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Solution Manual for Answering Questions With Statistics, 1st Edition

Solution Manual for Answering Questions With Statistics, 1st Edition provides a roadmap to mastering textbook concepts with ease.

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    Chapter 1: Introduction Practice Problem Answers 1. a. number of cases: 253; units of analysis: young persons “hanging out” at a mall b. number of cases: 1500; units of analysis: adult Americans c. number of cases: 50; units of analysis: rural churches 2. (Answers will vary.) a. theoretical definition: a feeling of assurance in oneself and one’s powers and abilities; operational definition: an ordinal variable with the attributes low, medium, and high measured with the single question “People vary when it comes to self - confidence. Some have only a little, some have a lot. Would you say you have low self - confidence, medium self - confidence, or high self - confidence?” b. theoretical definition: ; operational definition: an ordinal variable with the attributes lower class, working class, middle class, and upper class measured with the single question “If you were asked to use one of four names for your social class, which would you say you belong in: the lower class, the working class, the middle class, or the upper class?” 3. (Answers will vary.) a. Anthropology, Criminal Justice, Social Work, Sociology, other b. 0%, 1%, 2%, … 98%, 99%, 100% c. 0, 1, 2 to 3, 4 to 5, 6 to 9, 10 or more d. very dissatisfied, moderately dissatisfied, slightly dissatisfied, slightly satisfied, moderately satisfied, very satisfied 4. a. discrete b. continuous c. discrete d. continuous 5. a. Do the attributes cover all the possibilities without overlapping? Can the attributes be put in a natural order from low to high? Do the attributes form a numeric scale? b. yes, no (3rd question not asked) c. yes, yes, no d. yes, yes, yes 6. ordinal

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    7. a. interval/ratio b. nominal c. ordinal d. ordinal e. ordinal f. interval/ratio 8. a reliability problem because it is concerned with consistency of measurement 9. validity 10. a. independent variable: distance; dependent variable: degree of fondness b. independent variable: number of cooks; dependent variable: quality of the broth 11. a. use of fertilizer b. plant growth c. amount of light 12. first, that the two variables are statistically related (covariation); second, that changes in the independent variable preceded changes in the dependent variable (temporal sequence); and third, that the relationship between the two variables is still present when all other variables that might be creating the covariation are controlled (nonspuriousness) 13. Covariation and temporal sequence are established. The researcher must also show that the relationship between social class and self - confidence still exists after other variables that might be creating the relationship have been controlled (nonspuriousness). 14. In a census all elements of a population are measured; in a sample only a subset of the elements in the population are measured. 15. a. probability b. non - probability c. non - probability d. probability e. non - probability 16. a. non - probability sample b. probability sample c. census

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    Chapter 2: Data Sets Practice Problem Answers 1. a. rows b. columns 2. a. variable view b. variable view c. variable view d. data view e. data view 3. a variable name 4. a. not legitimate b. not legitimate c. not legitimate d. legitimate 5. Numeric variable values may only contain numbers, decimal points, and positive or negative signs. String variable values may contain any characters including spaces. 6. a. 432000 b. .0432 c. −987000000 d. −.00987 7. scale 8. a. nominal b. ordinal c. scale (interval/ratio) 9. a. a smart choice because it is numeric but outside the valid range of the variable b. not a smart choice because it is a possible valid value for the variable c. not a smart choice because it is not a numeric value d. not a smart choice because a cell might be left blank for other reasons

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    10. a. Variable View b. Display Data File Information or Variable View c. Options (General tab) d. Options (Output Labels tab) e. Help | Topics | Index 11. Frequencies 12. (Student output should resemble the Display Data File Information output and Data View printout that appears in the problem. The Data View printout should contain a sixth line containing the student’s stats.) 13. (Answers will vary.)

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    14. (Answers will vary.)

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    Chapter 3: Frequency Tables and Univariate Charts Practice Problem Answers 1. Descriptive statistics summarize the cases in your data set and only those cases. Inferential statistics are designed to draw conclusions about larger groups for whom you don’t have complete data. 2. Univariate statistics tell you about single variables. Relationships between variables are reported by multivariate statistics. 3. descriptive univariate 4. a. no b. no c. no d. yes 5. a. for any level of measurement variables b. for any level of measurement variables c. for any level of measurement variables d. only for interval/ratio variables 6. 7. a. Valid Percent b. Percent c. Valid Percent

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    d. Cumulative Percent e. Frequency 8. Valid Percent 9. a. i. 96.7% ii. 1.4% iii. 1.9% b. (Answers will vary.) Almost all 1980 GSS fiftysomethings belonged to a religion and almost all who belonged to a religion belonged to a traditional American religion: 96.7% were Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish; 1.4% belonged to a non - traditional American religion, and just 1.9% belonged to no religion. 10. a. i. 58.2% ii. 14.1% iii. 27.6% b. (Answers will vary.) The GSS young adults in 2010 were much less traditionally religious than the GSS young adults in 1980. While 87.8% of the 1980 GSS young adults were Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish, only 58.2% of the 2010 GSS young adults were. The 2010 young adults were much more likely to belong to a non - traditional religion or no religion. 11. a. i. 28.4% ii. 42.2% iii. 29.4% b. (Answers will vary.) The percent of 2010 GSS twentysomethings who strongly identified with their religion almost perfectly matched the percent with no religious affiliation. While 28.4% strongly identified with their religion, 29.4% reported no religious affiliation. The remainder identified but not strongly with their religion. 12. a. i. 42.6% ii. 44.0% iii. 13.5% b. (Answers will vary.) The fiftysomething baby boomers in the 2010 GSS were more likely to strongly identify with their religion than the twentysomething baby boomers in the 1980 GSS. Of the 2010 GSS middle - age adults, 42.6% strongly identified with their religion compared to 31.9% of the 1980 GSS young adults.

