Fall, 2006 (Roos, Soc. 311)

Assignment 3: Elaboration Exercise (due Monday, October 9th) [revised 10/2/06]

We'll collect this assignment at the beginning of the class. Because we will talk about this assignment in class on October 9th, LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED!!

Presented below are data describing a sample of men and women in the U.S. in 1993 (for some reason, the GSS stopped collecting the "mother worked" variable in 1993). The variables are (1) sex, (2) whether one's mother worked, and (3) current labor force status.

Your assignment is to use the elaboration model to test fully the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis: Those whose mothers worked are more likely to be in the labor force

Note: those temporarily not working, unemployed, laid off retired, or in school are excluded from the analysis.
Source: GSS, 1993

To test this hypothesis using the elaboration model, follow these steps (show all your work and don't forget to title and label each table):

1. Which of the variables is the independent variable? the dependent variable? the test variable?

2. Is the test variable antecedent or intervening?

3. Make a bivariate percentage table showing the "original relationship" (round your percentages to the nearest 1/10th of a decimal place).

4. Make the trivariate percentage table illustrating the elaboration of the original relationship (rounding as above).

5. Summarize in several paragraphs the results of your analyses, indicating how they reflect on the original hypothesis. Focus in your discussion on the original and trivariate tables (you can also make the "other two" bivariate tables to understand what is going on, but there is no need to interpret them). Which elaboration model best describes your findings? Explain your answer. These data are for 1993. Do you believe these patterns have changed since 1993?

ASSIGNMENTS MUST BE TYPED, including tables (12 Font)