Second Paper Assignment

Develop an Hypothesis that you can test using the TDCRP data:

• look at the content of the various forms (available in the TDCRP forms book in the computer lab)
• think about how certain measures might be differentially affected by the different treatments for depression
• or think about how certain measures might predict outcome

Email Dr. Scott with your hypothesis so that he can provide you with the appropriate data file. It would help to provide the form number (on the first pages of your handout) for the measures you are interested in.

Write a full paper in APA style.

Here's an example of a published paper that used the TDCRP data files. There are many more.

Here’s how to extract the data of interest.

• Download the data file of the form you are interested in. Save it to the desktop, then load it into SPSS
• Find the time of administration you want by looking up the evalcode value that corresponds in your handout.
• Go to Data- Select Cases – if condition is satisfied, use evalcode = x as the condition where x is the evalcode you want.
• Set the select cases screen to delete unselected cases.

• Do the following only if you are comparing the same variable across different times of administration, such as BDI items before and after treatment.
• Go to the variables view screen and change the name of all variables of interest to indicate the time of administration

• Sort the cases (data-sort cases) according to pnum ascending.
• Save the file with a new name.
• Load the base data file (e.g. completers + final BDI + expectations)
• Merge (data – merge – add variables) the file you just saved into the base file using pnum as the key variable.
• Save the new base file using your name as its title

• Do it all over again if you are getting another time of administration (e.g., if you got the intake BDI first and now want the followup) or if you want to add items from another form. This time use the file with your name as the base file.