Sociology

§ Time series charts

(appropriate to show how some variables change over time) - A time series chart displays changes in a variable at different points in time. - It involves two variables: time, which is labeled across the horizontal axis, and a variable of interest whose values are labeled along the vertical axis.

What do you gain?

- Ability to direct readers' attention to one aspect of the evidence - Ability to reach readers who might otherwise be intimidated by the same data in a tabular format - Ability to focus on bigger picture rather than perhaps minor technical details

What do you lose using charts and graphs?

- Ability to examine numeric detail offered by a table - Ability to see additional relationships within data - Potentially time - We can get caught up in selecting colors and formatting charts when a simply formatted table is sufficient

A survey of 355 people were asked whether or not they had texted while driving in the past year. Eighty persons responded yes. Which of the following graphic devices would best display this information? - Time series chart - Frequency distribution - Bar graph - Histogram

- Bar graph

GSS stands for - Greater Survey of Society - General Survey of Society - General Social Survey - General Statistical Survey

- General Social Survey

Please Identify the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, or interval-ratio) for the following variable: The number of people in your family - Nominal - Ordinal - Interval-ratio

- Interval-ratio

what kind of info does pie chart display

- The bar graph provides an alternative way to present nominal or ordinal data graphically.

In statistical formulas, what does N stand for? - the number of different values possible on the variable - the normalized Z score in a distribution of score - the normal curve - The number of scores in a distribution

- The number of scores in a distribution

A graph showing the difference in frequencies or percentages among the categories of a nominal or an ordinal variable where the categories are displayed as rectangles of equal width with their height proportional to the frequency or percentage of the category is referred to as a: - bar graph. - pie chart. - frequency polygon. - histogram

- bar graph.

A researcher is interested in testing the impact of a violent film on men's ability to solve disputes peacefully. Group 1 consists of twenty-six men who are shown a violent film before being paired with another person from the same group and given a problem to solve. A second group of twenty-six men are paired up and given problems to solve without seeing the violent movie beforehand. The experimenter measures the differences between the two groups in how the men went about solving the problems they were given by recording the number of times an individual used violent or threatening words, as well as the number of violent incidents, if in fact any violent incidents had occurred. The number of threats or other violent actions are measures of the: - manipulated variable - independent variable - random variable - dependent variable

- dependent variable

Compared to a bar graph, a histogram: - displays only nominal variables. - has bars of equal width. - displays variables on only the x-axis. - has contiguous bars.

- has contiguous bars.

Please identify the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, or interval-ratio) for the following variable: The U.S. unemployment rate - nominal - ordinal - interval-ratio

- interval-ratio

Please identify the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, or interval-ratio) for the following variable: The percentage of university students who attended public high school - nominal - ordinal - interval-ratio

- interval-ratio

The purpose of a graph is to: - tell a story. - illustrate information through numerical data. - simplify a document. - represent nominal-level variables.

- tell a story.

A group of friends really love to go bowling together. Here are a set of final scores from a recent bowling trip:147, 160, 80, 110, 121, 164, 62, 90, 76, 83, 110What is the mean? -100.25 -115.66 -120.30 -109.36

-109.36

A group of friends really love to go bowling together. Here are a set of final scores from a recent bowling trip:147, 160, 80, 110, 121, 164, 62, 90, 76, 83, 110What is the median? -6 -164 -90 -110

-110

what are the five steps of the research process

-Asking the research question -Formulating the hypotheses -Collecting data -Analyzing data -Evaluating the hypotheses

what are examples of unit of analysis

-Individuals -Groups -Organizations -Nations Societies

pie charts

-Pie charts shows the difference in frequencies or percentages among categories of a nominal or an ordinal variable.

what is cause and effect relationship

-between variables are not easy to infer in the social sciences. Causal relationships must meet three conditions: 1. The cause has to precede the effect in time. 2. There has to be an empirical relationship between the cause and effect. 3. This relationship cannot be explained by other factors.

A group of friends really love to go bowling together. Here are a set of final scores from a recent bowling trip:147, 160, 80, 110, 121, 164, 62, 90, 76, 83, 110What is the mode? -2 -110 -121

110

A researcher observes the level of aggression of six 5-year-old boys over the course of a school day. The number of incidents for the group of boys was 2, 4, 6, 12, 8, 10. What is the mean number of aggressive acts for this group of children? - 9 - 7 - 5 - 4

7

what is cumulative frequency distribution

: a distribution showing the frequency at or below each category (class interval or score) of the variable.

example of nominal

A common example of nominal data is gender; male and female. Other examples include eye colour and hair colour. An easy way to remember this type of data is that nominal sounds like named, nominal = named.

what is cumulative distribution

A cumulative Distribution shows the frequencies at or below each category of the variable. They are appropriate only for variables that are measured at an ordinal level or higher.

