Social Studies 201

Fall 2003

 

Problem Set for Extra Credit – Due December 10, 2003

 

If you decide to answer this problem set, you can obtain up to 3 points of extra credit towards your final grade.  That is, whatever you obtain on this problem set (out of 3) will be added to the grade you receive on the problem sets and examinations.

 

This problem asks you to obtain some data from the computer problem set SSAE98.SAV in the folder t:\students\public\201.  As with the other computer problems, obtain and hand in the printout and write comments on the printout or in a word for windows file.  For this problem set, work with the three opinion variables V4 “Gay and Lesbians Married,” V5 “Increase Corporate Taxes,” and M2 “Equal Access” as well as the sex of the respondent.

 

  1. Obtain frequency distributions and statistics for the three opinion variables.  Describe and compare the distributions.

 

  1. For each sex, obtain the mean and standard deviation of each of the opinion variables.  Also obtain 90% interval estimates for the means.  Describe and compare the results.

 

  1. Obtain a cross-classification of each of the opinion variables by sex of the respondent.  Request the chi-square statistic, along with the expected number of cases.  Briefly summarize the main results.  (See Chapter 10, section 10.4.4 for similar examples).  Identify one pair of independent events and one pair of dependent events among the events in the tables. 

 

  1. Using the above results and any other observations you have on these data, write a summary description of similarities and differences of male and female responses for these opinion variables.

 

 

 

 

Paul Gingrich

November 24, 2003