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Soc 111—Introductory Sociology Survey Assignment Purpose The purpose of this assignment is to formulate a research question and develop a hypothesis, collect data that can be used to test the hypothesis, test the hypothesis, and draw a conclusion about the research question. Context This is the first of series of assignments whose purpose is to simulate the research process that professional sociologists go through to produce knowledge. We won't necessarily be taking these steps in the order that they actually occur, but when the series of assignments are done, you will have some beginning experience with the entire process. Audience There really is no audience for this portion of the research process. Organizing a research question and hypotheses and doing the statistical analysis is an important part of the research process but not that you necessarily would present to others. So, in real life, you would do this for yourself. But since we will be grading this, make sure that we can understand what you have done. Design Make sure that your name(s) is (are) on your assignment. I think the easiest way to complete the assignment is simply to cut and paste from the example below. However, you are welcome to handwrite the assignment. Just make sure to follow all the steps as outlined in the example. Points 12.5 Soc 111—Introductory Sociology Survey Assignment 1. Choose a research question as follows: a. Select a dependent variable. It should be a variable that is a count of something, such as number of hours slept. For example you might ask: “How many hours of sleep did you get last night?” Try to make your question specific enough that you are likely to get good information. b. Select an independent variable. It should be a variable with two groups. For example, males and females, lower classmen and upper classmen, or those born in Utah and those born outside Utah, etc. c. Ask your question to 10 people in each of the two groups for a total sample of 20 people. 2. Write a paragraph describing your research question, present a hypothesis identifying your independent and dependent variables, and indicate briefly how you collected the data. Record your responses in a table similar to the one below in whole numbers. Example – Our research question is “Does the amount of sleep students get vary by whether or not they live on or off campus?” We hypothesize that students living in dorms will get more sleep on average than students living off campus. Our dependent variable is the amount of sleep a student reported for a weeknight, and our independent variable is whether or not they lived in the dorms versus off campus. We asked 10 students living in the dorms on campus and 10 living off campus how many hours they slept last night (all were in reference to a weeknight). There responses are recorded below. Dorms Off campus 8 4 7 6 7 6 8 5 6 9 5 3 6 6 7 7 9 7 5 6 3. Calculate the mean, median, and mode and standard deviation for each group separately. Please show your work. Give a brief interpretation. Example – Mean, Median, Mode Dorms 5 5 Mode=7 6 Median=7 6 Mean = 6.8 7 median 7 7 8 8 9 (sum)68 Off-campus 3 4 5 6 6 6 6 7 7 9 (sum)59 (mean = 68/10 = 6.8) (mode = 7, response with most cases) (median = 7, point that divides distribution in half) Standard Deviation Dorms Subtract mean x x Square value x x 2 5 5 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 9 -1.8 -1.8 -.8 -.8 .2 .2 .2 1.2 1.2 2.2 3.24 3.24 .64 .64 .04 .04 .04 1.44 1.44 4.84 (sum)15.6 Mean x = 6.8 x x 2 2 Variance (s ) = n 1 15.6 = 1.73 10 1 Standard deviation (s) = 1.73 = 1.32 median (mean = 59/10=5.9) (mode = 6, response with most cases) (median = 6, point that divides distribution in half) Off campus Example -1.8 * -1.8 = 3.24 Example: 5 – 6.8 = -1.8 Mode = 6 Median = 6 Mean= 5.9 Subtract mean x x Square value Example: 3– 5.9 = -2.9 Example -2.9 * -2.9 = 8.41 -2.9 -1.9 -0.9 .1 .1 .1 .1 1.1 1.1 3.1 8.41 3.61 .81 .01 .01 .01 .01 1.21 1.21 9.61 3 4 5 6 6 6 6 7 7 9 x x 2 (sum)24.9 Mean x = 5.9 x x 2 2 Variance (s ) = n 1 Standard deviation (s) = 24.9 = 2.77 10 1 2.77 = 1.66 Summary Mean STD Dorms Off Campus 6.8 5.9 1.32 1.66 Interpretation: On average, students in the dorms reported sleeping 6.8 hours on a weeknight and those living off campus reported sleeping 5.9 hours on average. There is more variation in the hours slept among the off campus students compared to the students living in the dorms. 4. Calculate a two-mean t-test to compare the two group means to determine if they are statistically different from each other. In other words, is 6.8 really different from 5.9, or is the apparent difference due to an artifact of your data (e.g., small and/or select sample)? Please show your work—it does not have to be typed. Give a brief interpretation of your results. Example – First, you need to calculate the ‘pooled standard deviation’ (Sp) which an estimate of the standard deviation of the population. Sp (n1 1)s12 (n2 1) s 22 n1 n2 2 Sp (10 1)1.73 (10 1)2.77 1.5 10 10 2 Then use the pooled standard deviation to calculate the t-value (the test statistic) t x1 x2 1 1 sp n1 n2 t 6.8 5.9 .9 1.34 1 1 .671 1.5 10 10 Compare your calculated t-value with t = 2.101. This is the appropriate t-value when there are 18 degrees of freedom (n1 + n2 – 2 = 18) and we desire a 95 percent confidence level (p = .05). If your value is greater than 2.101, then the difference between your means is statistically significant, if lower than 2.101, then it is not significant (in other words, there is more than a 5% chance your two means are not different). 1.34 < 2.101 not statistically significance at p < .05 Interpretation: Based on our t-test, the difference between the average hours of sleep students in the dorms get compared to students off campus is not statistically significant. In other words, there is no difference in how much sleep they get by whether they live on campus in the dorms, or off campus. It is possible that this difference would be statistically different if we had a larger sample size.