The student must then post 1 reply to another student’s post. The reply must summarize thestudent’s findings and indicate areas of agreement, disagreement, and improvement. It must besupported with scholarly citations in the latest APA format and corresponding list of references.The minimum word count for Integrating Faith and Learning discussion reply is 250 words.
D1.1. Compare the terms active independent variable and attribute independent variable. What are the similarities and differences?
An active or manipulated independent variable is a variable that applied to a group of participants during a particular period of a study being conducted (Morgan et al., 2019). An attribute or measured independent variable is a variable that cannot be manipulated and remains as the central focus of a study and are preexisting within the participant or their environment (Morgan et al., 2019). These variables are similar because they both are considered independent variables and are used to predict and explain the variations found in the dependent variables of the study. These variables differ in the fact that an active independent variable can be manipulated by the researcher, but the attribute independent variables are preexisting within the participant and cannot be manipulated by the researcher.
D1.2. What kind of independent variable (active or attribute) is necessary to infer cause? Can one always infer cause from this type of independent variable? If so, why? If not, when can one infer cause and when might causal inferences be more questionable?
An active independent variable would be necessary to infer cause because they are able to be manipulated by the researcher to change conditions (Morgan et al., 2019). No, the presence of an active variable does not always infer cause through the manipulation of the researcher. Casual interference requires interaction from randomized experimental, extraneous variables, or logical connections. These casual inferences become more questionable when there is no randomization of variables or when variables are uncontrolled.
D1.3. What is the difference between the independent variable and the dependent variable?
Morgan et al. (2019) defined an independent variable as any predictor, antecedent, or presumed cause under investigation within a study and included both active and attribute variables and the dependent variable was the outcome that was measured by the effect of the independent variable. The key difference in these variables is that the independent variable predicts the outcome while the dependent variable is influenced by the independent variable.
D1.4. Compare and contrast associational, difference, and descriptive types of research questions.
Associational research questions analyze the correlation between two or more variables or how one or more variable can predict other variables with no manipulation (Morgan et al., 2019).
Difference research questions compare two or more groups that are defined by different independent variables in order to determine how the differences impact the dependent variable (Morgan et al., 2019).
Descriptive research questions attempt to summarize data from samples that are studied without inferential statistics and with no comparison or relationship (Morgan et al., 2019).
D1.5.Write a research question and a corresponding hypothesis regarding variables of interest to you but not in the HSB dataset. Is it an associational, difference, or descriptive question?
Research Question: What is the relationship between the number of hours spent in the library per day and test scores among college students?
Hypothesis: College students who spend more hours per day in the library will report higher test scores.
Question Type: This question is associational because it examines the relationship between two variables without any manipulation.
D1.6. Using one or more of the following HSB variables, religion, mosaic pattern test, and visualization score
(a) Write an associational question.
What is the relationship between students’ mosaic pattern testing and their visualization scoring?
(b) Write a difference question.
Do different religious affiliations differ in students’ visualization scores?
(c) Write a descriptive question.
What is the average score on the mosaic pattern test among sophomore students?
References
Morgan, G., Barrett, K., Leech, N., & Gloeckner, G. (2019). IBM SPSS for Introductory Statistics (6th ed.). Taylor & Francis.
