About METH3B Individual Assignment 3
METH3B Individual Assignment 3 asks you to take a clear, three-variable research model and push it through the full factor-analysis and structural-equation-modelling cycle, using real data rather than toy examples. The focus is on testing how curiosity leads to discovery and learning, and how discovery itself feeds into learning. You’re given the hypotheses in advance (H1–H3), so your job is not to invent a theory, but to test whether the data in Kilan_Derived_Example2.sav actually support that story.
You start in SPSS with the curiosity, discovery and learning items from the file. You’re expected to screen the data properly, check basic descriptives, and then run Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to see how many factors emerge and whether the items cluster in a way that matches the three constructs in the model. At this stage you should be looking at loadings, cross-loadings and explained variance, and deciding which items are kept or dropped on statistical and conceptual grounds, not just copying whatever SPSS suggests.
Once you have a defensible measurement structure, you move to AMOS to run a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Here you specify curiosity, discovery and learning as latent variables, attach the chosen items to each construct, and assess how well the measurement model fits the data. You should report and comment on key fit indices and show whether the items behave as a clean three-factor model with acceptable reliability and validity.
The final step is to test the structural model (SEM) in two ways:
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A latent path model, where curiosity, discovery and learning are kept as latent variables with their indicators.
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A path model, where you use observed scores (for example, scale means or factor scores) and estimate the paths between them.
In both versions you estimate and interpret the three main paths: curiosity → discovery, curiosity → learning, and discovery → learning. The assignment expects you to compare these two approaches, report the size and significance of each path, and state clearly whether H1, H2 and H3 are supported.
Your Word report should read as a short, coherent study: a brief introduction to the model and hypotheses, a clear description of the data and methods, well-organised EFA, CFA and SEM results, and a short discussion of what the findings say about the role of curiosity in discovery and learning. SPSS and AMOS outputs are included as supporting evidence, but the main marks come from how you select, present and explain those results, not from the raw screenshots themselves.
