Completed (Unit 1 Correlation Analysis and Results Worksheet)

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Apr 3, 2024

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Unit 1 Correlation Analysis and Results Worksheet PSYC 4100 This is a multi-part worksheet that will walk you through your analysis and results write-up for our Meaning and Depression Research Unit. You should have already reviewed the items in Unit 3 Part 1 before completing this activity (it is assumed you have done this). This activity may take an hour or more. Open up SPSS. Then, download the Correlation Lab Unit 1 2024 dataset from D2L and open it in SPSS (using file  open  data, then locating the downloaded .sav file from D2L). You should have 45 variables in the dataset: sex, age, 21 DASS items (Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale), 5 MLQ-p items (Meaning in Life-Presence), 5 MLQ-s items (Meaning in Life-Search), 8 PWBS items (Psychological Well Being Scale). Then, at the end of the list of variables, you should have the composite/sum scores of our main variables: DASS21Total, WellBeingTotal, MeaningPresence, and MeaningSearch. DASS21Total = our scores for Depression WellBeingTotal = our scores for Psychological Well-Being MeaningPresence = our scores for Meaning in Life-Presence MeaningSearch = our scores for Meaning in Life-Search These total variables are what we will use in our Pearson correlation analyses. The individual items from each scale will be used to compute our internal reliability (cronbach’s alpha) for each scale. Part 1: Planning our Analysis around our Methodology and Research Questions (3 pts) Our Methodology Question: Are our total composite scales for our variables internally consistent (reliable)? Analysis Plan: For our methodology question above, we will conduct Cronbach’s  (alpha) analysis on each scale that we use in our anlaysis (DASS21Total, WellBeingTotal, MeaningPresence, and MeaningSearch). We will report the Cronbach’s  value for each scale. Cronbach’s  interpretation: A value of .70 is the minimum acceptable value and would be considered adequate reliability. Values of .80-.90 indicate good reliability, whereas .90+ is considered high reliability. This indicates that the items in the scale hang together well and consistently measure the same construct. Values below .70 are problematic and scales with that value have questionable reliability. Our Primary Research Questions: 1) Is Meaning in Life-Presence related to Psychological Well-Being? Questionable Reliability 2) Is Meaning in Life-Presence related to Depression? Questionable Reliability 3) Is Meaning in Life-Search related to Psychological Well-Being? Questionable Reliability 4) Is Meaning in Life-Search related to Depression? Questionable Reliability Our Secondary Research Questions: 5) Are Depression and Psychological Well-Being related? Questionable Reliability 6) Is the search for meaning in life related to the presence of meaning in life? Questionable Reliability 1

Analysis Plan: For each of our primary and secondary research questions above, we will conduct a Pearson correlation. We will report the r value and p value for each relationship. p-value interpretation: The p-value will tell us whether the variables significantly correlate (if p < .05). r-value interpretation: Direction: The positive or negative sign of r will tell us the direction of the relationship (positive: the variables go up and down together in the same direction; negative: when one variable goes up, the other goes down, and vice-versa, indicating opposite directions). Strength: The strength/magnitude of the relationship will be determined by how close to -1 or 1 our r value is. A value of .85 would be considered very high, whereas a value of .10 would be considered lower. In general, a correlation of .01-.09 is trivial. A relationship of .10-.30 is considered a small effect (a weak relationship, but one that does exist if p is significant). An r of .30-.60 is considered a medium effect (a moderate relationship), and .60+ is considered a large effect (strong relationship). This is a continuum, so the cut-offs are not stringent. For instance, an r of .25 may be considered a small to medium effect, a .65 may be considered a medium to large effect, and so on. These standards may also be different in different disciplines. Questions for Part 1: Theoretical Hypotheses for our Research Questions (.5 pts each) 1) We are expecting that Meaning in Life- Presence and Psychological Well-Being will be: (indicate 1) Positively correlated Negatively correlated not-correlated unsure/exploratory 2) We are expecting that Meaning in Life- Presence and Depression will be: (indicate 1) Positively correlated Negatively correlated not-correlated unsure/exploratory 3) We are expecting that Meaning in Life- Search and Psychological Well-Being will be: (indicate 1) Positively correlated Negatively correlated not-correlated unsure/exploratory 4) We are expecting that Meaning in Life- Search and Depression will be: (indicate 1) Positively correlated Negatively correlated not-correlated unsure/exploratory 5) We are expecting that Depression and Psychological Well-Being will be: (indicate 1) Positively correlated Negatively correlated not-correlated unsure/exploratory 6) We are expecting that Meaning in Life- Presence and Meaning in Life- Search will be: (indicate 1) Positively correlated Negatively correlated not-correlated unsure/exploratory For the analyses in this worksheet, please report values to at least 2 decimal places. 2

