Research Methods Project in Partial Fulfillment for Research Methods in Political Science Class
Explicit statement of the research topic:
This paper will examine Respondents attitudes towards the United States' Economic burden of fighting Illegal Immigration and Middle Eastern Terrorism.
Dependent variable (Y): Respondents Attitudes towards Economic Burden
Q.42 Do you think that we should increase our spending on national defense, keep it about the same, or cut it back?
1 Increase
2 Keep same
3 Cut it back
9 Don't know/Refused (VOL.)
Independent variable1 (X1): Illegal Immigration
Thinking about the political parties ...
Which party could do a better job of [INSERT ITEM; RANDOMIZE]? How about [NEXT ITEM]? [IF NECESSARY: Which party could do a better job of ITEM?] [IF NECESSARY READ CATEGORIES: The Republican Party or the Democratic Party]
ASK ALL:
a. Dealing with the economy
b. Dealing with immigration
RESPONSE CATEGORIES:
1 Republican Party
2 Democratic Party
3 Both equally (VOL.)
4 Neither (VOL.)
9 Don't know/Refused (VOL.)
Independent variable: Terrorism
ASK ALL:
Next,
Q.36 In general, how well do you think the U.S. government is doing in reducing the threat of terrorism? [READ]
1 Very well
2 Fairly well
3 Not too well
4 Not at all well
9 [VOL. DO NOT READ] Don't know/Refused (VOL.)
H1: Respondents are likely to believe either Republicans, Democrats or Both equally do better job at dealing with Immigration.
H0: Respondents are likely to believe Neither Republicans or Democrats do a better job at dealing with Immigration, or Don't know.
H2: Respondents are likely to believe the United States Government is doing either a Very Well or Fairly well job in reducing the threat of Terrorism.
H0: Respondents are likely to believe the United States Government is doing a Not too well or Not at all well job in reducing the threat of Terrorism.
H1: Respondents are likely to believe either Republicans, Democrats or Both equally do better job at dealing with Immigration.
H2: Respondents are likely to believe the United States Government is doing either a Very Well or Fairly well job in reducing the threat of Terrorism.
Antoine - In both of these hypotheses, where is your dependent variable (Respondents Attitudes towards Economic Burden). The way you have written these hypotheses, you are actually presuming that your independent variables are dependent variables. Think about it. Where you say respondents, for each hypothesis, I ask: which respondents? I can answer your stated hypotheses with frequencies of both survey questions, but those frequencies do not get at the crosstabs you need to make that must include your dependent variable. Please try again but this time, first run frequencies of all 3 variables. Then run bivariate crosstabs with your dependent variable...that might help clarify what you are missing.
H1: Respondents are likely to believe either Republicans, Democrats or Both equally do better job at dealing with the economic burden of Immigration.