Assignment:
The Independent Data Analysis has four assignments:
• Part 1. Developing Research Questions and Selecting Variables
• Part 2. Descriptive Statistics
• Part 3. Bivariate Statistics
• Part 4. Multivariate Statistics
The final report will include all four parts of the project. When submitting the final report, students are expected to correct any mistakes made in the earlier assignments.
Read Chapter 10 and select a topic presented in pages 227-234. Select one that requires the use of GSS08 data (e.g., racism, sexual behavior, education, health and happiness). After selecting the topic, answer the following questions. Please write your answers in blue.
A. What is your topic?
B. Using Appendix 2 & 3, identify at least two variables that measure the outcome of your topic. For example, which variables measure level of happiness? These will be your dependent variables.
C. Using Appendix 2 & 3, identify at least two variables that may predict your outcome. What factors may explain differences in your outcome? For example, which variables are related to a person's level of happiness? These variables will be your independent variables.
D. Develop two separate research questions using the independent variables and dependent variables you have chosen in Parts B and C. The question can be phrased as: Does IV predict DV?
a. Question 1:
b. Question 2:
E. Examine the structure of each of these variables to determine if they are numerical or categorical variables. (In other words, identify the level of measurement for each variable: is it nominal, ordinal, or scale?)