A t test examines if two means (averages) are reliably different from each other; that is, whether any significant differences exist between the means of samples from different populations. For example, to what extent is the output of a local office which applied an IT solution different than the output of other local offices which did not apply the IT solution? Also, if you wanted to test whether the average IQ score of a group of students differs from 100, you may use a t test. A t test does more than just compare means; as an inferential statistic, t tests allow researchers to make inferences about the populations beyond their sample data.

For this Assignment, you will use the IT Security database and conduct two t tests: (a) one-sample t test and (b) paired-samples t test and prepare an APA results write-up for each test.

To prepare for this Assignment:

• Review the media programs:
  • Introduction to Hypothesis Testing
  • The t Statistic
  • The t Test for Related Samples
  • Estimation
• Review Lesson 22, "One-Sample t Test.” Then conduct a one-sample t test using the IT Security Dataset from this week’s Learning Resources.
  • Pay particular attention to the sections titled “Writing an APA Results Section” (on pages 119-120) and “An APA Results Section” (on page 167) in the Green and Salkind text.
• Review Lesson 23, “Paired-Samples t Test.” Then conduct a paired-samples t test using the IT Security Dataset.
  • Pay particular attention to the section titled “An APA Results Section” (on page 122) in the Green and Salkind text.
• Review the Assignment Exemplar provided in this week’s Learning Resources.

Submit a 5- to 6-page paper using the Assignment Exemplar.

Your paper must include the following elements:

• An APA Results section for each t test. (See examples of APA Results sections in Lesson 22 (one-sample t test) and Lesson 23 (paired-samples t test) of the Green and Salkind text.)
• The critical elements of your SPSS output, including:
  • A properly formatted research question
  • A properly formatted H10 (null) and H1a (alternate) hypothesis
  • A descriptive statistics narrative and properly formatted descriptive statistics table (see page 148 of the Green and Salkind text)
  • A properly formatted histogram for the one-sample t test (see page 149 of the Green and Salkind text)
  • A properly formatted box plot for the paired-samples t test (see page 154 of the Green and Salkind text)
  • A properly formatted inferential APA Results Section (see page 149 of the Green and Salkind text) for each test
  • An appendix including the SPSS output generated for descriptive and inferential statistics (see SPSS output on page 148 of the Green and Salkind text)