Were the study participants representative of the U.S. population in current salary, when the Current Population Survey shows a median weekly wage/salary for adult full-time workers of $671?

Mini project

Participants and Results

I. Background information and Directions:

Participants in a research study on jobs and wages were surveyed about their past and present salaries and their job experience. Your task is to analyze the data and report your findings using text, tables, and figures.

The SPSS data file miniproj_employee_data_f21.sav can be downloaded from the Blackboard.

Your response to this assignment should be in the form of a typewritten report in APA style. The text should be in a 12-point font such as Times New Roman or Calibri, double-spaced, with 1- inch margins. Figures and tables should be in APA format and placed at the end of your report, appropriately labeled, and printed clearly in black and white—no color. Figure and Table numbers should coincide with the references in your written narrative. Do not provide more tables and figures than required by the assignment; do NOT provide printouts of SPSS output. Please consult your textbook and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition, on reserve at the Hunter College Library, for format/style guidance.

For APA written style, see examples in textbook. Online resources: Purdue OWL site (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/10/)
APA style (http://www.apastyle.org/learn/index.aspx)

II. Report to be submitted with the following two sections:

Paragraph 1: Participants

Use appropriate variables from the file “miniproj_employee_data_f21.sav” to describe the participants in the sample. Report the following sample characteristics: sample size, number and percent minority, gender breakdown, job categories, age, and years of schooling. Be sure that you choose appropriate statistics (frequency tables, means, medians, modes, range, quartiles, variances, and/or standard deviations) based on the type of data you are describing.

Write one paragraph describing the participant group. Explain your choice of statistics where appropriate; e.g., if you choose to report the median instead of, or in addition to, the mean, explain why. Construct and refer to a figure that represents the values of one selected categorical variable. Construct and refer to a table that shows the frequencies and percent frequencies of a second selected categorical variable.

Paragraph 2: Results

Descriptive: Use appropriate statistics to describe participants’ survey results on four variables: initial salaries, current salaries, months since hire, and months of previous experience. Choose appropriate statistics to describe the central tendency and the variability of the sample on these variables, explaining your choice of statistics as needed. Write one paragraph that reports your findings on all four variables. Construct and refer to a table that presents descriptive statistics for at least two variables. Construct and refer to a figure that represents an aspect of a variable’s distribution that is important and can be expressed well through the selected graphic.

Inferential:

Research question: Were the study participants representative of the U.S. population in current salary, when the Current Population Survey shows a median weekly wage/salary for adult full-time workers of $671? To answer this question, you should run inferential statistics. You should run a comparison using SPSS. Then, you can write up your answer to this research question as a separate paragraph or as part of Paragraph 2.

NOTE: For running SPSS, you can work in groups of 2-3 people. However, the write-up of the report and construction of figures and/or tables should be done individually do not cut and paste tables from SPSS printout in your report. You need to select pertinent information from the printout and construct appropriate tables, graphs, and/or charts, according to APA formatting guidelines.

Submit your report to: ppchen@hunter.cuny.edu