Sports Production Jobs/Internships

If you're interested in a career in sports production, don't miss this: 

Representatives from Game Creek Video, live event mobile production, will visit the Park School Feb. 19 and 20 to recruit for their postgrad one-year apprentice program, and summer internships. 

 Meet with Game Creek in the first floor Park Photo Gallery #184 either Thurs. at 5:00 p.m. or Friday at 11:00 a.m. If neither time works, please contact Eloise Greene atEloise@ithaca.edu.  

Game Creek clients include ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, The NFL Network, The YES Network and MSG Network.

Class on Monday

Greetings,

As you may or may not recall, there was a chance that I would be at a conference this week (and that our class would be online).

As it turns out, however, I will not be at a conference. Instead, I need to be with my mom as she is facing some serious health issues.

This means that we won't be meeting for class on Monday in the regular fashion.

Instead, please use this time to 1) prepare for the exam, and 2) complete the SD, SE(p) and the z-score problems on Sakai (under tests and quizzes).

The exam will still be on Wednesday.

You may use any and all resources to complete it (the book, notes, the blog, the Internet, etc.). The only rule is that you must complete the exam on your own. That is, no one can help you.

You may take the exam anywhere you choose, provided you have an Internet connection.

It will be released at class time and you will have 2 hours to complete it.

If all goes well, I should be back to campus late Thursday, early Friday.

Jack

SD, z-score, and SE(p) problems are posted on Sakai

SD, z-score, and SE(p) problems are posted on Sakai (under tests & quizzes).

Remember, the goal is to help you practice/prepare for the exam. You are allowed to complete the exercises until you get them right.

Jack

$$$ Stress hurting Americans' health

February 4, 2015

American Psychological Association Survey Shows Money Stress Weighing on Americans’ Health Nationwide

Stress in America™ survey finds parents, younger generations and lower-income households have higher stress than others overall

WASHINGTON — While aspects of the U.S. economy have improved, money continues to be a top cause of stress for Americans, according to the new Stress in America™: Paying With Our Health survey released today by the American Psychological Association. According to the survey, parents, younger generations and those living in lower-income households report higher levels of stress than Americans overall, especially when it comes to stress about money.

“Regardless of the economic climate, money and finances have remained the top stressor since our survey began in 2007. Furthermore, this year’s survey shows that stress related to financial issues could have a significant impact on Americans’ health and well-being,” APA CEO and Executive Vice President Norman B. Anderson, PhD, said.

The survey, which was conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of APA among 3,068 adults in August 2014, found that 72 percent of Americans reported feeling stressed about money at least some of the time during the past month. Twenty-two percent said that they experienced extreme stress about money during the past month (an 8, 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale, where 1 is “little or no stress” and 10 is “a great deal of stress”). For the majority of Americans (64 percent), money is a somewhat or very significant source of stress, but especially for parents and younger adults (77 percent of parents, 75 percent of millennials [18 to 35 years old] and 76 percent of Gen Xers [36 to 49 years old]).

A gap also appears to be emerging in stress levels between people living in lower-income (making less than $50,000 per year) and higher-income households that mirrors the growing wealth gap nationwide. In 2007, there was no difference in reported average stress levels between those who earned more and those who earned less than $50,000, with both groups reporting the same average levels of stress (6.2 on a 10-point scale). By 2014, a clear gap had emerged with those living in lower-income households reporting higher overall stress levels than those living in higher-income households (5.2 vs. 4.7 on the 10-point scale).

Stress about money and finances appears to have a significant impact on many Americans’ lives. Some are putting their health care needs on hold because of financial concerns. Nearly 1 in 5 Americans say that they have either considered skipping (9 percent) or skipped (12 percent) going to the doctor when they needed health care because of financial concerns. Stress about money also impacts relationships: Almost a third of adults with partners (31 percent) report that money is a major source of conflict in their relationship.

