Week 6: The third Application Assignment focuses on creating an accessible overv

Week 6:
The third Application Assignment focuses on creating an accessible overview of results from statistical analyses in the form of an infographic dashboard. Specifically, you will conduct univariate, bivariate descriptive statistics for the variables you plan to use for the bivariate and multivariate hypothesis testing you’ll be conducting for AAs 4 and 5. In other words, this assignment requires you to conduct preliminary descriptive statistical analyses for these variables as you would for any data analysis project. Remember, we ALWAYS start with univariate and bivariate descriptive statistics on the sample so that we are familiar with the variation in our data and the characteristics of the sample. Without preliminary descriptive statistics, we are not able to understand the context for or to interpret the results of later analyses effectively or accurately!
Content
In the Word document, start by presenting and interpreting the univariate descriptive statistics and then the bivariate. The analyses must include, at a minimum, the following (NOTE: the infographic you ultimately will create for the DAPP can be more than one “page” – it’s totally up to you to determine the best layout/format for that based on the types of variables you’re working with):
Clear, descriptive title that identifies the social issue, social problem or outcome(s) being examined (in other words, the potential DV(s) for your project)
Analysis of at least 8 variables from ONE data set of your choice
At least THREE must be sociodemographic variables
At least THREE must be substantive variables related to the social issue, social problem or outcome(s) (DVs)
Based on those analyses, your infographic dashboard must include
At least THREE charts/graphs/tables displaying results for univariate descriptive statistics
At least THREE charts/graphs/tables displaying results for bivariate descriptive statistics
Text with clear, concise and complete interpretations for appropriate descriptive statistics and complete interpretations of bivariate analyses examining relationships between variables (cross-tabs, comparison of means, bivariate regression) – FOLLOW TEMPLATES provided in the course learning materials (especially lecture slides/videos)
Data
SPSS Data Sets
Download the data set that you have decided to use for the DAPP (you already have the PDF codebook – this is the actual data); be sure to give the file a clear and descriptive title (some have very generic acronyms/alphanumeric codes since they are downloaded from a data archive!)
REMEMBER: you will need to do some data cleaning including:
Setting any non-valid responses (Inapplicable/INAP/Not Applicable, No Answer, Refused, Don’t Know, etc.) to MISSING by going into the Variable View to the “Missing” column and setting discrete values as “missing” so that they are excluded from analyses and
Any necessary recoding (this entirely depends on HOW you want to operationalize that measure and what makes the most sense given the relationships you intend to analyze and any group comparisons you intend to make in the bivariate and multivariate significance testing you will be planning/conducting for AA4/AA5); for example, if you intend to compare folks married folks with non-married folks, you would want to recode marital status into two groups: currently married and currently not married by recoding the original marital status variable into a different variable as we have done for some of the SDAs)
NSEE (2018) Download NSEE (2018)
SelfPeceptionsCreativity&ArtsParticipation (2018) Download SelfPeceptionsCreativity&ArtsParticipation (2018)
GeoprivacyAttitudes (2018) Download GeoprivacyAttitudes (2018)
National Victim Service Providers (2019) Download National Victim Service Providers (2019)
University of Michigan Campus Climate Survey (2016) Download University of Michigan Campus Climate Survey (2016)
Well-being & Basic Needs Survey (2019) Download Well-being & Basic Needs Survey (2019)
Eurobarometer 85.1: European Youth (2016) Download Eurobarometer 85.1: European Youth (2016)
National Crime Victimization, School Crime Supplement (2019) Download National Crime Victimization, School Crime Supplement (2019)
Generations: LGB People in a Changing Society (2019) Download Generations: LGB People in a Changing Society (2019)
National Survey of Health Attitudes (2018) Download National Survey of Health Attitudes (2018)
Format
For this assignment you will submit a Word document with the required content copied/pasted from your SPSS output file with interpretations for all univariate and bivariate descriptive statistics. Please clearly label each piece of output with a clear title with figure #. For example. Figure 1. Histogram for Number of Children Living in the Household.
