Everest STA2014 Week 6 discussion

A study was conducted on high school students in 2008. The research aimed to study the effect of assertiveness (confidence) training on educational anxiety. Educational anxiety can have a large impact on students during their teen years. It threatens students’ psychological health and affects their efficiency, aptitude, personality formation, and social identity. Assertiveness training is a structured intervention process that is used for social relationship improvement, anxiety disorder therapy, and phobias in children, teenagers, and adults. It seems that low assertiveness and high anxiety in students creates educational dysfunction, reduces the ability to learn, and produces a decrease in aptitude.

Anxiety is measured with a 30 question questionnaire using yes/no answers. The maximum score is 30, minimum is 0, and high anxiety is anything greater than 21. Assertiveness is also measured by a questionnaire with a minimum score of 30 (low assertiveness) to a maximum of 180 (high assertiveness). The following is a summary of their findings:

Refer to the following table and answer the following questions for your main post:

1. Did boys or girls have greater educational anxiety? What cultural variables may lead to this result?
2. Did boys or girls have greater assertiveness? What cultural variables may lead to this result?
3. Would knowing this was a sample of 30 students or 1,000 students change how you view this data? Why? How does the sample size affect the data?
4. What is the standard deviation telling you about anxiety and assertiveness between boys and girls? Which group is more consistent? Which group is less consistent?
5. Do you feel the differences in values between boys and girls are enough to say there is a real statistical difference between them? Why or why not?