Doreen: This was certainly a myth that I wanted to crack! When shopping for clothes which cannot be tried on, I would always use this method as a gauge. But because it’s such an ‘old-fashioned’ way of measurement, I would always feel so embarrassed and thus I would do it so sheepishly and quickly hoping that no one catches sight of it!
But results showed that there is indeed a positive relationship between these two variables! Despite the possible limitations of our research study leading to inaccurate and non-generalizable results, it was interesting to have been through this entire process. SPSS was a new tool for us to fiddle with. I am impressed that it is extremely smart and helpful in terms of analysing all that data we have collated. Besides, our very approachable Statistics lecturer captivated and motivated us with all her unfailing support and advices with a great deal of patience as well. We are very grateful for that.
This module might be over, but it also sets me on track for what that’s coming ahead – FYP (more stats)!
P/s: And perhaps the next time I need to take my measurements, I would do it with a little more pride! 😉
Karishma:The myth that my group chose to debunk for this project was a rather interesting one. When I would go to shops that would not allow the trial of shorts/pants, I would have to resort to placing it at my waist and gauging whether it would fit me. However, I would often see many people placing the pants around their neck as a measure, and I would wonder if this really worked. Having carried out this project and coming to the conclusion that there is indeed a positive relationship between one’s neck measurement and half of their waist measurement was an interesting discovery! And familiarizing myself with SPSS through this project was good and I am sure it would be helpful in FYP, and in future too. Also, this experience of relating statistics to a real-life scenario showed me its application better.
Lianna: I have always wondered why people put the pants’ waistband around their neck in shopping centers. I tried doing it once to see if the measurement of my neck does correlate to the measurement of my waist. I GUESS NOT! (I’ve got a big tummy! HAHA!) Yet, this project has further intrigued my interest in the relationship between an individual’s neck and his/her waist. Generally, there indeed is a correlation. However, there are limitations in our project that we have to consider (i.e people with a body shape like mine). Overall, it was an experience measuring and recording the measurements of different people as I had never used a measuring tape for such a purpose. This statistics module has increased my liking for statistics as now I do not need to manually calculate statistics results as in Junior College. Moreover, statistics makes more sense to me now as I can see how statistics can be applied to life instead of just having to know statistics just for the sake of doing well in an examination. On a side note, perhaps if I lose my tummy fats, there will be a better correlation between my neck and waist measurement! HAHA!
Ling Jia: I used to dread statistics lessons in JC. We had to do manual and tedious calculations on our Graphical Calculators just to obtain the graphs. On top of getting the graphs from the GC, we had to interpret whether or not there is a correlation between the variables and whether the curve is normal. Since secondary school, I have been told that statistics is very important in the future, however, I have never understood how useful and applicable it is until I attended SPSS lectures. Kudos to SPSS! SPSS has made analysis of data entry much easier with just a few clicks away and it gives us results such as the correlation among the various variables. Apart from that, this project has been a fun experience as we get to present and share our findings on the myth on the relationship between neck and waist ratio on a blog instead of the usual class presentation.
Stephanie: I have always wondered whether the myth was true as it was passed down from my mother’s generation. As technology improved, most people would only believe in evidence based research rather than a myth that their mum told them. Doing this project was a great way for us to learn SPSS as the project made SPSS less boring and I was thrilled to know if there was a correlation. Knowing the results, I can be confident in telling my friends that there is indeed a correlation between the neck and waist measurements, based on evidence. I think they will be pretty impressed! However, I do know that there are limitations in this project that can be improved on, to further proved its validity. All in all, I enjoyed using SPSS as it made collating and presenting of data an easier task.