Part 2: Demographics Information and Scale Reliability Analyses (5.5 points) Conduct demographics analyses: First, let’s learn a little about our sample and their demographics. Go to Analyze->Descriptive Statistics->Descriptives. In the left-side box, you should see our list of variables. Select “age” and move that into the “Variable(s)” box on the right-hand side. Then click, “ OK .” 7) Our sample has the following age characteristics (1 pt): Minimum age: ___18___ Maximum Age: __31____ Mean age: ___19.09____ Std. Dev: _1.312___ Now, go to Analyze->Descriptive Statistics->Frequencies. In the left-side box, you should see our list of variables. Select “sex” and move that into the “Variable(s)” box on the right-hand side. Then click, “ OK .” 8) Our sample has the following sex characteristics (.5 pt; Note. This is not intended to be exclusionary to non-binary or genderfluid individuals, however the data that we are analyzing did not collect nonbinary distinctions) : Male Frequency: __147____ Male %: __32.5____ Female Frequency: __306____ Female %: __67.5____ Conduct Reliability Analyses: Are our total composite scales for our variables internally consistent (reliable)? Analysis Plan: For our methodology question above, we will conduct Cronbach’s  (alpha) analysis on each scale that we use in our anlaysis (DASS21Total, WellBeingTotal, MeaningPresence, and MeaningSearch). We will report the Cronbach’s  value for each scale. Cronbach’s  interpretation: A value of .70 is the minimum acceptable value and would be considered adequate reliability. Values of .80-.90 indicate good reliability, whereas .90+ is considered high reliability. This indicates that the items in the scale hang together well and consistently measure the same construct. Values below .70 are problematic and scales with that value have questionable reliability. Depression Scale Reliability (DASS21Total) : To start go to Analyze -> Scale -> Reliability Analysis. A dialogue box will come up- one box on the left with the variables listed, and two blank boxes on the right. The top box on the right is labeled “Items:”. Select the 21 items for the DASS scale (DASS1 through DASS21) and put them all into the “Items:” box by selecting an item and then clicking the arrow between the boxes, or by double-clicking the item. The order of the variables in the “Items” box does not matter, as long as all variables for that scale are entered (e.g., all 21 DASS items need to be in the “Items” box). Then, click OK . 9) The Cronbach’s  for our Depression scale (DASS21 items) is (1 pt): a) Cronbach’s  = ____.932___________ b) This would indicate that the reliability for our depression scale, DASS21Total, is: (indicate one) 3

