Statistics and Statistical Programming (Spring 2019)/Problem Set: Week 1

Programming Challenges

Because this is our first week, there are no real programming challenges this week. Instead, these are some setup tasks you can do before class to prepare you to complete future programming challenges.

PC1. Download and install R — You can do that from this webpage where you will have to choose based on your operating system.

PC2. Download and install RStudio — Download and run the "installer" from the "Installers" sections of the RStudio download page. You'll want to choose the one that is appropriate for your operating systems (e.g., Windows, Mac OSX, or GNU/Linux).

PC3. (a) Create and save a new RStudio "Project" ('.Rproj'). Then, within your new project, (b) create and save a new RMarkdown file ('.Rmd'). Finally, (c) write a combination of text notes and R code in your RMarkdown file and "knit" the output into HTML.

PC4. Compress everything from your project into a "zip" archive (feel free to use some other compression format if you like) and upload it to Canvas.

Statistical Questions (from OpenIntro)

Exercises from OpenIntro (Diez, Barr, and Çetinkaya-Rundel) §1

SQ0. Any questions or clarifications from the OpenIntro text or lecture notes?

SQ1. Exercise 1.6 about identifying cases, variables, types, and research questions

SQ2. Exercise 1.12 about populations, samples, and generalizability

SQ3. Exercise 1.52 about means and medians from a histogram

SQ4. Exercise 1.56 about skewness and choosing appropriate statistics

SQ5. Exercise 1.64 about selecting certain types of visualization over others

Several of these questions draw from Study 4 of the following paper (although I don't think it's critical to look at the paper to answer the questions):

Piff, Paul K., Daniel M. Stancato, Stéphane Côté, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, and Dacher Keltner. 2012. “Higher Social Class Predicts Increased Unethical Behavior.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109(11):4086–91. [Available through NU Libraries]

Empirical Paper Questions

Read the following paper and answer the questions below Please be prepared to identify parts of the paper that support your claims.

Kramer, Adam D. I., Jamie E. Guillory, and Jeffrey T. Hancock. 2014. “Experimental Evidence of Massive-Scale Emotional Contagion through Social Networks.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111(24):8788–90. [Open access]

EQ1. Identify (a) the cases, (b) the variables and their types, and (c) the main research question of this piece.

EQ2. (a) What do the treatment and control groups consist of in this study? (b) What type of sampling does the study use? (c) Describe the experimental manipulation.

EQ3. Identify (a) the population of interest and (b) the sample used in the study. (c) Do you think that this study can be generalized from the sample to the population?

EQ4. There is one figure in the paper (Figure 1). Walk us through the figure and explain what it represents and reflects.

EQ5. (a) Summarize the results of the study. (b) What is the size of the effect? Is this meaningful? (c) Describe what you think the important takeaway from the paper is.