A Practical Workbook

1. What demographic variables were measured at least at the interval level of measurement? Age, Income, Length of labor, Return to work, and Number of hours working per week.

2. What statistics were used to describe the length of labor in this study? Were these appropriate? Sample size, Median and Standard Deviation were used to describe the length of labor in the experimental group and Population, Median, and Standard Deviation were used to describe length of labor in the control group. Because length of labor is considered an interval level of measurement, using these statistics were appropriate.

3. What other statistic could have been used to describe the length of labor? Provide a rationale for your answer. I believe mean could have been used to describe length of labor. By calculating the mean, you can figure out the average length of labor of the population.

4. Were the distributions of scores similar for the experimental and control groups for the length of labor? Provide a rationale for your answer. No, they were not. I believe they were different because of the use of sample size for the experimental group and the use of population for the control groups.

5. Were the experimental and control groups similar in their type of feeding? Provide a rationale for your answer. Yes, they were. 53.1% of the experimental group stated they prefer bottle feeding and 50% of the control group stated they prefer bottle feeding also, compared to the lower percentages of the both groups that preferred breast feeding or breast feeding AND bottle feeding.

6. What was the marital status mode for the subjects in the experimental and control groups? Provide both the frequency and percentage for the marital status mode for both groups. The mode for both the experimental and control groups is married with 25 and 78.1% of the experimental group being married and 31 and 86.1% of the control group being married.

7. Could a median be determined for the education data? If so, what would the median be for education for the experimental and the control groups? Provide a rationale for your answer. For the education data, I must say to calculate the median, from high school to college graduate, the median would be the some college portion since it would be the middle. The median for the experimental group would be 11 and 34.4% and for the control group it would be 15 and 41.7%.

8. Can the findings from this study be generalized to Black women? Provide a rationale for your answer. No, because the mode in this study shows to be White women. There is only 1 Black woman in the experimental group and none in the control group, therefore statistically, it could not be generalized to Black women.

9. If there were 32 subjects in the experimental group and 36 subjects in the control group, why is the income data only reported for 30 subjects in the experimental group and 34 subjects in the control group? Because of missing data, numbers do not always total to 32 subjects in the experimental group or 36 subjects in the control group.

10. Was the sample for this study adequately described? Provide a rationale for your answer. I believe in some ways it was adequately described because they used many different variables in the study. However, because of the majority of the subjects being a specific race, it is more generalized toward that group or population. However when it comes to the description of this study by means of statistics, I believe that it was adequately described. Providing the comparisons with frequencies, median, standard deviation, population, and percentages, we were able to adequately determine the effectiveness of TMG. Exercise 16 (4 points per question)

1. The researchers analyzed the data they collected as though it were at what level of measurement? (Change your response to blue.) a. nominal
b. ordinal
c. interval/ratio
d. experimental

2. What was the mean posttest empowerment score for the control group? The mean posttest empowerment score for the control group is 97.12

3. Compare the mean baseline and posttest depression scores of the experimental group. Was this an expected finding? Provide a rationale for your answer. The mean baseline depression score for the experimental group is 14.00 and the post test score depression score for the experimental group is 13.36. I would expect to see a lower score for the experimental group, as it is the group that is being used to determine if the rate of depression was to decrease after intervention group for those in the study.

4. Compare the mean baseline and posttest depression scores of the control group. Do these scores strengthen or weaken the validity of the research results? Provide a rationale for your answer. The mean baseline and posttest depression score for the control group were the same. There was no change in scores. I would expect this as the control group does not receive any additional therapy. I believe that these scores slightly strengthen the experiment as the control group shows no deviation before or after. Whereas the experiment group does show a decrease in the scores for depression from the baseline and the post test scores.

5. Which group’s test scores had the least amount of variability or dispersion? Provide a rationale for your answer. The control group appears to have the least amount of variability in scores. There was a minimal change in the mean scores for empowerment, a decrease in scores for self-care and self-efficacy, and no change in the scores for depression. Since the control group is used to determine if the experiment group has any positive or negative changes within the group, the control group should have little or no change in scores for the test.

6. Did the empowerment variable or self-care self-efficacy variable demonstrate the greatest amount of dispersion? Provide a rationale for your answer. The Empowerment score for the experiment group showed the greatest amount of dispersion with 6.61 points. The self-care self-efficacy group only had 6.14 points of dispersion. It is possible that the participants in the group who have ESRD feel as if they are dependent on others for help especially when it comes to dialysis, the group therapy for those in the experimental group, has provided the needed information to allow those in the group to feel more positive about them.

7. The mean (X —) is a measure of central tendancy of a distribution while the SD is a measure of dispersion of its scores. Both (X—) and SD are descriptive statistics.

8. What was the mean severity for renal disease for the research subjects? What was the dispersion or variability of the renal disease severity scores? Did the severity scores vary significantly between the control and the experimental groups? Is this important? Provide a rationale for your answer. The mean severity for renal disease for the research subjects was 6.74. The dispersion rate was 2.97 for this group. The study found significant differences in improvement of empowerment, self-care, self-efficacy and depression in patients who were in the intervention group. It shows that those patients who were in the group benefitted from the therapy that they received and that additional studies need to be conducted to determine if self help groups help those with ESRD with providing them with empowerment and self help education and skills.

9. Which variable was least affected by the empowerment program? Provide a rationale for your answer. The least affected variable for the empowerment program was that of the control group. The baseline score was 97.09 and the post test score was only 0.04 higher. The control group most likely did not receive any information that would allow them to feel more empowered, which resulted in a post test score that was minimal. For each experiment, there needs to be a group of test subjects that receive nothing and those that receive the experimental item that is being test. It would be expected that the control group would have very minimal changes in their scores.

10. Was it important for the researchers to include the total means and SDs for the study variables in Table 2 to promote the readers’ understanding of the study results? Provide a rationale for your answer. Yes, it was important for the researchers to include the total means and SDs for the study variables to promote the readers’ understanding of the study results because it allows readers to see the results as a whole being that it is totaled. It just gives readers another sense of statistics to compare the experimental and control means and SDs to.