debt load. You randomly select 30, 4 th
year students,
and ask them about their debt load. Note: the design above, fits best for a One-Sample T-Test.
Step 2: Hypotheses and Alpha: Ho: µ = 20000; Ha: µ > 200000 ; Alpha = 0.05
Step 3: The SPSS Output
Step 4: Explain the main components of the SPSS output.
From the SPSS above, our sample size of 30 ensures approximate normality. Our sample mean was
22616.6667 with a standard deviation of 8122.6411. Our one-sample t-value (or t-test statistic) was
1.764 with 29 df. The 2-tail p-value is 0.088, since our research hypothesis is 1-tailed, we divide this p-
value in half, to obtain our p-value of 0.044.
Notes for Step 4:
1. Should you choose to explain the Effect sizes and/or Confidence Intervals to base your conclusion that
is perfectly fine too.
2. Should you choose to say, since the t-test statistic (t-value) is 1.764, and it lies beyond the t-cut score
of 1.699 we have evidence to support Ha, and reject Ho, that is fine too.
3. If you choose to do some of these by hand, in addition to SPSS, that is fine too, and really good
practice. But it is not required unless specifically stated in the question.
Step 5: Conclusion, and state (re-state) the p-value
Since our p-value is less than our set alpha level (0.044 < 0.05) we have evidence to support the research
hypothesis (Ha), and thus reject the null hypothesis (Ho). Student debt following Covid-19 has increased.