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Inadequate Adequate Good High Psychological Well-Being Scale Reliability (WellBeingTotal) : To start go to Analyze -> Scale -> Reliability Analysis. A dialogue box will come up- one box on the left with the variables listed, and two blank boxes on the right. The top box on the right is labeled “Items:”. Select the 8 items for the PSWB scale (PSWB1 through PSWB8) and put them all into the “Items:” box by selecting an item and then clicking the arrow between the boxes, or by double-clicking the item. The order of the variables in the “Items” box does not matter, as long as all variables for that scale are entered (e.g., all 8 PSWB items need to be in the “Items” box). Then, click OK . 10) The Cronbach’s  for our Psychological Well-Being scale (PSWB items) is (1 pt): a) Cronbach’s  = ____.957___________ b) This would indicate that the reliability for our Psychological Well-Being scale, WellBeingTotal, is: (indicate one) Inadequate Adequate Good High Meaning In Life-Presence Reliability (MeaningPresence) : To start go to Analyze -> Scale -> Reliability Analysis. A dialogue box will come up- one box on the left with the variables listed, and two blank boxes on the right. The top box on the right is labeled “Items:”. Select the 5 items for the MLQ-p scale (MLQ1p, MLQ4p, MLQ5p, MLQ6p, MLQ9revp) and put them all into the “Items:” box by selecting an item and then clicking the arrow between the boxes, or by double-clicking the item. The order of the variables in the “Items” box does not matter, as long as all variables for that scale are entered (e.g., all 5 MLQ presence items need to be in the “Items” box). Then, click OK . 11) The Cronbach’s  for our Meaning in Life-Presence scale (MLQ-p items) is (1 pt): a) Cronbach’s  = _____.897__________ b) This would indicate that the reliability for our Meaning in Life-Presence scale, MeaningPresence, is: (indicate one) Inadequate Adequate Good High Meaning In Life-Search Reliability (MeaningSearch) : To start go to Analyze -> Scale -> Reliability Analysis. A dialogue box will come up- one box on the left with the variables listed, and two blank boxes on the right. The top box on the right is labeled “Items:”. Select the 5 items for the MLQ-s scale (MLQ2s, MLQ3s, MLQ7s, MLQ8s, MLQ10s) and put them all into the “Items:” box by selecting an item and then clicking the arrow between the boxes, or by double-clicking the item. The order of the variables in the “Items” box does not matter, as long as all variables for that scale are entered (e.g., all 5 MLQ search items need to be in the “Items” box). Then, click OK . 12) The Cronbach’s  for our Meaning in Life-Search scale (MLQ-s items) is (1 pt): a) Cronbach’s  = ___.925____________ 4

b) This would indicate that the reliability for our Meaning in Life-Search scale, MeaningSearch, is: (indicate one) Inadequate Adequate Good High Part 3: Conducting our Pearson Correlation Analyses for our Research Questions (15 pts) Analysis Plan: For each of our primary and secondary research questions above, we will conduct a Pearson correlation. We will report the r value and p value for each relationship. p-value interpretation: The p-value will tell us whether the variables significantly correlate (if p < .05). r-value interpretation: Direction: The positive or negative sign of r will tell us the direction of the relationship (positive: the variables go up and down together in the same direction; negative: when one variable goes up, the other goes down, and vice-versa, indicating opposite directions). Strength: The strength/magnitude of the relationship will be determined by how close to -1 or 1 our r value is. A value of .85 would be considered very high, whereas a value of .10 would be considered lower. In general, a correlation of .01-.09 is trivial. A relationship of .10-.30 is considered a small effect (a weak relationship, but one that does exist if p is significant). An r of .30-.60 is considered a medium effect (a moderate relationship), and .60+ is considered a large effect (strong relationship). This is a continuum, so the cut-offs are not stringent. For instance, an r of .25 may be considered a small to medium effect, a .65 may be considered a medium to large effect, and so on. These standards may also be different in different disciplines. Our Primary Research Questions: RQ1: Is Meaning in Life-Presence Related to Psychological Well-Being? To conduct this analysis, go to “ Analyze  Correlate  Bivariate .” (Note. In case of confusion, you should NOT select the “Bivariate with Confidence intervals” option, but instead pick “Bivariate”). A dialogue box will come up, and you should see a box on the left with all variables listed and a box on the right titled Variables. Select both “ MeaningPresence ” and “ WellBeingTotal ” as your variables. Look at the correlation matrix output. There is redundant information in this table. The two boxes with a Pearson correlation of 1 and no p-value reported are not relevant. These simply show the correlation of each variable with itself (which is obviously a perfect correlation). Ignore these boxes and instead, look at either of the other boxes (it doesn’t matter which one you report, they are identical). This will be at the intersection of your two variables. For each research question, you will report the “Pearson correlation” value, which is your r value. And the “Sig. (2-tailed)” which is your p- value. 13) The Pearson r correlation between Meaning in Life-Presence and Psychological Well-Being is (2.5 pts): a) Pearson r = ____.606___________ b) p -value = _______<.001_________ c) What do we conclude about the p-value and our null hypothesis (that there is no relationship)? 5

