More Guidelines about Project

• 6-8 pages DOUBLE SPACED (not including figures or tables)
• If you choose to critique an article

  1.

  Discuss items like the following:
  a. What is/are the central research hypothesis/hypotheses?
  b. What is the dependent variable and how is it operationalized?
  c. What are the key independent variables and how are they operationalized?
  d. Is there a literature review and does it look adequate (of course I don't expect you to be an expert in this area but you can still comment on whether it looks like they did their homework).

  2.

  Discuss the statistical analysis: what, why, logic, quality, attention to detail, statements authors made as a result, what else could-should be examined

  3.

  If article contains covariance or correlation matrix, analyze the same model in paper (as best as possible) using AMOS and comment on your results as compared to theirs

  4.

  If article does not contain covariance matrix, write down completely the relationships between all the variables implied by the model. (E.g. write down the resulting structural model and/or the resulting measurement model)

• If you choose to analyze your own data

  1.

  Describe the source of the data in detail and why it was originally collected

  2.

  Describe the hypothesis you are interested in analyzing and give some background about why anyone should care about it

  3.

  Explain how the measurements were chosen and discuss the statistical properties of these measurements (reliability, normality)

  4.

  Give some simple summaries of the data including a sample covariance matrix and means

  5.

  Analyze the model in the most appropriate way you see fit based on what we discussed in class including any modifications you made along the way

  6.

  Discuss the results and how they relate to the subject matter

• If you choose to do a simulation or provide some analytical results for a statistical method

  1.

  Discuss in detail the problem you will address

  2.

  Perform a well designed simulation study

  3.

  Other guidelines for this type of project will vary depending on project (see me)