As a scholar-practitioner, it is important for you to understand that just because a hypothesis test indicates a relationship exists between an intervention and an outcome, there is a difference between groups, or there is a correlation between two constructs, it does not always provide a default measure for its importance. Although relationships are significant, they can be very minute relationships, very small differences, or very weak correlations. In the end, we need to ask whether the relationships or differences observed are large enough that we should make some practical change in policy or practice.
For this Discussion, you will explore statistical significance and meaningfulness.
To prepare for this Discussion:
- Review the Learning Resources related to hypothesis testing, meaningfulness, and statistical significance.
- Review Magnusson’s web blog found in the Learning Resources to further your visualization and understanding of statistical power and significance testing.
- Review the American Statistical Association’s press release and consider the misconceptions and misuse of p-values.
- Consider the scenario:
- A research paper claims a meaningful contribution to the literature based on finding statistically significant relationships between predictor and response variables. In the footnotes, you see the following statement, “given this research was exploratory in nature, traditional levels of significance to reject the null hypotheses were relaxed to the .10 level.”
Post your response to the scenario in which you critically evaluate this footnote. As a reader/reviewer, what response would you provide to the authors about this footnote?
Be sure to support your Main Post and Response Post with reference to the week’s Learning Resources and other scholarly evidence in APA Style.
Learning Resources
Required Readings
Frankfort-Nachmias, C., Leon-Guerrero, A., & Davis, G. (2020). Social statistics for a diverse society (9th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Chapter 8, “Testing Hypothesis: Assumptions of Statistical Hypothesis Testing” (pp. 241-242)
Wagner, III, W. E. (2020). Using IBM® SPSS® statistics for research methods and social science statistics (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Chapter 6, “Testing Hypotheses Using Means and Cross-Tabulation”
Applied Statistics From Bivariate Through Multivariate Techniques, 2nd Edition by Warner, R.M. Copyright 2012 by Sage College. Reprinted by permission of Sage College via the Copyright Clearance Center.
Document: Week 5 Scenarios (PDF)
Use these scenarios to complete this week’s Assignment.
Datasets
Your instructor will post the datasets for the course in the Doc Sharing section and in an Announcement. Your instructor may also recommend using a different dataset from the ones provided here.
Required Media
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016f). Meaningfulness vs. statistical significance [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 4 minutes.
In this media program, Dr. Matt Jones discusses the differences in meaningfulness and statistical significance. Focus on how this information will inform your Discussion and Assignment for this week.
Accessible player
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016n). Halfway point [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 2 minutes.
In this media program, Dr. Annie Pezalla, Associate Director of Curriculum and Assessment with the Center for Research Quality at Walden University, discusses what you have learned so far in the course. She also discusses what you have to look forward to as well as things to look out for in the remainder of the course.
Accessible player
Optional Resources
Skill Builders:
- Evaluating P Values
- Statistical Power
To access these Skill Builders, navigate back to your Blackboard Course Home page, and locate “Skill Builders” in the left navigation pane. From there, click on the relevant Skill Builder link for this week.
You are encouraged to click through these and all Skill Builders to gain additional practice with these concepts. Doing so will bolster your knowledge of the concepts you’re learning this week and throughout the course.
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