1. Once again, go to the GSS web site and look under your chosen topic.
2. Choose an appropriate survey question to examine - one that you will continue
to use for subsequent stages of the semester paper - for example: AGEKDBRN.
3. Click on the variable/survey-question to open a new window that contains the
frequency distribution of the answers for this this question. Print this window
(you will turn in the printout). Do the same thing for the survey question about
the respondents' age (i.e., click on the variable "AGE").
4. Go back to the class web site. From the "DATA" Link on the left of the
class site, download and save the 1998 GSS data set. This file is large (3 megs)
so it will take several minutes to download if you are using a dial-up connection.
You should save this data file on your computer or on a CD or other electronic media
for use during the remainder of the semester. The file is named "1998sortreduce.sav"
(your computer may show only "1998sortreduce").
5. Use SPSS software (on a University computer or after purchasing and installing
a student version on your home computer) to do the following:
a) print the frequencies of the responses
given for the two survey questions. The question you chose above and the
question about the respondent's age (the "AGE" variable).
b) print the following descriptive statistics
on the "AGE" variable: frequencies, mean, median, range, and standard deviation.
You do not have to ask SPSS to calculate the mean, median, range, and standard deviation
for the other variable (just the frequency table, which it does by default).
6. Compare the frequencies in the output window for both questions/variables to
those on the GSS web site - are they the same? Because I have already altered response
codes like "don't know" and "not applicable," these should appear in the data set
as "system-missing," which is indicated by a single dot. SPSS will automatically
remove individuals with these system-missing values from your analyses.
7. Print the SPSS output that should contain the frequency distributions for both
questions/variables and the univariate statistics for the respondents' age.
8. On this output, write a paragraph explaining what the mean, median, range, and
standard deviation is for respondents' age. Explain how many individuals answered
in each response category. Explain how many individuals did not answer this survey
question.