PY3101 Advanced Behavioural Research Design And Analysis

Introduction  

Physical activity is a complex dynamic process (Sherwood & Jeffery, 2009). Overtime there has been evidence that people who do physical activities are not only physically fit but also are able to maintain and enhance their cognitive ability and influence their attitude. Physical exercises have numerous benefits both mental and physical (Chen & Gao, 2014; Ferris, Williams & Chen, 2007).  Expectation of greater cognitive ability or intelligence among people who are more physically active comes from the growing evidence that brain structure and function is influenced by social experiences, particularly in the early years of life. Such neuropsychological research directs attention to questions about the types of experiences and life circumstances that can influence important developmental outcomes (Bailey, 2010). Researchers  have  identified  a likely  mechanism  for  linkages  between  physical  activity  and  intelligence (Bruton & Robles, 2009).

Executive function which is intelligence is a set of mental skills which depends on higher-order cognitive processes that supports sustained attention, planning, resistance to interference, selective attention, working memory, volitional inhibition and mental flexibility (Chan, Bass, Guimaraes, & Chen, 2014). These functions are highly important for the survival of humans and the functions mostly depends on the frontal lobes, temporal and parietal cortices. (Miyake et al., 2000). Not only do physical activities improve memory and teach (Robinson & Fraser, 2012), it also results in a robust long-term memory benefit (Bruton & Robles, 2009; Gan & Cothran, 2016).

Individuals are engaged in physical activity for both intrinsic and extrinsic reasons (Fraser, K.R., Robinson, J.M., Guimaraes, E., Fraser, A., Ciolac, K.K., & Bishop, M, 2015). The most common intrinsic reasons to participate in physical activity are enjoyment, challenge, and skill development, whereas the common extrinsic reasons to participate in physical activity are socialization, maintaining an attractive appearance, and gaining a good reputation (Coe, D. P., & Perterson, T., & Blair, 2008), these influence individual attitudes as they have an element of individuals participation without reservation.

Physical Activity, Intelligence and Attitude

In regard to physical activity, an active lifestyle has considerable importance for the well-being and health among human beings. Many studies related to physical activity across the lifespan of human beings is related with little evidences of the chronic conditions (Bass, 2012). It is therefore not surprising that many researchers are targeting the identification of factors that are related to physical activities. Moreover, there exist much evidences that personality characters are much associated with to physical activity across the lifespan of a person (Rhodes and Smith, 2016; Allen and Laborde, 2014) but less characters are known in relation to the role of emotional intelligence. Both the ability and traits of intelligence have been found to associate with measures of health (Bruton & Robles, 2009). According to Chen, S., & Kim, Y., & Gao, Z. (2014), found that physical activity has greater relationship on emotional intelligence and thus can be used for prediction.

In a research done by Chen, S., & Kim, Y., & Gao, Z. (2014) on sample of 315 gymnasium attendees, it was found that those with higher intelligence had much positive beliefs in the effectiveness of using exercise as a mood regulating strategy. In another research conducted by Coe, D. P., & Perterson, T., & Blair, C. (2008) on a sample of 497 undergraduate students, positive exercise attitude were not found to associate with intelligence but intelligence was only positively related to behaviour. Based on these researchers, their studies demonstrates that physical activity has a positive association with intelligence. 

Attitude is regarded as one of the most important predictor variables in relation to behavioral intentions concerning any physical activity. Attitudes further reflects a set of feelings, beliefs and behaviour related to one another which are organized around an object or a situation that may be favorable or unfavorable. Attitude is the determinant of how an individual acts towards others

Research Objectives/Purpose of the Study

Intelligence and attitude are key factors in every person’s life. Therefore, the major objective of this study is to determine whether there exist any association or correlation between physical activity, intelligence quotient and attitude (IQ). The paper also aims at presenting the association between intelligence and attitude as the two dependent variables in the study. The final results are then presented for references from which better assertions are made. Thus the following are objectives the research;

1. Does physical activities influence intelligence?
2. Does physical activities influence attitude?

The Research Hypotheses:

The null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis for this research can be formulated as follows;

1. Null hypothesis (H1)
2. There is positive and significant relationship between physical activity and intelligence
3. There is positive and significant relationship between physical activity and attitude.
4. Alternative Hypotheses
5. There is no positive and significant relationship between physical activity and intelligence
6. There is no positive and significant relationship between physical activity and Attitude.

The rejection or the acceptance of any of the above hypothesis depends on the nature of the tests results after the analysis and from which a conclusion is made (Bass, 2013).

Design and Methodology

This part presents and outlines the methodology and design of this multi-correlational research. This research was establish to examine if there exist a relationship between physical activity as independent and intelligence/Attitude as independent variable. The research also collected data from both primary and secondary sources (Bailey, 2010).

The independent and dependents variables for the study includes;

Independent Variable (IV): Physical Activities.

Physical activities such as light, moderate and vigorous sports (Light, as in physical activities such as bowling and boating are considered as the independent variables for this study. In relation to this, we wish to examine whether personal physical activity affects intelligence of a person. Moderate physical activities such as sporting and dancing formed the main basic of physical activity.

Dependent Variable (DV): Intelligence and Attitude.

Intelligence tested by Intelligence Quotient (IQ) Wechsler scale (WAIS-IV), intelligence as high scores and low scores scored by the participants. Attitude as in positive and negative attitudes towards the test. Attitude was tested through the questionnaire posted to the participants. Based on this, we wish to test whether intelligence and attitude are affected by the physical activity and is possible various models for the prediction of the intelligence level could be obtained.

