Research Methods Module – Quantitative/SPSS Assessment

 
Research Methods Module – Quantitative/SPSS Assessment

Imagine you have just carried out a small-scale study using an online survey of UK residents. One of the things that you were interested in researching is participants’ reported overall satisfaction with the police and whether this is related to the participant’s age or income. Using a scale of 1 to 10, participants indicated how satisfied they are with the police (10 being completely satisfied, 1 being completely dissatisfied), and they also provided their age (in years) and their income.
Using descriptive statistics and a correlation analysis, you have produced the following output in SPSS for your three variables:

Descriptive Statistics
N Minimum Maximum Mean
Satisfaction 40 2 10 6.35
Age 40 18 65 40.25
Income 40 12000 100000 37075.00
Valid N (listwise) 40
Correlations
Age Income Satisfaction
Age Correlation 1 .667** .440**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .005
N 40 40 40
Income Correlation .667** 1 .666**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000
N 40 40 40
Satisfaction Correlation .440** .666** 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .005 .000
N 40 40 40
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level
Using this SPSS output, summarise the results of this analysis with reference to the original research question (e.g. are income and age related to overall satisfaction with the police?). Your summary should:
• Include an overview of the descriptive statistics, including how many participants took part in the study, and the minimum, maximum, and mean scores for the three variables measured
• Provide an explanation of the results of the correlation analysis. Are these three variables related to one another? Are these relationships statistically significant? Are the correlations positive or negative, and what would your conclusions be about your research question?
Your summary should be concise, and should not exceed 750 words.