Reject the null, significant relationship Fail to reject the null, no significant relationship d) If we rejected the null above, then how would we describe the direction of the relationship between Meaning in Life-Presence and Psychological Well-Being? (if failed to reject, leave blank) Positively correlated Negatively correlated as one goes up, the other goes up as one goes up, the other goes down e) If we rejected the null above, then how would we describe the strength/magnitude of the relationship between Meaning in Life-Presence and Psychological Well-Being Trivial Weak Moderate Strong RQ2: Is Meaning in Life-Presence related to Depression? To conduct this analysis, go to “ Analyze  Correlate  Bivariate .” (Note. In case of confusion, you should NOT select the “Bivariate with Confidence intervals” option, but instead pick “Bivariate”). A dialogue box will come up, and you should see a box on the left with all variables listed and a box on the right titled Variables. The two scales from the previous analysis should still be in the variables box. Make it so that “ MeaningPresence ” and “ DASS21Total ” are listed as your variables for the analysis (i.e., remove WellBeingTotal and replace it with DASS21Total). Look at the correlation matrix output. There is redundant information in this table. The two boxes with a Pearson correlation of 1 and no p-value reported are not relevant. These simply show the correlation of each variable with itself (which is obviously a perfect correlation). Ignore these boxes and instead, look at either of the other boxes (it doesn’t matter which one you report, they are identical). This will be at the intersection of your two variables. For each research question, you will report the “Pearson correlation” value, which is your r value. And the “Sig. (2-tailed)” which is your p- value. 14) The Pearson r correlation between Meaning in Life-Presence and Depression is (2.5 pts): a) Pearson r = ___-.372____________ b) p -value = ______<.001__________ c) What do we conclude about the p-value and our null hypothesis (that there is no relationship)? Reject the null, significant relationship Fail to reject the null, no significant relationship d) If we rejected the null above, then how would we describe the direction of the relationship between Meaning in Life-Presence and Depression? (if failed to reject, leave blank) Positively correlated Negatively correlated as one goes up, the other goes up as one goes up, the other goes down e) If we rejected the null above, then how would we describe the strength/magnitude of the relationship between Meaning in Life-Presence and Depression? 6

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Trivial Weak Moderate Strong RQ3: Is Meaning in Life-Search related to Psychological Well-Being? To conduct this analysis, go to “ Analyze  Correlate  Bivariate .” (Note. In case of confusion, you should NOT select the “Bivariate with Confidence intervals” option, but instead pick “Bivariate”). A dialogue box will come up, and you should see a box on the left with all variables listed and a box on the right titled Variables. The two scales from the previous analysis should still be in the variables box. Make it so that “ MeaningSearch ” and “ WellBeingTotal ” are listed as your variables for the analysis (i.e., remove MeaningPresence and DASS21Total before selecting your variables for this analysis). Look at the correlation matrix output. There is redundant information in this table. The two boxes with a Pearson correlation of 1 and no p-value reported are not relevant. These simply show the correlation of each variable with itself (which is obviously a perfect correlation). Ignore these boxes and instead, look at either of the other boxes (it doesn’t matter which one you report, they are identical). This will be at the intersection of your two variables. For each research question, you will report the “Pearson correlation” value, which is your r value. And the “Sig. (2-tailed)” which is your p- value. 15) The Pearson r correlation between Meaning in Life-Search and Psychological Well-Being is (2.5 pts): a) Pearson r = ____.100___________ b) p -value = _______.033_________ c) What do we conclude about the p-value and our null hypothesis (that there is no relationship)? Reject the null, significant relationship Fail to reject the null, no significant relationship d) If we rejected the null above, then how would we describe the direction of the relationship between Meaning in Life-Search and Psychological Well-Being? (if failed to reject, leave blank) Positively correlated Negatively correlated as one goes up, the other goes up as one goes up, the other goes down e) If we rejected the null above, then how would we describe the strength/magnitude of the relationship between Meaning in Life-Search and Psychological Well-Being Trivial Weak Moderate Strong RQ4: Is Meaning in Life-Search related to Depression? To conduct this analysis, go to “ Analyze  Correlate  Bivariate .” (Note. In case of confusion, you should NOT select the “Bivariate with Confidence intervals” option, but instead pick “Bivariate”). A dialogue box will come up, and you should see a box on the left with all variables listed and a box on the right titled Variables. The two scales from the previous analysis should still be in the variables box. Make it so that “ MeaningSearch ” and “ DASS21Total ” are listed as your variables for the analysis (i.e., remove WellBeingTotal and replace it with DASS21Total). 7

