HBC203 ECA (End-of-Course Assessment) SUSS : July Semester 2024 – Statistics and Data Analysis for the Social and Behavioural Sciences, Singapore

Question 1

Overview
In this assignment, you will apply the knowledge and skills that you learnt in this subject to a) develop research questions, b) analyse an existing data set using jamovi to answer those research questions, and c) interpret the results of your analyses.

To that end, you will submit a 2,000-word report. The word count includes tables but excludes the references and appendix sections. Reports within +10% of the word limit are accepted but words in excess of this allowance will not be graded. For example, the marker will read a 2,500- word report until 2,200 words and disregard the last 300 words. No penalty is imposed if you submit a report fewer than 2,000 words.

Details about this assignment are described in the sections below. Description of the Study

Cary conducted a two-phase study on young adults’ Instagram use

In Phase 1, participants reported basic demographic information (e.g., gender), their life satisfaction (i.e., how satisfied they were with their lives), the estimated amount of time spent on Instagram daily, and their current emotions (e.g., how happy they felt in the current moment). In Phase 2, participants posted a selfie (i.e., a photo of themselves) and then used Instagram as they normally would for 10 minutes (e.g., scroll through their feed, respond to direct messages, comment on others’ posts). Participants’ activities on Instagram were videorecorded. After the 10 minutes, participants were again asked to report their current emotions. To reduce the likelihood of the participants guessing the study’s true purpose, Cary included questions irrelevant to the study as well. (Responses to those questions are not included in the dataset provided.)

After the study, Cary re-watched the videos and categorised the participants’ activities on Instagram into four types: Communications received (e.g., viewing likes, comments, and direct messages received from other users), communications sent (e.g., liking and commenting on other users’ posts, sending direct messages to other users), self-monitoring (e.g., viewing their own profile, posts, comments, messages), and exploring others (e.g., viewing others’ profiles, posts, comments, messages). He counted the number of times the participants engaged in each type of activity. Then, he calculated the average life satisfaction score as well as the total positive emotion score and the total negative emotion score for both phases of the study.

Data Set
The data from the study are presented in HBC203 ECA Dataset.csv. The following table summarises the information gathered in the study and the response options for each question (if there were any).

Based on the dataset provided, develop and test four research questions. Discuss the results from the data analyses. The following steps should be detailed in a report.

Report The report should comprise the following sections:

1. Introduction (approximately 35% of the word count)

• Identify FOUR research questions that you want to answer with this data set and explain why they are important to examine. o Note. The data set must contain the variables that you wish to study (or variables that you can create based on the existing ones). If it does not, then, for the purposes of this assignment, please choose a different research question.
• Write a literature review based on the four research questions. In the review, you should state explicitly your predictions and explain clearly why you predict the way you did. Please back up your predictions with academic sources (e.g., journal articles, book chapters) and cite all sources that you use. Aim for a minimum of 6 journal articles.

o Note. Although the data come from American respondents, you may use research conducted in any country to support your predictions, if necessary. If your findings differ from your predictions, you may discuss potential country/cultural differences as a reason for the differences in the Discussion section—see below.

2. Analyses (approximately 30% of the word count)

Analyses (approximately 30% of the word count)

• Analyse the data set to answer the four research questions. For each research question, identify the most appropriate analysis and explain why that is the most appropriate analysis to use. Then, using jamovi, conduct the analyses and report the results in APA format.

o Note 1. To show your ability to analyse different kinds of data, please use at least two different analyses. In other words, you should not use the same analysis (e.g., correlation) to answer all four research questions.

o Note 2. Please limit your analyses to those taught in this course.

3. Discussion and Conclusion (approximately 35% of the word count)

• Discuss, based on the results of your analyses, what you have learnt. Do your findings support your predictions? How similar or different are your findings from what is presented in the literature? Why might there be differences? What are the practical and/or theoretical implications of your findings? For example, based on the findings, should we recommend people increase or decrease their use of Instagram? Or are there limitations of this study that prevent us from making strong recommendations? If so, what are those limitations? What kind of information would you collect if you were to
  conduct this study? Why would that kind of information be useful in addressing the limitations?

4. Word count
State the final word count from the Introduction section to the Discussion and
Conclusion section (inclusive of all headings, citations, and tables).

5. References

•  Provide the reference list for all the sources cited in your report.

6. Appendix

•  Paste the jamovi output for all analyses. State clearly which research question the output is for.