Symmetrical Distriubtions:

A distribution is symmetrical if the frequencies at the right and left tails of the distribution are identical.

Statistics

A set of procedures used by social scientists to organize, summarize, and communicate information.

what is a hypotheses

A statement about the relationship between two or more variables.

what is a theory

A theory is an explanation of the relationship between two or more observable attributes of individual or groups.

what is a unit of analysis

A unit of analysis is the level of social life on which social scientists focus.

data

Information represented by numbers, which can be the subject of statistical analysis.

d) fertility rate (children ever born per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44)

Interval-ratio, continuous

c) number of women of childbearing age (aged 15 to 44)

Interval-ratio, discrete

On the first day of class, a statistics professor asks her students to report their eye color. These data are distributed as follows: green=25 students, brown=55 students, blue=30 Students, other=6 students. What type of variable is eye color (nominal, ordinal, or interval-ratio)? - Nominal - Ordinal - interval-ratio

Nominal

a) country of origin

Nominal

b) race/ethnicity

Nominal

j) state of residence

Nominal

e) education (not high school graduate, high school graduate or some college, bachelor's degree, graduate or professional degree)

Ordinal

i) time of immigration (pre-1970, 1970-1979, 1980-1989, 1990-1994)

Ordinal

f) income ($1 - $9,999: $10,000 - $19,999; $20,000 - $29,999; .... $50,000 or more)

Ordinal because the categories are grouped

what is the research process?

The research process is a set of activities in which social scientists engage to answer questions, examine ideas, or test theories.

independent variable

The variable expected to account for (the "cause" of) the dependent variable.

What is a dependent variable?

The variable to be explained (the "effect"). IV -> DV

On the first day of class, a statistics professor asks her students to report their eye color. These data are distributed as follows: green=25 students, brown=55 students, blue=30 Students, other=6 students. The variable of interest in this study is eye color. - True - false

True

proportions and percentages

Using raw frequency is not very meaningful so we use proportion and percentages. We call this relative frequencies. (same as percentages)

what cant we rely on research question?

We cannot rely on reasoning, speculation, moral judgment, or subjective preference when we are looking at a research question.

Cumulative percentagedistribution:

a distribution showing the percentage at or below each category (class interval or score) of the variable. - Basically, it is just like the cumulative frequency distribution except, with percentages instead of frequencies.

•Percentage (%):

a relative frequency obtained by dividing the frequency in each category by the total number of cases and multiplying by 100.

proportion

a relative frequency obtained by dividing the frequency in each category by the total number of cases.

3. An empirical research question is one that can only be resolved by a. sense data that can be confirmed by others b. moral judgments c. logic and reasoning d. appeals to common sense

a. sense data that can be confirmed by others

Measures of Central Tendency

are numbers that describe what is average or typical of the distribution.

what is the mean not suitable for?

as a measure of central tendency in distributions that have a few very extreme values on one side of the distribution.

8. A questionnaire designed for a study of work and self-esteem among women listed the following response choices: work full-time, work part-time, attend school, housewife, seeking employment, other. These categories are a. mutually exclusive but not collectively exhaustive b. collectively exhaustive but not mutually exclusive c. both collectively exhaustive and mutually exclusive d. neither collectively exhaustive nor mutually exclusive

b. collectively exhaustive but not mutually exclusive

5. In the hypothesis that likelihood of crime decreases as the school dropout rate decreases, a. likelihood of crime is the independent variable, school dropout rate is the dependent variable, and the relationship is positive b. school dropout rate is the independent variable, likelihood of crime is the dependent variable, and the relationship is positive c. likelihood or crime is the independent variable, school dropout rate is the dependent variable, and the relationship is negative d. school dropout rate is the independent variable, likelihood of crime is the dependent variable, and the relationship is negative

b. school dropout rate is the independent variable, likelihood of crime is the

what is empirical research

based on evidence that can be verified by using our direct experiences.

what are variables

building blocks to a hypothesis

7. If a case can be placed in more than one code or category of a scale, the scale is not a. homogeneous b. discrete c. mutually exclusive d. collectively exhaustive

c. mutually exclusive

6. In a study of what causes rates of promotion of minority police officers to vary in different police departments, the unit of analysis would be a. individuals b. racial/ethnic groups c. organizations d. promotions

c. organizations

4. Which of the following is a variable? a. gender b. race c. age d. all of the above are variables

d. all of the above are variables

what is continuous variables

does not have a minimum size unit of measure age

Skewed distributions

have a few extreme values on one side of the distribution. - When the distribution has a few extremely low values it is referred to as negatively skewed. - When the distribution has a few extremely high values it is referred to as positively skewed.

what are used for interval ratio's?

histogram and frequency polygons statistical map

what does histogram and frequency polygons used for

interval- ratio

h) percent unemployed

interval-ratio, continuous

k) age in years

interval-ratio, continuous

what is a rate

is a number obtained by dividing the number of actual occurrences in a given time period by the number of possible occurrences.

what is percentage distribution

is a table like a frequency distribution but with the percentages not the frequencies for each variable.