Look at the correlation matrix output. There is redundant information in this table. The two boxes with a Pearson correlation of 1 and no p-value reported are not relevant. These simply show the correlation of each variable with itself (which is obviously a perfect correlation). Ignore these boxes and instead, look at either of the other boxes (it doesn’t matter which one you report, they are identical). This will be at the intersection of your two variables. For each research question, you will report the “Pearson correlation” value, which is your r value. And the “Sig. (2-tailed)” which is your p- value. 16) The Pearson r correlation between Meaning in Life-Search and Depression is (2.5 pts): a) Pearson r = _____.170__________ b) p -value = _____<.001___________ c) What do we conclude about the p-value and our null hypothesis (that there is no relationship)? Reject the null, significant relationship Fail to reject the null, no significant relationship d) If we rejected the null above, then how would we describe the direction of the relationship between Meaning in Life-Search and Depression? (if failed to reject, leave blank) Positively correlated Negatively correlated as one goes up, the other goes up as one goes up, the other goes down e) If we rejected the null above, then how would we describe the strength/magnitude of the relationship between Meaning in Life-Search and Depression Trivial Weak Moderate Strong Our Secondary Research Questions: RQ5: Are Depression and Psychological Well-Being related? To conduct this analysis, go to “ Analyze  Correlate  Bivariate .” (Note. In case of confusion, you should NOT select the “Bivariate with Confidence intervals” option, but instead pick “Bivariate”). A dialogue box will come up, and you should see a box on the left with all variables listed and a box on the right titled Variables. The two scales from the previous analysis should still be in the variables box. Make it so that “ DASS21Total ” and “ WellBeingTotal ” are listed as your variables for the analysis (i.e., remove MeaningSearch and add DASS21Total). Look at the correlation matrix output. There is redundant information in this table. The two boxes with a Pearson correlation of 1 and no p-value reported are not relevant. These simply show the correlation of each variable with itself (which is obviously a perfect correlation). Ignore these boxes and instead, look at either of the other boxes (it doesn’t matter which one you report, they are identical). This will be at the intersection of your two variables. For each research question, you will report the “Pearson correlation” value, which is your r value. And the “Sig. (2-tailed)” which is your p- value. 17) The Pearson r correlation between Depression and Psychological Well-Being is (2.5 pts): a) Pearson r = ____-.351___________ 8

b) p -value = ____<.001____________ c) What do we conclude about the p-value and our null hypothesis (that there is no relationship)? Reject the null, significant relationship Fail to reject the null, no significant relationship d) If we rejected the null above, then how would we describe the direction of the relationship between Depression and Psychological Well-Being? (if failed to reject, leave blank) Positively correlated Negatively correlated as one goes up, the other goes up as one goes up, the other goes down e) If we rejected the null above, then how would we describe the strength/magnitude of the relationship between Depression and Psychological Well-Being Trivial Weak Moderate Strong RQ6: Is the search for meaning in life related to the presence of meaning in life? To conduct this analysis, go to “ Analyze  Correlate  Bivariate .” (Note. In case of confusion, you should NOT select the “Bivariate with Confidence intervals” option, but instead pick “Bivariate”). A dialogue box will come up, and you should see a box on the left with all variables listed and a box on the right titled Variables. The two scales from the previous analysis should still be in the variables box. Make it so that “ MeaningSearch ” and “ MeaningPresence ” are listed as your variables for the analysis (i.e., remove WellBeingTotal and DASS21Total before selecting your variables for this analysis). Look at the correlation matrix output. There is redundant information in this table. The two boxes with a Pearson correlation of 1 and no p-value reported are not relevant. These simply show the correlation of each variable with itself (which is obviously a perfect correlation). Ignore these boxes and instead, look at either of the other boxes (it doesn’t matter which one you report, they are identical). This will be at the intersection of your two variables. For each research question, you will report the “Pearson correlation” value, which is your r value. And the “Sig. (2-tailed)” which is your p- value. 18) The Pearson r correlation between Meaning in Life-Search and Meaning in Life-Presence is (2.5 pts): a) Pearson r = ___.004____________ b) p -value = ______.928__________ c) What do we conclude about the p-value and our null hypothesis (that there is no relationship)? Reject the null, significant relationship Fail to reject the null, no significant relationship d) If we rejected the null above, then how would we describe the direction of the relationship between Meaning in Life-Search and Psychological Well-Being? (if failed to reject, leave blank) Positively correlated Negatively correlated as one goes up, the other goes up as one goes up, the other goes down 9

