FOR MATH GUY ONLY

ASSIGNMENT 4

The research question is: how has social class affected the marriage patterns of individuals since the year 2000?

The purpose of this step is to analyze the relationship(s) between your sources and between your sources and your research question. This will be building on the critical reading done on 1 article completed during the last step.

For each source, briefly summarize what evidence it provides to answer your research question. (this may build on the relevance of the source, but it should not be an exact copy of that cell).

For 15 sources (12 of which should be peer-reviewed articles), analyze that source in comparison to another one of your sources. This could be based on type of methodology used, size of sample, hypothesis, findings, how variables are measured, etc. If you analyze Source 1 in comparison to Source 2, then your Source 2 analysis should be compared to a source other than Source 1. Keep in mind all analysis should relate back to your research question.

	Source 1	Source 2	Etc.
Source Title
APA-formatted citation for source
Relevance of source to Research Q
2-3 sentence description of source
Main Research Question
Hypotheses
Methodology (quantitative vs qualitative, etc)
Independent variable(s)
Dependent variable(s)
Key Findings
Strengths
Weaknesses
Critically evaluate the content for accuracy, bias and coverage
Analysis of source as it helps to answer your question
Analysis of 2+ sources (compare/contrast)

Grading: This assignment will be graded based on completion of all of the requirements.

COURSE 332 ( 200 WORD MINIUM OR MORE) WEEK 4

RESEARCH QUESTION

I believe that sex education is necessary in reducing instances of teen pregnancy and STDs among the teen age demographic. The research question is what is the effect of sex education on the rates of teen pregnancy?

Find two peer-reviewed articles that provide examples of quantitative studies relevant to your research topic.  These do not have to be exact to your topic or use data from the General Social Survey.  These articles will form your literature review for your final project, although an abbreviated version in comparison to what you would use in a "real-life" research project.  In these instances, it would be expected of you to exhaust as much of the existing literature as you could as you build context for your own research.  

Explain their findings based on the statistical data they present.  Answer the following questions:

1. What test of significance did the researchers use?  This can usually be found in a discussions section or reviewed in the methods section of a research article.

2. What were their findings?  These will be reviewed with detail in the discussion and findings sections.

3. What was their research question and what were their findings with regards to their statistics?

NOTE- I am looking for NUMBERS here.  Talk to me about the statistical procedures NOT the topic of the study.

Do not present research studies that were already discussed by a classmate(s) for this week's forum discussion. In your own words (i.e., no direct quotes!), briefly describe the context or purpose of the study (no more than 3 sentences) and then in more detail, discuss the findings. Your focus should be on the statistical processes being used.  Make sure to address the validity of each of the studies presented in your articles.

WEEK 5

Responses should directly address the question and be discerning about when the Forum is asking for a more objective (researched) answer vs. personal experience and opinion. I also highly encourage you to incorporate relevant supplemental material (i.e. an article, website, Youtube video, etc.) Constructive criticism and honest assessment of each others' ideas is encouraged. Postings are expected to be substantive and in good taste (remember your Netiquette). By "substantive," I mean comments that contribute something new and hopefully important to the discussion. Thus a message that simply says "I agree" is not substantive. If you feel very strongly about it and wish to be supportive of your classmate, you can certainly post such a statement anyway - but please limit such comments as there are few things more boring to read than discussions where 80% of the content is content-free! A substantive comment contributes a new idea or perspective, a good follow-up question to a point made, offers a response to a question, provides an example or illustration of a key point, points out an inconsistency in an argument, etc. Measures of association tell us the strength of a possible relationship between two variables.  This week you will discover the strength of association between your chosen variables as well as how to interpret the findings using SPSS functions and tests such as lambda, gamma, and Person's r along with other possible tests.  Remember that these tests are specific to the level of measurement that your variables are.  In other words, one test may not work in a different relationship test. 

Be sure to test the strength of association.   Click here  for details.  Include this in your overall analysis.