Spring, 2003 (Roos, Soc. 502)

Assignment 1: Crosstabulating with SAS (due Thursday, February 6th)

This assignment is designed to get you using SAS and writing about tabular data. If you have your own data set, you should use that. If not, feel free to the use the 1998 General Social Survey, which is located on the Sociology server as a SAS system file. Its location on the Sociology server is: w:\soc502\gss98. To use the GSS, you'll need to consult the online GSS Codebook to choose variables of interest to you.

Select at least three categorical (nominal) variables, choosing variables that can be suitably elaborated (as discussed in class). Choose an independent, dependent, and test variable. Use SAS to write your own frequencies program (for an example, see the sample GSS run and GSS output).

Here's what to do:

1) Invent a hypothesis that you can test with your independent and dependent variables. Briefly describe the reasoning underlying your expectation. Test your claim, percentaging the table appropriately, using chi-square to test for the significance of your relationship.

2) Take the bivariate relationship you ran in #1 and add in a third (test) variable, justifying it theoretically. Test your claim; use chi-square. Explain your results. What happened to the bivariate relationship when you added in the third variable? Review the elaboration paradigm in a basic sociology methods text, if it's not already burned into your memory (e.g., Earl Babbie, The Practice of Social Research).

Use the information you derived in #1-2 and write an essay that discusses your results. Do not just list your results; do write a sociological essay that discusses the issues theoretically, describes the operationalization of your variables, and discusses your results. Transfer the data in your computer output over to completely labeled and titled tables, as they would appear in a journal article. Use Word or Excel to produce tables. Write it all up in no more than 3-4 double-spaced typewritten pages.

TURN IN THE SAS LOG AND OUTPUT YOU GENERATED. If you use the GSS, also include a copy of the GSS frequencies page for all the variables you chose. [Here's an example for the GSS education variable.]