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e) If we rejected the null above, then how would we describe the strength/magnitude of the relationship between Meaning in Life-Search and Psychological Well-Being Trivial Weak Moderate Strong Part 4: Describing and Interpreting our Findings (6.5 points) One to two sentences will be sufficient to answer the questions in this section. The goal is to be concise but also specific. Our Methodology Question: 19) Did our measures of interest (WellBeingTotal, DASS21Total, MeaningPresence, and MeaningSearch) have good scale reliability (.5 pt)? According to Cronbach’s  measurement results for each variable’s reliability analysis, I would say the provided data is indeed reliable. The measure of internal consistency was evident within each variable group. Our Research Questions: For each of the research questions below, report the relevant finding using APA style and then also make clear the direction and strength of the relationship if a significant one is reported. APA style example: APA style reporting of correlations should look like this: r (N-2) = value , p = value. For a sample (N) that had 125 participants, an r-value of .78 (strong and positive), and a p-value of <.001, it would look something like this: A Pearson correlation revealed a significant strong and positive relationship between happiness and sense of humor, r (123) = .78, p < .001. A high happiness level is associated with a high sense of humor. What number do we report in the parentheses? These are the degrees of freedom for our correlation. For our Unit 3 study: We had a sample of 453 participants, so our degrees of freedom we report would be df= N-2 => 453-2 = 451 . Therefore all of our reported correlations below will start like this: r (451) = Our Primary Research Questions: 20) Is Meaning in Life-Presence related to Psychological Well-Being (RQ1, 1 pt)? According to the person correlation analysis, there is a significant moderate positive relationship between Meaning in Life-Presence and Psychological Well-Being, r(451 ) = 0.606, p <0.001. 10

21) Is Meaning in Life-Presence related to Depression (RQ2, 1 pt)? There is a statistically significant weak negative correlation between Meaning in Life-Presence and Depression, r(451) = −0.372, p < 0.001. However, the magnitude of the correlation is weak, suggesting a limited shared variance between the two variables. 22) Is Meaning in Life-Search related to Psychological Well-Being (RQ3, 1 pt)? According to the person correlation analysis, there is a significant weak positive relationship between meaning in life search and psychological well-being, r(451 ) = 0.100, p = 0.033. 23) Is Meaning in Life-Search related to Depression (RQ4, 1 pt)? According to the person correlation analysis, there is a significant weak positive relationship between meaning in life search and depression, r(451 ) = 0.170, p = 0.001. Our Secondary Research Questions: 24) Depression and Psychological Well-Being related (RQ5, 1 pt)? There is a statistically significant weak negative correlation between Depression and Psychological Well-Being, r(451) = −0.351, p < 0.001. However, the magnitude of the correlation is weak, suggesting a limited shared variance between the two variables. 25) Is the search for meaning in life related to the presence of meaning in life (RQ6, 1 pt)? 11

The search for meaning in life is not significantly related to the presence of meaning in life, as indicated by a Pearson correlation coefficient of r(451) = 0.004, p = 0.928. 12

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