Mini-Project Guidelines

As a part of this course you are required to do a mini research project. The intent of this project is to apply the statistical concepts and SPSS procedures you have learned in this class using General Social Survey 2012 data. The GSS 2012 data is available in the Data Sets folder.

Based on the results of the mini project, you are asked to write a Memo (maximum two pages - 700 words, Times New Roman 12). An attachment (posted onto the end of your project) can be no more than six pages - resize your graphs). The detailed first mini-project assignment is on pages $453-454$ of Healey textbook. Conclude your memo by a paragraph describing how an average American looks in terms of the variables you have chosen. Use ONLY GSS 2012 data set. Select six variables (two for every level of measurement). Please do not use variable "sex".

The research question for this project - How an average American looks in terms of the variables you have chosen - is determined by the data set and the quantitative methods knowledge level of the class for today. The GSS 2012 data set is a representative data of the US population. When you analyze it and find mean, median or mode for the variables from the data set, you get characteristics of an average American.

The task (the research question), the recommended data set, the expected quantitative methods are rigidly connected to each other. Changing one of them leads to the irresolvable contradiction. For instance, if instead of describing an average American via chosen variable you decide to find the cause-effect relations between these variables, you have to know that it cannot be done without creating the correlation matrix and using ANOVA, multiple or logistic regression methods that we have not studied, yet. That is why changing the original research question is not recommended.

Defining the appropriate measure of central tendency (MCT) for variables:

The best way to describe and analyze nominal variables is to use valid percent values of (important) categories and/or the mode. Nominal variables do not have means and, consequently, standard deviations around these means. If you do not keep this in mind, you can come to very "interesting" conclusions. For example, one of the students stated in the memo: "Average American is mostly female with standard deviation of 0.5."

Remember that in the GSS 2012 all variables are coded only as nominal or interval-ratio ones (because this is a learning data set). You can find this warning in the textbook. One should use common sense and theoretical knowledge to determine correctly the level of measurement of a variable: for example, there is no order for sex or race. Frequency tables should be used (and attached) for describing nominal and ordinal variables.

In a variable summary, we usually report the number (valid) of respondents, the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, or interval-ratio), and the most appropriate measure of central tendency (MCT).

- The MCT for nominal variables is the mode. Use it for describing the most common/ average respondent. Report percentage for all categories or several important categories.

- The MCT for ordinal variables is the median. Report the median category and its code. Use the median category for describing a typical/ average respondent. Report percentage for all/ several categories.

- For interval-ratio variables report the mean and median. If a difference between them is small, the most appropriate MCT (for describing an average respondent) is the mean. If the difference is big, use the median as the MCT for describing an average/median respondent.

Don't forget to describe an average American in the conclusion part (see the example).

Memo format:

The SPSS tables should be included in the last part of your project for the following reasons:

1. It is a standard.
2. When you are submitting a report (memo) you want your reader to understand it.
3. Not every reader is a guru in statistics. Your goal is to write the summary ( 700 words) that any manager can understand and use for decision making. If the manger can read statistical tables and she needs more information, she can use your attachment.

Price: $14.24

Solution: The downloadable solution consists of 8 pages, 624 words and 6 charts.
Deliverable: Word Document