MARQUIS: SPSS Results

Becoming a Communication Major or Minor — SPSS Results

Aubrey Marquis

Purdue University

COM 60411: Seminar in Communication Research Methods

Dr. Scott Schaffer

October 3, 2020

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MARQUIS: SPSS Results

Becoming a Communication Major or Minor — SPSS Results

The Brian Lamb School of Communication (BLSC) leadership has identified a need for

improvement in promoting and recruiting high-level students. In order to determine how to better

promote an undergraduate degree in communication, a survey was launched for students to better

understand how students choose their major, why students choose to major in communication in

the BLSC, and their current perceptions about the BLSC. Using the data from this survey —

which includes both open-ended and Likert-scale questions — a correlation and ANOVA were

run in SPSS, a software for editing and analyzing data, in order to provide the BLSC leadership

evidence-based recommendations for the BLSC’s strategic communication efforts.

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MARQUIS: SPSS Results

SPSS Tests

Correlation

Descriptive Statistics
Mean Std. Deviation N
How well do you think the following Items 3.52 .861 99
describe getting a major or a minor in
Communication fr...-A degree from the BLSC
will help people easily get a job.
How well do you think the following Items 3.31 .829 99
describe getting a major or a minor in
Communication fr...-A degree from the BLSC
will be financially rewarding.

Correlations
How well do you think How well do you think
the following Items the following Items
describe getting a describe getting a
major or a minor in major or a minor in
Communication fr...-A Communication fr...-A
degree from the BLSC degree from the BLSC
will help people easily will be financially
get a job. rewarding.
How well do you think the following Pearson Correlation 1 .529**
Items describe getting a major or a Sig. (2-tailed) .000
minor in Communication fr...-A degree N 99 99
from the BLSC will help people easily
get a job.
How well do you think the following Pearson Correlation .529** 1
Items describe getting a major or a Sig. (2-tailed) .000
minor in Communication fr...-A degree N 99 99
from the BLSC will be financially
rewarding.
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

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MARQUIS: SPSS Results

ANOVA

Descriptives
How easy for you is it to become a Communication Major or Minor if you wanted?
95% Confidence Interval for
Mean
Std. Std. Lower Minimu Maximu
N Mean Deviation Error Bound Upper Bound m m
Liberal Arts 41 3.51 .952 .149 3.21 3.81 2 5
Science 5 2.60 .894 .400 1.49 3.71 1 3
Agriculture 7 2.86 1.345 .508 1.61 4.10 1 5
Health and Human 12 3.25 .866 .250 2.70 3.80 2 4
Sciences
Engineering 11 3.45 .522 .157 3.10 3.81 3 4
Technology 11 3.82 .982 .296 3.16 4.48 2 5
Education 2 3.50 2.121 1.500 -15.56 22.56 2 5
Business 5 3.40 .894 .400 2.29 4.51 2 4
Other 4 2.75 1.500 .750 .36 5.14 1 4
Total 98 3.38 .990 .100 3.18 3.58 1 5

ANOVA
How easy for you is it to become a Communication Major or Minor if you wanted?
Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups 9.666 8 1.208 1.260 .275
Within Groups 85.365 89 .959
Total 95.031 97

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MARQUIS: SPSS Results

Results
Correlation
Variables:
1. How well do you think the following items describe getting a major or a minor in
Communication from the BLSC — A degree from the BLSC will help people easily get a
job (Intervallic, measured on a scale of 1-5)

2. How well do you think the following items describe getting a major or a minor in
Communication from the BLSC — A degree from the BLSC will be financially
rewarding (Intervallic, measured on a scale of 1-5)
Hypotheses:
H0: There is no relationship between perceived ease of getting a job and financial reward
when students describe getting a major or minor in Communication from the BLSC.
H1: There will be a positive relationship between perceived ease of getting a job and financial
reward when students describe getting a major or minor in Communication from the BLSC.

A Pearson’s correlation was performed and revealed a strong relationship between how

strongly students believe a degree from the Brian Lamb School of Communication will help

people easily get a job and how financially rewarding a degree from the BLSC will be. Results

indicated a positive correlation between ease of getting a job (M = 3.52 SD = .861) and financial

reward (M = 3.31 SD = .829), r(99) = .529, p = .000, n = 99. In general, the results suggest that

individuals who believe that getting a major or minor in communication from the BLSC will

help them easily get a job also believe that getting a major or minor in communication from the

BLSC will be financially rewarding. This statistically significant relationship between the two

variables rejects H0 and accepts H1.

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MARQUIS: SPSS Results

ANOVA
Variables:
1. What college are you in? (Possible responses: Liberal Arts, Science, Agriculture, Health
& Human Sciences, Engineering, Technology, Education, Business, and Other)

2. How easy is it for you to become a Communication Major or Minor if you wanted?
(Possible responses: Scale of 1-5)
Hypotheses:
H0: The importance of ease for one to become a communication major or minor does not
differ based on college membership.
H1: The importance of ease for one to become a communication major or minor differs based
on college membership.

A one-way between-subjects analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed and revealed no

significant effect of undergraduate major on ease of becoming a communication major or minor.

Results indicate that F(8, 89) = 1.260, p = .275, n = 99. The between groups variance resulted in

an extremely small degree of freedom while the within groups variance resulted in an

exceptionally large degree of freedom. Due to a lack of statistical significance, H0 is accepted and

H1 is rejected.

Table 1
Mean Ease (and Standard Deviations) of Becoming a Communication Major or Minor as a
Function of Current Major
Liberal Science Agricultur Health & Engineering Technolog Education Business Other
Arts e Human y
Services
M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD)
3.51 2.60 2.86 3.25 3.45 3.82 3.50 3.40 2.75
(.952) (.894) (1.345) (.866) (.522) (.982) (2.121) (.894) (1.500)
Note. Ease of becoming a communication major or minor scored using a Likert-scale (1-5): (1=Very Difficult,
5=Very Easy).

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MARQUIS: SPSS Results

Recommendation
The above tests were run to understand how the Brian Lamb School of Communication

can better promote itself to potential undergraduate students. Based on the significant results

from the correlation — how strongly participants think a degree from the BLSC will help people

easily get a job and how strongly they think it will be financially rewarding — I would

recommend that the BLSC highlight the success rate of its students that were hired full-time

either before, during, or right after graduation as well as the average income earned by those

students. Shining a light on current student and alumni success stemming from the BLSC could

be beneficial in promoting and recruiting high-level students.

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MARQUIS: SPSS Results

References

Treadwell, D. F., & Davis, A. M. (2020). Introducing communication research paths of inquiry.

Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.