using SPSS to produce a quantitative analysis report using a data set

Use SPSS to:

1) critically explore the analysis of quantitative data;

2) present the findings in an academic format.

Assessment 2: Quantitative Analysis Assessment
You are required to write one quantitative analysis report. The assignment should be 2,500
words in length [excluding your reference list and cover page].
Assessment question:
The assessment requires you to write a report of a quantitative analysis of a data set that will be
provided in the SPSS workshops, to:
1) critically explore the analysis of quantitative data;
2) present the findings in an academic format.
Assessment Guidance:
1) Undertake a statistical analysis of the provided data set.
2) Include at least one crosstabulation with appropriate statistics and interpret the results. In
the text explain what the crosstabulation shows and include any cautions that should be taken
about the statistics you present (such as small expected values).
3) Include at least one correlation with statistics and interpret the results. Explain in the text
what the correlation/s show/s and include relevant scatter plots if you wish. Justify your use of
parametric or non-parametric statistics in terms of the kind of variables and their distribution.
4) Include at least one test for differences (t-test, Mann Whitney, ANOVA etc.) and interpret
the results. Justify your use of parametric or non-parametric statistics in terms of the test for
normality of the dependent variables and the test for equality of variance.
In each case in the introduction, you should justify the use of the statistics in terms of the kinds of
variables you are analysing and their distribution.
You should include tables of results from SPSS and you should edit these where appropriate. Tables
of results and charts and diagrams should be excluded from the word count. Make sure you label and
give a title to all tables, charts and diagrams properly so you can refer to them in your text. Only
relevant tables, charts and diagrams should be included. Do not use appendices and do not include
tables, charts and diagrams without properly formatting them and labelling them and without
discussing them in the text.
1
Structure of assignment
Sections of the
report
▪ When writing your report, please include 4
sections:
▪ Introduction (approx. 500 words)
▪ Method (approx. 750 words)
▪ Results (approx. 750 words)
▪ Discussion (approx. 500 words)
Introduction
(approx. 500
words)
▪ The purpose of the introduction is to:
▪ Introduce the topic (what is it, why is it
important?)
▪ Give an overview of previous relevant
research (what have previous studies
found, what are the limitations of
previous research/the gaps in the
literature)
▪ Explain what the aims of the current
study are
Introducing the
topic- fear of
crime
▪ Lots of ways to do this, e.g.:
▪ Data to indicate the prevalence of crime
in the UK
▪ Data to indicate the financial and human
costs of crime (e.g. psychological effects,
physical health effects, loss of earnings,
loss of property etc.)
▪ Focus in particular on the impact of fear
of crime on individuals (e.g. anxiety,
stress, depression, social isolation etc.).
Summarising
and critiquing
previous
research
▪ There is a lot of research on fear of crime, e.g.:
▪ Crime Survey in England and Wales
(https://www.ethnicity-factsfigures.service.gov.uk/crime-justice-and-thelaw/crime-and-reoffending/fear-of-crime/latest#fullpage-history)
▪ Collins (2016)
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/
pii/S0047235216300502)
▪ Alfaro-Beracoechea et al. (2018)
(https://journals.copmadrid.org/ejpalc/art/ejpalc201
8a9)
▪ Doyle et al. (2021)
(https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/016
39625.2021.1982657 available through the library)
Your specific research
questions/hypotheses
▪ At the end of the introduction, clearly state
what your hypotheses are (as a
numbered/bullet point list).
▪ Also, explain the contribution of your study
(e.g. filling a gap in the literature, replicating
previous findings in a new geographical area
or context etc.).
Method
(approx. 750
words)
▪ When writing the method, please include
the following sub-sections:
▪ Participants
▪ Materials and Procedure
▪ Data Analysis
▪ Ethics
Summarising
and critiquing
previous
research
▪ When reading the previous literature, think about:
▪ What are the main findings?
▪ How does the study relate to the dataset you
are analysing (e.g. are they examining variables
you have access to, e.g. the impact of
demographics such as age and gender on fear
of crime?)
▪ How have previous studies measured fear of
crime? Are there any problems with this? Is the
data you have better?
▪ What gaps are there in the literature (i.e. what
hasn’t been investigated?)? Hint: you ideally
want to be able to show that the
hypotheses/research questions you’re
investigating are filling a gap.
Your specific research
questions/hypotheses
▪ At the end of the introduction, clearly state
what your hypotheses are (as a
numbered/bullet point list).
▪ Also, explain the contribution of your study
(e.g. filling a gap in the literature, replicating
previous findings in a new geographical area
or context etc.).
Method
(approx. 750
words)
▪ When writing the method, please include
the following sub-sections:
▪ Participants
▪ Materials and Procedure
▪ Data Analysis
▪ Ethics
MethodParticipants
▪ In this section, you should describe the
participants who took part in the study, using
appropriate descriptive statistics to support
this description.
▪ The relevant variables to analyse/utilise in
this section are:
▪ Gender (Q2)
▪ Age (Q3)
▪ Education (Q4)
▪ Ethnicity (Q5)
▪ Place of residence (Q6, Q7, Q8)
▪ Employment status (Q9)
MethodMaterials and
Procedure
▪ Describe the questionnaire that was used, e.g.:
▪ Number of questions
▪ Number of sections
▪ A summary of different response formats
used
▪ Describe the procedure that was used for data
collection:
▪ An online questionnaire, with the link to the
questionnaire being e-mailed to MSc
Criminology students studying at the
University of Leicester.
Method- Data
Analysis
▪ My advice is to have a separate paragraph for each
of your hypotheses.
▪ Within each paragraph, explain:
▪ Which variables you are using in your analyses.
▪ What type of variable they are (nominal,
ordinal, scale).
▪ What type of analysis is being conducted and
why this is the most appropriate (think about
the types of variable you are testing, what the
statistical assumptions are and present
evidence of the tests you have done to test
these assumptions).
Results
(approx. 750
words)
▪ You are advised to have separate subsections for each hypothesis/different
statistical test you conduct.
▪ Make sure you include:
▪ At least one cross-tabulation (Chi square)
▪ At least one correlation (Pearson’s,
Spearman’s, Kendall’s Tau)
▪ At least one test of difference (t-test,
ANOVA or non-parametric equivalents)
Results
(approx. 750
words)
▪ Include at least one crosstabulation with appropriate statistics
and interpret the results.
▪ In the text explain what the crosstabulation shows and
include any cautions that should be taken about the
statistics you present (such as small expected values).
▪ Include at least one correlation with statistics and interpret the
results.
▪ Explain in the text what these show and include relevant
scatter plots if you wish.
▪ Justify your use of parametric or non-parametric statistics in
terms of the kind of variables and their distribution.
▪ Include at least one test for differences of means (t-test, MannWhitney, ANOVA etc.) and interpret the results.
▪ Justify your use of parametric or non-parametric statistics
Discussion
(approx. 500
words)
▪ The discussion will consist of the following (in this
order):
▪ Start with a sentence or two reminding the reader
of the aims of the study (“The current study aimed
to…”.
▪ Then summarise what the findings showed and
whether your hypotheses were supported or not.
▪ Then discuss whether your findings are consistent
with the findings from previous research (if there is
any that has investigated the same hypotheses as
you) and explain how your findings contribute to
the literature (e.g. filling a gap).
Discussion
(approx. 500
words)
▪ Discuss any limitations or bias of the data
and your analysis
▪ Mention any limitations to your
interpretations, and especially about
causation and correlation.
▪ Discuss how the analysis/data could be
improved in a way that would allow your
hypotheses to be more reliably/validly
tested in the future.