Questionnaire Design and Analysis of Survey Data

未命名文件夹/SOCB05 Assignment 1 Handout (RSalem) Sept 9 15.docx

First Assignment: Questionnaire Design and Analysis of Survey Data

SOCB05: The Logic of Social Inquiry

Fall 2015

The purpose of this assignment is to apply the quantitative analysis skills you have learned in class. You must formulate an original research question related to the topic of Gender and Behaviors/Attitudes Regarding Household Chores, and provide an adequate justification of the relevance of your question. You must then use the survey data gathered from your peers to answer your chosen research question and complete the assignment according to the outline provided below.

Steps:

1) Submit 2 Original Survey Questions (Sept. 17)

You will be required to design 2 original survey questions on the topic of Gender and Household Chores. Both of your survey questions should ask about the respondent’s attitudes and behaviors related to household chores, since the questionnaire will already include a question on gender. Both survey questions must be close-ended, meaning that you must provide fixed responses for your respondents to choose from. You may have no more than 4 fixed responses for each question.

The survey questions should be based on your preliminary research question. Please bear in mind that not all survey questions will be selected for inclusion on the survey questionnaire. Tips for designing survey questions:

· Survey questions should not relate two variables to one another

· Survey questions should not be double-barreled

· Responses should be exhaustive

· Responses should be mutually exclusive

The survey questions should be submitted by 2pm on Sept. 17th at Turnitin.com. First you must set up an account at Turnitin.com. Instructions on setting up an account can be found here: http://turnitin.com/en_us/support/help-center

To submit your questions on Turnitin, you will need our course’s class number (10652395) and enrollment password (socb05). In order to receive extra credit, be sure to submit your questions in the folder labeled Survey Questions for the First Assignment. Please make every effort to submit your assignment as a Word document saved with the following file name: TUT#___ Last Name, First Name. In the "title" field in Turnitin, please enter the same information contained in the file name.

You may download PSPP here: http://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/get.html If you don’t have your own copy of PSPP, you will need to go to a campus computer lab (the PSPP program is available on all workstations) to analyze the survey data. Please plan your time accordingly.

6) Run and Analyze Data Tables

Using the PSPP software, you must run and analyze various data tables that help you answer your research question. It is not uncommon for your research question to change at this point in the assignment. You must make sure that the research question you are interested in can be answered using the questions available in the survey. Please make sure that the variables (survey questions) you have selected have an adequate number of responses in order to make your conclusions meaningful (e.g., if only 10 students responded to the question measuring variable one, this question would not be adequate)

Your analysis must include the following 4 components:

a) Univariate analysis (frequency distribution) for your first variable

b) Univariate analysis (frequency distribution) for your second variable

c) A cross-tab analysis examining the relationship between the two variables

d) A chi-square test for the cross-tab analysis

PSPP will generate tables that you can then cut and paste. You should have one table only for each of your four analyses. The tables must present percentages and not numbers. Specifically, each cell in the cross-tab should contain only one percentage. For the cross-tab, you must ensure that your row variable and column variable meaningfully reflect your research question, and that you have percentaged the cross-tab in the one direction that allows you to address your research question. Each of the two variables in your cross-tab should contain 4 or fewer response categories (attributes).

You must use the snipping tool (Google “Snipping Tool” for instructions on how to use this tool on your computer) to cut and paste the tables generated by PSPP into your assignment write-up. Be sure to adjust the size of the tables so that they are legible.

7) Write Up your Assignment (Oct. 8)

The final write-up of your assignment is due as an electronic copy to be submitted on Turnitin.com by 2pm on Oct. 8th. To submit your assignment, you will need our course’s class number (10652395) and enrollment password (socb05). Be sure to submit your assignment in the folder for the First Assignment. Please make every effort to submit your assignment as a Word document saved with the following file name: TUT#___ Last Name, First Name. In the "title" field in Turnitin, please enter the same information contained in your assignment’s file name.

Late assignments will be marked down 5% after 2pm on Oct. 8th, and an additional 5% will be deducted for every 24 hours that pass beyond that. Assignments handed in after October 15th will not be accepted. Please proofread your assignment for spelling errors and grammatical mistakes; you will be marked down for errors of this kind.

The following seven sections are required in the written component of your assignment (which will be 3-4 double-spaced pages in length). Please separate the sections and label each one with a bold header.

a) Research Question: State your research question and describe it. Explain why you chose this question. What are your hypotheses about what you might find?

b) Justification of your Research Question: Discuss and describe the 2 pieces of published academic research you have found. Indicate how they relate to your research question. Why is your question interesting, unique, exciting, or worth studying?

c) Describe your Variables: Describe the two variables you are using to answer your research question. How were the corresponding questions asked in the survey? What were the response options? Which do you hypothesize is the independent variable, and which is the dependent variable?

d) Describe your Findings: Go through each of your four tables and tell the reader what the tables show. Discuss any patterns in your findings. Provide an opinion as to which findings you think are the most important and why. For the cross-tab, be sure to note whether your findings are statistically significant or not based on the chi-square test.

e) Conclusion: What can you conclude from your findings? Do you accept or reject your hypotheses? Can you conclude that there is a causal relationship between the two variables? Why or why not? How generalizable are your findings?

f) Citation List: Create a reference list for all of the sources you use for this assignment (including the course textbook). You must use the ASA citation format described here: http://ctl.utsc.utoronto.ca/twc/sites/default/files/ASACitation_June%202013.pdf Please also be sure to review the course guidelines regarding plagiarism on Blackboard and/ or the Writing Centre’s material on this issue: http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/how-not-to-plagiarize

g) Appendix (Tables): Attach your tables at the end of your paper (they will not count towards the page limit). Number and title each table. Refer to each table by its number in the text of your paper (eg. “Table One presents the results for…”).

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