The report also uncovered good news about stress management. Americans who say they have someone they can ask for emotional support, such as family and friends, report lower stress levels and better related outcomes than those without emotional support. Unfortunately, some Americans say that they do not have anyone to rely on for emotional support. According to the survey, 43 percent of those who say they have no emotional support report that their overall stress has increased in the past year, compared with 26 percent of those who say they have emotional support.

On average, Americans’ stress levels are trending downward: The average reported stress level is 4.9 on a 10-point scale, down from 6.2 in 2007. Regardless of lower stress levels, it appears that Americans are living with stress levels higher than what we believe to be healthy — 3.7 on a 10-point scale — and some (22 percent) say they are not doing enough to manage their stress.

“This year’s survey continues to reinforce the idea that we are living with a level of stress that we consider too high,” Anderson said. “Despite the good news that overall stress levels are down, it appears that the idea of living with stress higher than what we believe to be healthy and dealing with it in ineffective ways continues to be embedded in our culture. All Americans, and particularly those groups that are most affected by stress — which include women, younger adults and those with lower incomes — need to address this issue sooner than later in order to better their health and well-being.”

To read the full Stress in America report or download graphics, visit the webpage.

For additional information on stress, lifestyle and behaviors, visit the APA Help Center webpage and read APA’s Mind/Body Health campaign blog. Join the conversation about stress on Twitter by following @APAHelpCenter and #stressAPA.

Methodology

The Stress in America survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of the American Psychological Association between Aug. 4 and 29, 2014, among 3,068 adults ages 18 and older who reside in the U.S. Because the sample is based on those who were invited and agreed to participate in the Harris Poll online research panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. To read the full methodology, including the weighting variables, visit the Stress in America Press Room webpage.

The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA’s membership includes nearly 130,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people’s lives.

How to solve SD in plain English

Suppose you're looking to find the SD of a sample of these numbers:

1,2,2,2,3,4,9,9

If your mind works better using words over formulas, you can solve for the SD by following these steps:

1. Solve for the average (mean) of the values reported. In this case, the average is 4.

2. Find the difference between each value reported and the mean.

1- 4 = -3
2- 4= -2
2- 4= -2
2-4= -2
3- 4= -1
4- 4= 0
9- 4= 5
9- 4= 5

3. Square each of the differences (as shown below).

-3*-3 = 9
-2*-2= 4
-2*-2 = 4
-2 * -2 = 4
-1*-1 = 1
0*0 = 0
5*5 = 25
5*5 = 25


4. Sum the totals:

9+4+4+4+1+0+25+25 = 72

5. Divide by N-1

72/7 = 10.286

6. Take the square root.

The square root of 28.57 = 3.207

The SD is 3.21.

Standard Deviation Overview

Standard Deviation and Music Tests

My question relates to music tests.  A while ago, you mentioned that in addition to the average score and a few other things, that it’s also important to check the standard deviation for each song to see how much the respondents agreed in their evaluation of the songs.  Can you explain that in more detail? 

I’ll be happy to explain it.

If you simply look at a song’s mean (average) score, you don’t know how that scored was achieved.  That is, let’s say that on a 10-point rating scale, a song receives a score of 5.5—right in the middle of the scale.

The first reaction to such a score is probably something like, “That’s an average testing song; not a hit; and not a piece of trash.  But is that true?  The standard deviation tells you the amount of agreement among the respondents in reference to their song scores.  (I know you could look at the raw scores to see how they are distributed, but if you have 100 respondents and test 400+ songs, that’s a lot of data to review.  You’d go nuts looking at all those numbers.  The standard deviation speeds up the process.)

To make this easier to see, I developed a sample spreadsheet for three songs—each with an average (mean) score of 5.5.  While each song’s average is 5.5, the average was arrived at in three unique ways.  Look at the bottom of the table to see the standard deviations.

