Final Examination (Soc 2010 – Fall 2025)

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Final Examination (Soc 2010 – Fall 2025)

DUE DECEMBER 15 at 9AM. No late submissions will be accepted.

Directions:

Respond to each item in one or two clear and concise paragraphs. Do not copy passages from the lectures or book. Rather, express your own understanding of the material. Do not write anything or everything that comes to mind; instead, try to devise a brief answer that captures the most relevant information. Append  any relevant syntax to the end (text or do file only for syntax; no scans). For this assignment, you may only work in groups during class or during TA office hours. Any work done outside of class or office hours must be completed on your own.

Important:

You must start a log file during class (for those that miss class, you will need to do this during the final Stata Lab or during TA office hours). You will submit your log file with this final assignment. The log  files can/should be messy; that is okay. As you know by now, you can append your log file throughout the week by reopening and saving it with the “append” option. Do not use the -replace- option; that will overwrite your log file.

You must also submit a “replication” package that includes your do file with your final code, as well as a clean file that only contains the cleaned variables that you chose to use for this assignment.

Questions

Identify a sociological phenomenon that can be investigated with variables in one of the datasets on

Canvas (do not use an example dataset; instead use full datasets like GSS, ANES, CAS, etc.). You might examine, for example, social class position, quality of life, or alcohol use.

1.   Find some variables in the dataset that might be used to measure this phenomenon and identify their level of measurement. Select one of these that is numeric; this will be your dependent variable (DV). Identify the dataset and variables you selected.

2.   Next, identify some potential predictors of your DV. Identify the level of measurement of those variables. Some of these will be your independent variables (IVs).

3.   Explain the phenomenon you chose and why it is sociologically interesting. Explain the DV you selected and why it is a good indicator of this phenomenon.

4.   Assess the validity of the variable you selected as DV. How could this variable be improved? Explain why you have (or have not) chosen to transform your DV.

5.   Using your DV and one binary predictor, compare whether the means ofthe DV are statistically different between the two groups. Choose your alpha, state the null and alternative hypotheses, and explain how you decided to reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis.

6.   Choose two categorical IVs. Test the null hypothesis of statistical independence among the categories of your IVs. Explain how you chose to reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis. Paste your output and interpret the results.

7.   Using your DV, select 3-5 IVs that are numeric or binary. You will use these variables for your regression analysis, plus one categorical variable from Question 6. Calculate basic summary statistics for your analysis sample (DV and IVs) and describe.

8.   Show the final‐form 5‐7 variables in a Table 1—their names, question wording, how they were scored (metric), means and SDs or percent distributions (depending upon whether the variable is categorical or quantitative). For guidance/template on how this table should look, see the example table below from a JMF article. Briefly discuss the rationale for selecting these variables. What’s the question of interest? Why and how do you expect these independent variables to be related to the dependent variable? Also discuss the descriptive statistical information in Table 1.