week 3 discussuon olaniyi oyebode
Respond to at least one colleagues’ post with a comment on the presentation and interpretation of their analysis. In your response, address the following question
- Was the presentation of results clear? If so, provide some specific comments on why. If not, provide constructive suggestions.
- Are you able to understand how the results might relate back to positive social change? Do you think there are other aspects of positive social change related to the results?
Continuous Variable:
In the General Social Survey dataset found, “Respondents Income†variable was selected as the
continuous variable for the descriptive statistics
Mean = 34554.85, Median = 24017.50 and Mode = 33255
What might be the better measure for central tendency? (i.e., mean, median, or mode) and why?
Regarding the better measure for the central tendency, Mean appeared to be the most frequently used measure of central tendency and generally considered the best measure of it. However, there are some situations where either median or mode is preferred. Median could be the preferred measure of central tendency when there are a few extreme scores in the distribution of the data, or when there is an open ended distribution e.g. if one have a data field which measures number of children and the options available are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or “6 or more,†then the “6 or more field†is open ended and makes calculating the mean impossible, since we do not know exact values for this field. And mode could be a preferred measure as well when data to be measured are in a nominal, even sometimes ordinal scale.
Report the standard deviation = 33386.514
How variable are the data? How variable data are referred to how dispersed a set of data is (Frankfort-Nachmias & Leon-Guerrero, 2018). And it can be described in terms of range, variance, and standard deviation. In this case the range = 158287, variance = 1114659343 and the standard deviation = 33386.514.
How would you describe this data? This data shows the changes in the income categories across years, and the changes in the nominal income distribution wrought by inflation have caused changes in the income variable (Ligon, 1988).
What sort of research question would this variable help answer that might inform social change?
What is the relationship between the disposable income of the respondents and location amongst young adults?
Figure 1: Creating a Histograms in SPSS software. This figure shows the frequency of the respondent income (in constant dollars)
Categorical Variable
The categorical variable selected is Marital Status; a nominal variable.
A frequency distribution.
Married = 1158
Widowed = 209
Divorced = 411
Separated = 81
Never Married = 675
An appropriate measure of variation – This is the range which is the difference between the largest and smallest values in a set of values; 1158 – 81 = 1077
How variable are the data? How variable data are referred to how dispersed a set of data is (Frankfort-Nachmias & Leon-Guerrero, 2018). And it can be described in terms of range, variance, and standard deviation. In this case Range = 4, Variance = 2.823, and Standard Deviation = 1.680
How would you describe this data?
This data shows the differences and changes in the marital status of a group of people and the changes in the nominal status distribution that could result in significant changes to one’s financial situation.
What sort of research question would this variable help answer that might inform social change?
This variable can help answer a question such as; Can economic benefits of marriage mediate the association between marriage and health?
Figure 2: Creating a Bar charts in SPSS software. This figure shows the frequency of the marital status
Frankfort-Nachmias, C., & Leon-Guerrero, A. (2018). Social statistics for a diverse society (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Ligon, E (1988). Rationale and Construction of Poverty Measures in the General Social Survey. GSS Methodological Report No. 57.
