Getting Your Hands Dirty with Data - Essay Example

REPORT: Getting Your Hands Dirty with Data using General Social Survey Introduction This report uses data obtained from the General Social Survey (GSS) and an online data analysis tool namely SDA which make available the entire cumulative GSS data from 1972 through 2012. Using the tool, the report seeks to determine the relationship that exists between two variables from the given cumulative GSS data. In this regards, sex (gender) would be taken as the focal independent variable while the impact of culture music as the dependent variable. The report would reveal the relationship between these variables with a primary focus to determine the extent to exposure to foreign films and music damage to our culture (Dekaney, 2008; Whiteley, 2013). The reports from the online data analysis tool-SDA would be named as Output, and a brief description or interpretation of the given data would be given as well. 1. Null hypothesis Our null hypothesis is to determine the gender difference in support of the notion that increased exposure to foreign films, music, and books is detrimental to the national and local cultures. 2. Alternative hypothesis The alternative hypothesis about the relationship between the two variables would be agreeing or disagreeing that increased exposure to foreign films, music, and books is not detrimental to both national and local cultures. Output 1: Results showing agreement or disagreement in response to the null hypothesis From Output 1, the 43 respondents who strongly agreed with the hypothesis contributed to about 3.7%. 127 of respondents agreed (10.8%), and 257 individuals who had mixed reactions represented 21.8% of the sampled population. Out of those who participated, about 45.3% (533) of them disagreed while 277 respondents who represented to about 18.4% of the total sample population strongly disagreed with the hypothesis. Of those who participated, 38 of them could not choose whether to agree or disagree with the null hypothesis. The total sampled population was 57,061 with a mean of 3.64 and a standard deviation of 1.02. 3. Describe and discuss any recording of original variables that you did for this analysis In creating a new culture music variable that has only two valid categories, all those who agreed with the hypothesis will be coded “1” and “1s” and “2s” would be combined with the original variable to identify them. On the other hand, those who disagreed with the hypothesis would be coded “2” and the “3s”, “4s” and “5s” would be combined to categorize them. This new variable would be referred to as “FORCULT2”. This is followed by a click on the “Create Variables” button to reveal the option of “Recode,” “Compute,” or “List Created Variables.” I then click on the “Recode” button to provide a platform of filling in the required information that include the name of the new variable that would be created by recording an existing variable FORCULT2. This is preceded by labeling the new variable as “Agree for Culture Music”. I proceed to identify the existing variable to I would recode (FORCULT) and then I would instruct SDA to create values of “1” and “2” for the newly created variable. To the respondents who either strongly agreed or agreed with the hypothesis were given the value “1” on the new variable while those with valid responses were given the value “2.” For any value that fell outside the 1-5 would be considered missing. Output 2: Summation of the recoding of original variables to obtain a new variable for the analysis From Output 2, it is evident that only 170 respondents, giving about 14.4%), agree that increased exposure to foreign films, music, and books is detrimental to the national and local cultures. On the other hand 1007 respondents, which constitute to about 85.6% of the total respondents, disagreed with the hypothesis and so supported the notion that increased exposure to foreign films, music, and books is not actually detrimental to the national and local cultures. However, 55,884 of the respondents were never presented with the question and so no data were recorded in the GSS in the respective years leading to missing data code. 4. The distributions for each of used variables in the study. The distribution for the gender of the respondent would also be determined. Following the steps used for recoding the new variable, the Output 3 below shows the results. Output 3: Distribution of the respondent by their gender From the above table, Output 3 represents the gender response. The table indicates 25,146 males participated in the study during that period, thus constituting to about 44.1% of the total participants in the combined GSS samples. There were 31,915 females who took part in the selected study, which constituted to more than half (55.9%) of the total participants in the combined GSS samples. The sum of the total participants was 57, 061 having a mean of 1.56 and a standard deviation of 0.50. There were no missing data codes in the results. 5. Cross-tabulation that reveals the relationship between your dependent variable and focal independent variable. To identify the relationship between the dependent variable and the focal independent variable, we use the SDA to carry out the analysis. The recoded variable namely FORCULT2 was used as the column variable while variable Sex became the row variable. The results indicate the statistics summary and the output section indicates the percentages by row. Output 4: Cross-tabulation revealing the relationship between the dependent variable and focal independent variable The above results indicate that only 16.7% percent of males indicated that they agree with the notion that exposure to foreign films, music, and books is detrimental to the national and local cultures. From the total number of male respondents, a higher percentage of about 83.3% percent disagree that exposure to foreign films and music negatively affects the local culture. It is also noted that only 12.7% percent of the females agree that the foreign materials negatively affect the national and local culture while a high percentage of about 87.3% disagree with the idea. The two cells of males and females are shaded in both red and blue. The red color coding indicates a higher percentage while the blue color coding indicates low percentage rate. From the table, therefore, the color coding clearly indicates that more males agree that exposure to foreign films, music, and books affect the national and local cultures. On the other hand, fewer females agree with the hypothesis than we would expect if there was no sex difference in agreeing with this cultural belief. If there were no sex difference, then the results should roughly indicate that 14.4 percent of both males and females agree with the hypothesis. It is therefore concluded from the table that this similarity between the language and the idea of a difference is statistically significant. The below bar graph further illustrates the difference in percentages of males and females who indicated an agreement for music culture. Output 5: An Illustration of the difference in percentages of males and females who indicated an agreement for music culture. The summary statistics reports a variety of different measures that can be used to determine whether the observed difference between males (16.7%) and females (12.7%) is significant to represent the relationship between gender and their attitude about culture music. Conclusion From the study, it was concluded that there indeed a significant difference in gender’s agreement or disagreement with the null hypothesis. A Higher percentage of women (87.3%) disagree with the hypothesis that that increased exposure to foreign films, music, and books is detrimental to the national and local cultures. As such, the results are statistically significant at 95% level of significance. References Dekaney, E. M. (2008). Students’ pre-departure expectations and post-sojourn observations in a short-term international program abroad on the culture, music, and art of Brazil. International Education, 37(2), 4. Whiteley, S. (2013). Sexing the Groove: Popular music and gender. Routledge. Read More