Looking ahead re: how these preliminary descriptive statistics will be used and incorporated in the DAPP:
For the DAPP (after you get feedback from me on these analyses), you will create an infographic dashboard to share the descriptive statistics with the reader in a clear, concise and visually-engaging manner. The infographic will be a more polished, professional presentation of the results and can be created using any of the following content creators:
CanvaLinks to an external site.
PiktochartLinks to an external site.
VismeLinks to an external site.
Any infographic content creator of your choice
Your infographic should be clearly organized and visually engaging; that means you will need to customize AND edit your work!
Submission
Submit both the Word doc (or .rtf or .pdf file; no PAGES files – all students have access to Microsoft365 through the university) AND the SPSS output file (.spv)
Week 8
The fourth Application Assignment involves development of a detailed plan for multivariate analyses and conducting preliminary analyses. While this is a work-in-progress, brainstorming assignment aimed at creating a tentative plan for the multivariate analyses you’ll carry out for AA5, it is expected to be complete, well-organized, clearly articulated and DETAILED. In other words, a bulleted outline with vague/broad section and subsection headings is not sufficient for meeting the requirements of this assignment. Your data analysis plan must reflect careful consideration of potential control variables, clearly articulated hypotheses informed by a specific sociological paradigm or specific sociological theory (see Chapter 2 of the ASSR text for a review of sociological theories).
Content
The detailed outline for your multivariate data analysis plan must include the following:
Detailed description of the secondary data set you will use, including year, sample size, sampling design, mode of data collection (be specific – don’t just say survey!), types of variables measured, etc.
THREE bivariate analyses you plan to conduct. For each of the three, discuss:
The hypothesis you intend to test for the relationship between the IV and DV
Theoretical rationale the hypothesis is based on
AT LEAST FOUR control variables you are considering for the multivariate model to examine confounding, mediating and/or moderating effects
Preliminary analyses
Appropriate univariate descriptive statistics for each variable to be used in analyses
Frequency distribution
Measures of central tendency and variation
Appropriate chart or graph for displaying the variable’s distribution
Preliminary bivariate analyses (using the appropriate significance test for each combination of variables)
Interpretations of preliminary analyses
Univariate descriptive statistics (2-3 paragraphs with at least one chart/graph incorporated into the text)
Bivariate analyses results (follow templates for interpretations; include relevant output within text)
Week 9
Instructions
SDA9 requires you to analyze data using SPSS. You should complete the multivariate analysis for your DAP (take one of your bivariate analyses and add a single control variable (if using Chi-square test). NOTE: We cannot do regression with a categorical DV (this is mentioned in the text in Ch. 16, pg. 536), but only as an example of how we could use values from the cross-tab to predict conditional probabilities). For your multivariate analysis for the project, please stick to the Chi-square test and just add a single control variable. Then analyze and interpret the results in comparison to the original bivariate analysis to see how the relationship between the IV and DV changes once you add the control variable.
Only one multivariate analysis is required, but you can run more than one if you would like (or if you have multiple control variables that you are interested in examining. Using SDA9 to have you complete these multivariate analyses now will allow me to give you feedback on your them before you incorporate it into your narrated slideshow for the final DAP submission.
SPSS Video Tutorials
The SPSS video tutorial for this week’s SDA is included in the lecture video. (NOTE: You won’t actually be doing this for regression because we are using this assignment to make progress on the multivariate analyses for the project. Review the material from Week 7 where we discussed spuriousness and adding control variables to Chi-square analyses. We can also assess mediation and moderation using control variable in a Chi-square test the same as we would in a regression – we examine how (if at all) the control variable changes the original relationship between the IV and DV to determine if there is evidence of mediation, moderation or partial/complete spuriousness.
Assignment Template
Submit a Word or PDF document with the Chi-square output (cross-tab AND Chi-square test results tables) for both the original bivariate and the multivariate Chi-square analysis AND a complete interpretation of the results of the original bivariate anlaysis and a complete interpretation for the results of the multivariate Chi-square test that emphasizes how the relationship between the IV and DV changes (if at all) when you add in the control variable.