Respondent	Song 1	Song 2	Song 3
1	1	1	5
2	1	3	5
3	1	3	5
4	1	3	5
5	1	4	5
6	1	4	5
7	1	4	5
8	1	5	5
9	1	5	5
10	1	6	5
11	10	6	6
12	10	6	6
13	10	6	6
14	10	7	6
15	10	7	6
16	10	7	6
17	10	8	6
18	10	8	6
19	10	8	6
20	10	9	6
Mean	5.5	5.5	5.5
Standard Deviation	4.6	2.1	0.5

Song 1 has a standard deviation of 4.6, which is high for a 10-point scale and shows that there isn’t a lot of agreement among the respondents—the song is highly polarized—respondents either hate it or love it.  Song 2 has a standard deviation of 2.1—more agreement than Song 1, but still shows that the song is not universally liked or disliked (there is some polarization).  Song 3 has a standard deviation of 0.5, indicating that there is a lot of agreement among the respondents.

Get the idea here?  In addition to the average score, you need to look at the standard deviation (standard/average difference from the mean) of the songs to determine how much the respondents agree in their ratings.  A song that receives a standard deviation of 0.0 indicates that everyone rated the song the same way.  The higher the standard deviation, the more disagreement there is among the respondents.  (The standard deviation can’t be higher than the highest number in the rating scale.)

Z-scores: The most versatile statistic for media research

z-scores

While there are dozens of statistical methods available to analyze data, the simple z-score is probably the most versatile.  The following information is from Roger Wimmer's The Research Doctor Archive: 

What are z-scores?

Whenever we conduct a test of any kind (e.g., tests in school, music tests, personality ratings, or even Arbitron ratings), we collect some type of scores. The next logical step is to give meaning to these numbers by comparing them to one another. For example, how does a vocabulary test score of 95 compare to a score 84? In a music test, how does a song score of 82 compare to a score of 72? And so on. Without these comparisons, the scores have no meaning.

Although there are different ways to compare scores to one another (e.g., percentile ranks), the best way is to determine each score's standard deviation (or "average difference") above or below the mean of the total group of scores. This placement in standard deviation units above or below the mean is called a z-score, or standard score.

But wait. What is standard deviation? To understand that, you need to understand another term—variance. In simple terms, variance indicates the amount of difference that exists in a set of scores or data—how much the data vary.  If the variance, which differs from one test to another, is large, it means that the respondents did not agree very much on whatever it was they were rating or scoring.  Obviously, if the variance is small, the respondents agreed (were similar) in their ratings or scores.

The standard deviation is the square root of the variance. The advantage of the standard deviation is that it is expressed in the same units as the original scores. For example, if you test something using a 10-point scale, the standard deviation will exist somewhere between 1 and 10; a 65-point test will have a standard deviation between 1 and 65. And so on.

The standard deviation (SD) is important because it is used in calculating z-scores. What we need are symbols for Score (X), Mean (M), and standard deviation (SD).  With those symbols, the z-score formula is X - M / SD, or subtract the Mean of the group of scores from each individual score, and divide by the standard deviation.  The typical way the z-score formula is shown is:

Z =	X- M
	SD

All z-scores have a mean of zero and standard deviation of 1, and ranges (roughly) between –3.00 and +3.00. A z-score of "0" is average; a positive z-score is above average; a negative z-score is below average.  Here is a picture of a normal curve, showing that about 68% of a sample falls between -1 and +1 standard deviations, and about 98% fall between -2 and +2 standard deviations.

z-scores relate to the normal curve (the bell curve you may remember from when your teacher said that he/she was going to "curve" the test scores). Because of this, we know where things "stand" when using z-scores. For example, about 68% off your scores for a test will fall between –1.00 and +1.00 z-scores (standard deviations) from the mean.

z-scores allow you to compare "apples to oranges." For example, when you conduct a music test, you can't compare the raw scores of the males to the raw scores of the females, or one age cell to another. But you can withz-scores. In addition, if you compute z-scores for a music test, you can compare the scores from one market to scores in another market. You can't do this with the raw scores (regardless of the rating scale you use).

By the way, z-scores are known as standard scores because they are computed by transforming your scores into another metric by using the standard deviation. Get it? standard-ized scores. This procedure is known as a monotonic transformation . . . that is, all of your scores were transformed to another form using the same (monotonic) z-score formula.