Firstly, consent form was given to the participants and experimenter informed the participants about the experiment and its aims. The participants were then advised and divided into three groups of physical activity (Light, moderate and vigorous). Thereafter, the participants were asked to do about 30 minutes of any physical activity. After thirty minutes of the physical activity performed, they were then sked to have a break of 10 minutes. Next, they were asked do an Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test for about 20 minutes to see how they can finish.

After that, the research followed the next level in which the questionnaires were given to the sample of participants. The study was conducted among the student at the University and the information collected from the questionnaires were arranged and prepared for the analysis.

After data collection, Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) tool was applied in data analysis. One-Way MANOVA as the statistical test under consideration was applied a major test among other tests. One-Way MONVA test is was applied since it enables the determination of multi-correlational relationship between one independent variable (Physical Activity) and the independent variables (Intelligence and Attitude). The results obtained were then subjected to discussion that led to appropriate conclusion and assertions.

Before conducting this study, a review of the literature focused on the benefits of being physically fit on the activities that led influences the performance.

Other related ideas were also explored in research included the importance of physical activity programs available for the participants. This quantitative research examined the association between physical activity and intelligence/Attitude. This paper presents the One-Way Multivariate Analysis of Variances between the variables based on the data collected. Other demographical factors were also analyzed to determine the relationship between the considered variables under the research study but not emphasized under discussion.

Participants

The research was conducted among the fourth and fifth grade students who were enrolled in high school. A random sample of 100 participants were selected for the survey and the participants were freely and voluntarily allowed to participate in the study. The participants were each presented with a 30 minute time questionnaire. The G power will as well be used in the survey.

Ethical Consideration

Before data collection, a JCU ethics application is to be completed and submitted to the JCU ethics committee for approval. Any information collected from the participants during the survey will be kept confidential and the participants are allowed to withdraw from the survey at will without any consequence. The participants will be assigned a randomly generated number in the place of their names when data is presented, ensuring confidentiality.

Tools for Data Collection

The following instruments were used in data collection for the research;

1. Questionnaires;
2. Wechsler scale (WAIS-IV) machine; used for measuring intelligence quotient.

• Pens and papers; issued to participants for answering questions.

1. Computers; for recording information and data collected from the participants.

Conceptual Frame

The model above best portrays the theoretical framework for the research.

Statistical Analyses and tests

Results

Data collected from experiment will be analyzed using IBM Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 to investigate the relationship between physical activity on intelligence and attitude by using one-way MANOVA.

Assumptions Testing

The assumptions matching that of parametric tests required for one-way MANOVA to be conducted will be checked.

The Categorical Independent Variable: The independent variable for this experiment is physical activity. Analysis will be conducted to very how it affects attitude and intelligence.

The main aim of this research is to determine whether physical activities influences intelligence and attitude. To determine this therefore, the applicable statistical approaches on the analysis would be identified.

1. One-Way Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (One-Way MANOVA)

This test is conducted to determine whether there is any difference between the physical activity and other variables. It is also applied to test if two or more groups significantly defer from each other. Thus the test is applied in the analysis of the results for the quantitative part. The value of lambda will be examined from the multivariate table of test. A significant value would mean that physical activity has impact on both intelligence and attitude.

1. Regression Analysis

Is another test used in testing the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variables? Based the regression model it would also be possible to determine the model for predicting the degree of association between the considerable variables.

Conclusion

 Many researchers have found and believed in the positive relationship between physical activities and intelligence but in regard to this research, the findings are found otherwise. The purpose of the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was to examine if there exist any relationship between the given variables under the study. The study is based on the notion that physical activity and fitness has positive influence on the intelligence quotient and attitude of a person. The demographic data such as gender and age among others was obtained and analyzed under different tests to verify the claim. Since this study work was considered as a correlational study, it does not guarantee the causality thus the results should be cautiously be interpreted. It is also possible that extraneous variables could also affect the findings of this research and were thus not used in this analysis.  

References

Active Healthy Kids Canada. (2009). Ontario Physical and Health Education Association. Retrieved September 13, 2018 from https://www.ophea.net/Ophea.net/Active-Kids-Score Higher.cfm

Fan, J., &JI. P. (2014). Test Candidate’s attitudes and their test performance: The case of the   Fudan English Test. University of Sydney Papers in TESOL 9.

Bailey, R. (2010). Physical Education and Sports in Schools: A review of benefits and outcomes. Journal of School of Health, 76(8), 397-401.

Bass, R. (2013). Physical fitness and Academic Performance in middle school students. Acta Paediatrica, 102(8), 832-837.

Bishop, S. (2015). The truth about our Physical Education History. Retrieved from ezinarticle.com/? The-Truth-About-Our-Physical-Education-History&id=68556

Bruton, A., & Robles-Pina, R. A. (2009). Deficit thinking and hispatnic student Achievement: Scientific information resources.Problems of Education in the 21^st Century, 15, 4-48

Chen, S., & Kim, Y., & Gao, Z. (2014). The contributing role of physical education in youth’s daily physical activity and sedentary behaviour. BMC Public Health, 14(1), 1-15

Coe, D. P., & Perterson, T., & Blair, C. (2008). Effects of Physical education and activity levels on academic achievement in children. Medicine &Science in Sports &Exercise, 38(8), 1515-1519.

Ferris, L. T., & Williams, J. S., & Shen, C. L (2007). The effect of acute brain-derived neurotropic factor levels and cognitive function. Medicine &Science in Sports, 39, 78-73.

Fraser, M. L., & Robinson, B. L (2012). Development of social skills through physical Education with a complex needs child population. International Journal of Sports & Society, 3, 113- 124.

Garn, A. C., & Cothran, D. J. (2016). The fun factor in physical education. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 25,281-297.

Guimaraes, G.V., & Ciolac, E. G. (2014). Physical activity: Practice this idea. American Journal of Cardiovascular Disease, 4(1), 31-33.