Submission Details
Upload your assignment here for grading. Upload three files: completed SDA, SPSS output file, and SPSS data file. You can upload all three files with one submission using the “Add Another File” option.
Week 10
The Data Analysis Portfolio is the culmination of the work you have done for the Application Assignments throughout the term and equates to the content typically included in scholarly journal articles based on empirical research (minus the extensive literature review, since you did that in Soc315!). Specifically, your Data Analysis Project Portfolio must include the following FOUR components:
Introduction and Background Research – Word doc or PDF
Introduction to your portfolio and data analyses
Introduce your topic area and specific subtopic
Brief review of the literature on that subtopic (organized into logical, topical paragraphs)
Must cite at least THREE scholarly studies on your specific subtopic (NOTE: that does not mean they have to examine exactly the same variables that you intend to use; the studies just need to be focused on that subtopic!)
Statement of your research question(s) and corresponding hypotheses that clearly stem from/are informed by the reviewed scholarly literature
Introduction to the data set and specific variables that you will use to test your hypotheses
Provide enough information about the data set for the viewer to have adequate context about when the data was collected, how it was collected (sampling design) and from whom (target population (e.g., “U.S. adults ages 18 and older”) and total sample size (for the data set overall)
Specific variables examined in your analyses
References
ASA-formatted citations (Links to an external site.) for all sources cited in the research proposal (scholarly and non-scholarly)
Demonstrate revision based on instructor feedback
Summary (Descriptive) Statistics for Socio-demographic Characteristics of Sample and Variables in Analyses – Summary Statistics table (Word doc or PDF) and Infographic
Summary Statistics table that includes standard information for all variables in analyses
Written interpretation describing the sample – interpreting the appropriate (correct!) descriptive statistics for each type of variable
Infographic with appropriate (correct!) visual displays and summary statistics of interest (online infographic generator saved as PDF or PNG)
NOTE: Think of this as an accessible (to the average person, not someone with statistical savvy!), visually-engaging “snapshot” version of the summary statistics table/written interpretation
Demonstrate revision based on instructor feedback
Presentation of Results – Narrated Slideshow
Expanded and elaborated from the data analysis plan submitted for AA3 and prelim results reported for AA4, demonstrating revision based on instructor feedback
Slides should be visually appealing and include minimal text (bullet points with words/phrases, not complete sentences and NO paragraphs or text blocks!)
Required Slides (MINIMUM)
Title slide – presentation title (clear, concise but creative!)
Introduction – topic, subtopic and sociological relevance (brief review of relevant literature)
Data set and variables – provide enough information for the viewer to have adequate context about when the data was collected, how it was collected (sampling design) and from whom (target population (e.g., “U.S. adults ages 18 and older”) and total sample size (for the data set overall)
Research question(s) (the only time you can put complete sentences on a slide!)
Results for Multivariate Test 1: Chi-square Test (Primary IV, DV and 1 CV)
Results for Multivariate Test 2: Multivariate Regression (Primary IV, DV and at least 3 CVs)
Concluding slide – take-aways, implications, suggestions for future research
Op-Ed Based on Your Findings
Clear, concise opinion-editorial piece written for the audience of a major non-scholarly periodical such as the The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Newsweek, etc.
This is persuasive, but informed and evidence-based writing; your goal is to convince the reader by using your background research and your findings as supporting evidence for your claims
Since this is the only component for which you have not submitted a draft earlier in the term, additional detailed guidelines for the Op-Ed are provided in the DAPP module
Taken together, these components will provide everything a reader/viewer would need in order to understand what your topic is, the sociological relevance, the data set used, variables analyzed, hypotheses tested, results, discussion of the implications of those findings and suggestions for future research. (NOTE: I am not expecting your model or your analyses to be the equivalent of published scholarly research, but it should reflect a sociological perspective and demonstrate that you can develop a set of hypotheses, test them, and clearly and articulately interpret and discuss the results!)
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The third Application Assignment focuses on creating an accessible overv appeared first on Skilled Papers.