Final Examination

Directions:
Respond to each item in a clear and concise paragraph. (In some cases, a single sentence will suffice.) Do not copy passages from the lectures or book. Rather, express your own understanding of the material. Do not write anything or everything that comes to mind; instead, try to devise a brief answer that captures the most relevant information. Before you submit, make a note of the number in the first comment, below. You will need to input this number into the form to submit your work. (This is to prevent spammers from using the form. Sorry about that. Spammers ruin everything.)

Identify a sociological phenomenon that can be investigated with variables in one of the dataframes on the course site. (See the links to codebooks in the left margin.) You might examine, for example, social class position, political view, or unemployment. Find some potential variables in that dataframe that might be used to measure this phenomenon and identify their level of measurement. Select one of these; this will be your dependent variable (DV).

Next, identify some potential causal variables in that dataframe. Identify the level of measurement of those variables. Some of these will be your independent variables (IVs).

1. Explain the phenomenon you chose and why it is sociologically interesting. Explain the DV you selected and why it is a good indicator of this phenomenon.

2. Assess the reliability and validity of the variable you selected as DV. How could this variable be improved?

3. Using your DV and several IVs, perform a hypothesis test using the correct statistical test and discuss the results. (This might involve one test, such as a regression model or factorial analysis of variance, or several crosstabulations.)

4. Find a sociological journal article that is related to your DV. Give the full ASA citation. Briefly summarize the method: what data are being analyzed and how were they collected? What kind of sample was used?

5. Interpret the main results in the article from question 4.

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