Social Studies 201

Winter 2005

Optional problem set for extra credit – Due April 18, 2005

 

If you decide to answer all or part of this problem set, 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 raise 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 (question 18).  The following problems ask you to examine the relationship between students’ assessment of their future and opinion variables V1, views on free trade; V6, government helps business; and V8, user fees for health care (from question 15). 

 

  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 V1, V6, and V8 by Future.  Request the chi-square statistic, along with the expected count.  Describe your findings about the relationships between evaluations of the future and each of the three opinion variables.  (To obtain the cross-classification table and chi-square statistic, request Analyze—Descriptive Statistics—Crosstabs and, using Statistics, check the Chi-square box, and using Cells, click on Observed and Expected).

 

  1. Use Analyze—Compare Means—One-Sample T Test to obtain two tests of a mean.  Test whether (a) the mean response of undergraduates to statement V6 exceeds 3.5, and (b) the mean response of undergraduates to statement V8 differs from 2.   Describe the results.

 

  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 8, 2005