A frequency polygon

is another way to display interval-ratio distributions; it shows the differences in frequencies or percentages among categories of an interval-ratio variable. o Points representing the frequencies of each category are placed on the graph and are joined by a straight line.

mean

is the best-known and most widely used measure of central tendency. - The mean is the mathematical average obtained by adding up all the scores and dividing by the total number of scores. - The mean is typically used to describe central tendency in interval-ratio variables. - The mean can only be calculated for variable measured at the interval-ratio level. - This is the only level of measurement that provides numbers that can be added and divided. - When data is arranged in a frequency distribution we must give each score its proper weight by multiplying it by its frequency.

mode

is the category or score with the largest frequency or percentage in the distribution. The mode is the easiest to find. You simply locate the category represented by the highest frequency. - is the only measure of central tendency that can be used with nominal level variables. - Some distributions can have two scores or categories with the highest frequency. - When this occurs there are two modes. - Such distributions are called bimodal.

what is exhaustiveness

means that there should be enough categories composing the variables to classify every observation

9. If the categories of a variable make distinctions between cases that cannot be arranged in order from low to high, the level of measurement is a. nominal b. ordinal c. interval d. ratio

nominal

Please identify the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, or interval-ratio) for the following variable: Place of residence, classified as urban, suburban, or rural - nominal - ordinal - interval-ratio

nominal

Please identify the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, or interval-ratio) for the following variable: The presidential candidate you voted for in 2008 - nominal - ordinal - interval-ratio

nominal

Please identify the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, or interval-ratio) for the following variable: The type of transportation a person takes to work (for example, bus, walk, or car) - nominal - ordinal - interval-ratio

nominal

what is a histogram

o histogramis used to show the differences in frequencies or percentages among categories of an interval-ratio variable. o It is similar to a bar chart, except the bars are touching each other and may not be of equal width.

Please identify the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, or interval-ratio) for the following variable: The highest educational degree earned - nominal - ordinal - interval-ratio

ordinal

Please identify the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, or interval-ratio) for the following variable: The rating of the overall quality of a textbook, on a scale from Excellent to Poor - nominal - ordinal - interval-ratio

ordinal

ordinal

ranks the categories high to low ex- social class -never use means -column/bar

what is mutual exclusiveness

refers to the need to classify every observation into one and only one category.

median

represents the exact middle of a distribution. It is the score that divides the distribution into two equal parts so that half the cases are above it and half below it. - The variable must be at least an ordinal variable. - N+1 / 2 - To find the median in a frequency distribution we must find the category associated with the observation located at the middle of the distribution. - To help locate this observation we construct a cumulative percentage distribution. - We want to find the category with a cumulative percentage value equal to 50%.

In a unimodal symmetrical distribution

the mean, median, and mode are identical. - In unimodal distributions, when the median, mode, and mean are identical or almost identical, the distribution is symmetrical. - When the mean is higher than the median, the distribution is positively skewed - When the mean is lower than the medina, the distribution is negatively skewed

what makes up a hypothesis

variables

What are discrete variables?

variables that can take only certain values and none in between cant be divided -ex cant have 2.5 children

nominal level of measurement

variables whose values have no mathematical interpretation; they vary in kind or quality but not in amount -no quantitative difference between the variables -most basic -use labels w/ no order -use frequencies or % -does NOT use mean -pie chart or column/bar

interval ratio-

when the categories are ranked ordered and we measure the difference each category -mean -median -standard deviation -bar histogram -must be grouped

frequency distribution

§A frequency distribution is a table reporting the number of observations falling into each category of the variable.

How to analyze data

•Population: The total set of individuals, objects, groups, or events in which the researcher is interested. •Sample: A relatively small subset selected from a population. •Descriptive statistics:Procedures that help us organize and describe data collected from either a sampleor a population. •Inferential statistics:The logic and procedures concerned with making predictions or inferences about a population from observations and analyses of a sample. -general social survey