Social Studies 201

Winter 2004

Optional problems for extra credit – Due April 21, 2004

 

If you decide to answer all or part of the following problems, you can obtain up to three (3) percentage points of extra credit toward your final grade.  That is, whatever you obtain on these problems (out of 3) will be added to the grade you would otherwise receive.  Answering some or all of these problems cannot lower your grade, but could increase it.

 

The following problems ask you to analyze the connection between the variable Future – Economic Future and some attitude/opinion variables in the ssae98.sav file located in folder t:\students\public\201.  The Future variable asked respondents to assess whether, in twenty years, they believed they would be better off, worse off, or at the same economic level as their parents are now.  The following problems ask you to examine the relationship between studeents’ assessment of their future and opinion variables V1, views on free trade; V6, government helps business; and V8, user fees for health care. 

 

  1. Obtain frequency distributions for the four variables Future, V1, V6, and V8, along with means and standard deviations for the latter three.  Briefly describe.

 

  1. Use Analyze—Compare Means—Means to obtain the means of each of V1, V6, and V8 by Future.  Again, briefly describe the patterns of the means, that is, comment on how those with different evaluations of the future respond to the three opinion variables. 

 

  1. Obtain a cross-classification of each of the opinion variables by Future.  Request the chi-square statistic, along with the expected count.  Describe your findings about the relationships between evaluations of the future and the three opinion variables.

 

  1. Use Analyze—Compare Means—Independent-Samples T Test to obtain two tests for a difference of means of an opinion variable, categorized by values of Future.   Using the information you obtained in questions 2 and 3, for one test identify two categories of Future where you expect there to be different mean values for one of the opinion variables, and obtain the t-test for difference of two means.  For the second test, do the same for one set of means where you expect there is not a statistically significant difference.   Briefly describe your findings.

 

  1. Write a short summary report on what you found about the relationship between Future and the three opinion variables.   Comment on any similarities or differences among the results of questions 1-4.

 

 

April 5, 2004

 

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