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    13. a. i. 72.17% ii. 14.15% iii. 6.60% b. (Answers will vary.) Almost three - fourths of the 1980 GSS fiftysomethings were raised in families in which both parents were present: 72.17% were raised in families with both parents present, 14.15% in one - parent households, and 6.60% in a parent and step - parent household. 14. a.

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    i. 53.37% ii. 26.98% iii. 9.68% b. (Answers will vary.) The 2010 GSS young adults were much less likely than the 1980 GSS young adults to have been raised in a two - parent household: 74.0% of the 1980 GSS twentysomethings but only 53.4% of the 2010 GSS twentysomethings lived in a two - parent household. The 2010 GSS twentysomethings were almost twice as likely to be living with just one parent. 15. a.

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    i. 12.3% ii. 87.7% iii. 21.4% b. (Answers will vary.) The young adults in the 2010 GSS were more likely to have earned a bachelor’s degree by the time of the survey than were the young adults in the 1980 GSS. While 21.4% of the 2010 GSS young adults had a bachelor’s degree, only 14.3% of the 1980 GSS young adults had that degree. 16. a.

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    i. 2 siblings ii. 6.2% b. (Answers will vary.) When it comes to the most common number of siblings, the 1980 GSS young adults and the 2010 GSS young adults were identical. For both, the most common number was two. Only children (that is, no siblings) were more common among the 2010 GSS young adults (6.2%) than among the 1980 GSS young adults (1.8%). 17. (Answers will vary.)

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    Chapter 4: Central Tendency and Dispersion Practice Problem Answers 1. Central tendency refers to what is common, typical, or representative of the values of cases on a variable. Measures of central tendency are the mode, median, and mean. 2. Dispersion refers to the variety or differences in the values of cases on a variable. Measures of dispersion are percent distribution, minimum, maximum, range, percentiles, variance, and standard deviation. 3. a. interval/ratio b. interval/ratio c. interval/ratio d. ordinal e. ordinal 4. minimum and maximum 5. when the distribution of cases on the variable is badly skewed 6. a. 5 TV shows b. 3 TV shows c. 10 TV shows d. 10 TV shows e. 0 TV shows f. 10 TV shows 7. a. 3 sisters b. 0 years of formal schooling 8. 9 9. 6 10. 6 11. median 12. a. Canon City

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    b. insufficient information to tell 13. a. 82.3% b. (Answers will vary.) Most of the twentysomethings who took part in the 2010 GSS believed in life after death. While 17.7% said they did not believe in life after death, 82.3% said they did. 14. a. 83.1% b. (Answers will vary.) The twentysomething baby boomers who took part in the 1980 GSS and the fiftysomething baby boomers who took part in the 2010 GSS were quite similar in their belief in an afterlife. For the twentysomething baby boomers, 78.2% believed in life after death; and for the fiftysomething baby boomers, 83.1% believed. 15. a. i. bimodal: strong Democrat and independent ii. independent iii. 34.1% b. (Answers will vary.) These 2010 GSS middle - age adults were more Democratic than Republican but were most often independent. 42.0% self - identified as independent, 34.1% as Democrat, and just 23.9% as Republican. 16. a. i. bimodal: Democrat but not strong and independent ii. independent, nearly Democrat iii. 34.4% b. (Answers will vary.) The young adults in the 2010 GSS had very similar political party identifications to the young adults in the 1980 GSS. 34.2% of the 1980 twentysomethings were Democrats, 47.7% were independents, and 18.2% were Republicans. For the 2010 twentysomethings, the corresponding percents were 34.4%, 48.6%, and 16.9%. 17. (Using the text’s definition of badly skewed as a skewness coefficient of −2.00 or lower or +2.00 or higher) none 18. a. i. 13.50 years ii. 13.00 years iii. .133 iv. 2.424 years v. 6 years and 20 years b. (Answers will vary.) The 2010 GSS young adults typically had more schooling than the 1980 GSS young adults but there was more dispersion in the educational levels of the

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    2010 GSS young adults. The 2010 GSS young adults had a mean of 13.50 years and a standard deviation of 2.424 years compared to a mean of 12.79 years and a standard deviation of 2.139 years for the 1980 GSS young adults. 19. a. i. 11.75 years ii. 12.00 years iii. −.069 iv. 3.472 years v. 1 years and 20 years b. i. 13.50 years ii. 13.00 years iii. −.359 iv. 2.948 years v. 0 years and 20 years c. (Answers will vary.) The fiftysomethings in the 2010 GSS typically had more schooling than the fiftysomethings in the 1980 GSS; and there was slightly less variability in the educational levels of the 2010 GSS fiftysomethings. For the 1980 GSS fiftysomethings, the mean years of schooling was 11.75 years with a standard deviation of 3.472 years while the 2010 GSS fiftysomethings had a mean of 13.50 years and a standard deviation of 2.948 years. 20. a. i. 2.92 children ii. 3.00 children iii. .681 iv. 2.107 children v. 0 children and 8 children b. i. 2.10 children ii. 2.00 children iii. .965 iv. 1.562 children v. 0 children and 8 children c. (Answers will vary.) The fiftysomethings in the 2010 GSS had typically fewer children than the fiftysomethings in the 1980 GSS; and there was less variability in the number of children of the 2010 GSS fiftysomethings. The 1980 GSS fiftysomethings had a mean of 2.92 children with a standard deviation of 2.107 children. The 2010 GSS fiftysomethings had a mean of 2.10 children with a standard deviation of 1.562 children. 21. (Answers will vary.)

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