Name _____________________________________ PSYCH 248 S01L1

Computer Assignment 1

A team of researchers wanted to investigate the role of communication and attachment

styles in romantic relationship maintenance. (Note: secure attachment is formed in
children when their parents consistently met their needs; insecure attachment is formed
when parents inconsistently or rarely/never met children’s needs.) The researchers
collected data from 40 individuals in relationships on how long they have been with their
significant other and what their attachment styles are. They also videotaped the couple
discussing a conflict and counted how many times either partner used negative
communication (i.e. contemptuous language, blaming, putting down, withdrawing). One
year later, they followed up with the couple to see if they were still together.

The researchers hypothesized that couples that used a more negative communication
style would be more likely to break up. Furthermore, as a secondary hypothesis, they
predicted that individuals with an insecure attachment style were more likely to (a)
engage in more negative communication, and (b) break up.

Create an SPSS data file containing the following data. Be sure to enter the data so that
each participant’s data is represented by one line in the data set and each variable is
represented by a column in the data set.

Insecure Attachment

Relationship Negative Relationship

ID Length Communication Status
1 4 14 broke up
2 56 17 broke up
3 20 3 together
4 36 1 together
5 209 18 broke up
6 13 9 broke up
7 19 10 broke up
8 60 12 broke up
9 81 13 together
10 318 11 broke up
11 47 16 broke up
12 82 8 together
13 54 15 broke up
14 3 8 together
15 14 10 broke up
16 10 4 together
17 98 5 together
18 104 8 together
19 20 7 together
20 106 10 broke up
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Secure Attachment

Relationship Negative Relationship

ID Length Communication Status
21 180 2 broke up
22 6 3 together
23 19 2 together
24 30 4 together
25 56 8 broke up
26 30 6 broke up
17 29 9 broke up
18 99 5 together
19 87 10 broke up
30 175 8 broke up
31 209 14 broke up
32 81 3 together
33 13 9 broke up
34 14 5 together
35 36 2 together
36 67 17 broke up
37 84 3 together
38 92 4 together
39 420 2 together
40 7 5 broke up

SPSS Instructions:
1. Generate the appropriate descriptive statistics for all four variables
a. Frequency tables for the nominal variables
b. Mean, median, mode, standard deviation, range, skew, and kurtosis for
the scale variables
2. Generate the appropriate graphs and charts to visualize and explore the data
a. Create bar graphs for each of the nominal variables (you should have two)
b. Create histograms for each of the scale variables (you should have two)
c. Create a box plot to see whether relationship status after 1 year is seems
related to communication style
d. Use the explore tab to generate descriptive statistics, histograms, and a
box plot of the negative communication variable split by broken up or still
together couples
i. Hint: put the continuous numeric (scale) variable in the “Dependent
List” box and the categorical (nominal) variable in the “Factor List”
box
e. Use the explore tab again to look at negative communication variables
split by secure and insecure attachment style.
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f. Create a scatterplot with the variables relationship length and negative

communication
g. Use Crosstabs to see if attachment style (row) seemed to affect
relationship status (column) (include percentages by row)
3. Create a new variable recoding the relationship length into a nominal variable
a. Create groups “1 = less than 1 year,” “2 = between 1-3 years,” “3 =
between 3-10 years, “ and “4 = over 10 years”
i. Hint: The data is currently in months!
ii. Keep the syntax in your cleaned up output file as a record
b. Create a frequency table and a bar graph using this new variable
4. Standardize negative communication scores
a. Use the descriptives command to save standardized values as variables
5. Clean up all of your results (only include the specific graphs, tables, or syntax
asked for) and print them out to include with your short answer responses.
a. Also print out a copy of the data in data view by going to file > print.
i. Be sure that you are either highlighting all the cells you want to
print, or not highlighting any of the cells

Short Answer Response Questions

Type of your responses in a separate Word document
1. In your own words, write a paragraph describing the variables in the study.
Given the hypotheses, which variables are the primary independent and
dependent variables? What independent and dependent variables are used in
the secondary hypotheses? What types of data are these variables (nominal,
ordinal, interval, or ratio)?
2. Report the measures of central tendency, describe the variation, and comment
on the shape of the distribution for the variables relationship length and negative
communication. Use APA style to report the statistics (see example sheet).
3. Look at the tables and graphs that you made looking at negative communication
in couples that broke up and couples that stayed together. Describe in your own
words whether you think the researchers’ primary hypothesis was supported.
Use information from the descriptives, histograms, and boxplot to support your
answer.
4. Were the secondary hypotheses supported? Were insecurely attached
individuals (a) more likely to engage with negative communication and (b) break
up? Use the data generated from Explore and from Crosstabs to support your
answer.
a. Provide a conceptual explanation for why the secondary hypothesis was
supported or not supported.
5. Does there seem to be a relationship between relationship length and
communication style? How did you come to that conclusion?