Description
This discussion supports CO2. Please review the Week 1 Lesson Materials prior to responding.
Choose a topic that you would like to research this term. Use the GSS database to find two variables that would support your topic – one independent variable and one dependent variable. Be sure to include the topic, variable names and description in your post. Then discuss how you hope to explore the variables this term and what you hope to learn.
Example:
Does people’s education level affect their income? Independent variable (IV) is education level – the variable DEGREE. Dependent variable (DV) is income – the variable RINCOM16.
Classmate #1:
Hello, Everyone!
For my research topic, I have decided to go with the question should the government require the use of seatbelts. I was very surprised by the numbers on the GSS Data Explorer because my whole life, it has always been a no brainer that the first thing you do when you get in a vehicle is to buckle up. The numbers from the survey on the GSS showed a large group of people disagreed that seatbelts should be mandatory. I am curious to dive deeper into the topic and find out the reason as to why people disagree with that and also find out why others strongly agreed with the question.
IV – seatbelts; DV – death tolls in accidents
Classmate #2:
Good afternoon, everyone!
The question I have come up with and want to learn more about is “Should guns be banned”? The Independent variable is gun legislation, and the dependent variable is gun violence. The GSS database gives HGUNLAW and HGUNCRIM to accompany these variables. I find this topic and the results from the GSS database to be intriguing. The results show that many people believe heavier restrictions on guns would decrease violence. However, the number of individuals owning a gun stays relatively the same. I hope to learn more about this topic and how different people view guns. I believe it is an important discussion our country especially needs.
Classmate #3:
This term, one topic that I would like to research is “Does gender play a role in income disparity.” The Independent Variable (IV) is gender GSS variables wksexism or sexemp would support this variable. The Dependent Variable (DB) would be income GSS variables rincom16 and fairearn would support this variable. The hypothesis aims to explore whether gender has a significant impact on income disparity, suggesting that there may be differences in income based on gender.
By examining the data and analyzing the relationship between gender income disparity, I hope to quantify the extent of the income gap between different genders. This can help in understanding the scale of gender inequality in earnings. By exploring these variables, it will reveal whether there are significant differences in earnings between genders. Studying gender and income disparity can shed light on the underlying factors that contribute to the observed gaps. It can help identify whether discrimination, occupational segregation, differences in educational attainment, career choices or other factors play a role in driving income disparities. What I hope to learn from this study is how to use the information suggested and use it to address the identified disparities.
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11/6/23, 6:57 PM
Week 1 Overview
Discussion Guidelines
Participation in classroom dialogue on threaded Discussions is required in some weeks. Discussions are found in the Discussions link in the main
navigation bar, or will be found as part of your weekly activities in the classroom.
Initial posts must demonstrate comprehension of the course materials, the ability to apply that knowledge in the real world. To motivate engaged
discussion, posts are expected to be on time with regular interaction throughout the week.
All posts should demonstrate college level writing skills.
Class Discussions
In a
class
discussion, learners will engage with the instructor and peers throughout the learning week. Initial Discussion posts are due Thursday,
peer responses are due Sunday. To motivate engaged discussion, posts are expected to be on time with regular interaction throughout the
week. All posts should demonstrate college-level writing skills.
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Initial posts must demonstrate comprehension and application of the course materials.
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Students should have a combination of responses to peers’ initial posts AND answers to peers that comment on your initial post – for a total
of at least three peer responses (a minimum of 4 posts all together including your initial post).
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They should be thorough and add to the content of the discussion (not just saying “I agree/disagree” or “I like your post”).
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Give personal experiences relating to your peers, reflect knowledge of learning materials, and ask probing questions.
Individual Discussions
Within
individual
discussions, the discussion prompt is a mini-assignment where students post statistical analyses conducted via SPSS. The
instructor then gives feedback within the discussion as a response post. Once feedback is given, students are able to make corrections (if needed)
within response posts to the instructor’s feedback. If no corrections are needed, students should respond and acknowledge they have read the
instructor’s feedback.
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Initial Discussion posts are due Wednesday and should be thorough, completing all tasks given in the discussion prompt.
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All interaction and corrections should be completed by Sunday.
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There is no interaction with peers. The responses are only visible to each individual student and the instructor.
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All posts should demonstrate college level writing skills.
All discussions can be accessed in the Discussions section of the course.
Upvoting! Tell your Peers you like their Thread
This course does have upvoting enabled so if you would like to let someone know that their thread was appreciated, please upvote their
thread. This is a great way to let someone know that you like or agree with their post but are unable to fully respond in a substantial way or have
already completed your replies for the discussion.
How to upvote a Thread
1.
Click on the blue title of the thread you would like to upvote.
2.
Click on the gray plus button to the left of the thread post.
3.
The plus will turn blue and your upvote is complete!
SOCI332 | Overview
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Week 1 Overview
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Week 1 Overview
Guidelines and Resources
The page includes information on the following topics:
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Course Materials
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eReserve
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Required Software & Technology
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Emailing your Instructor
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Ask A Librarian
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University Policies
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Additional Resources
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APUS Student Success Center
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Data & Privacy Policies
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Accessibility Policies
Course Materials
Specific Course Materials related to your course are located in the Learning Material Section of the Content for each week.
Electronic Materials are provided under licensing or in keeping with Fair Use exemptions for your educational use only. You may quote and utilize
this material for this, other APUS courses, and related scholarly pursuits. Unless the materials are in the Public Domain or specific written
arrangements are made with the Copyright holders, you may not sell, share or otherwise distribute these documents for personal or other use
without the likelihood of violating Copyright Law.
eReserve
Various resources from the APUS Library & the Open Web are used. Required resources for your course are provided in a course eReserve.
Required Software & Technology
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IBM’s SPSS Statistical Tool. This is a unique resource to this course. Our week 1 lesson material will include guidance on accessing this
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tool.
Students must be able to open and save in Microsoft Office formats. Microsoft offers access to Office free for active students. Features
can be accessed from inside of your university-provided Outlook email account (http://mail.mycampus.apus.edu). Use your regular
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student ID and password if prompted. Once loaded into your Outlook inbox, clicking the menu button in the upper left will let you access
the Office online apps and the Office 365 area to install Office desktop apps. If you have any questions, please contact
[email protected].
Adobe Acrobat Reader (Available via free download from Adobe )
See the Technology Requirements chart, found under the Student Experience navigation, on the APUS website,
which outlines the minimum technical requirements for the hardware and software needed to access your course
work. Also included in the chart are recommended requirements, which if followed, will make your online learning
experience more fulfilling.
Emailing Your Instructor
To communicate with your instructor in the MyClassroom environment, APUS recommends using the MyCampus email account provisioned to
you for use with the university. Faculty are monitoring this location for communication, and required to use it when communicating with
students. Access to the MyCampus email can be found in the eCampus, by clicking on the envelope icon that appears at the top of the page when
you first login.
Please note that while you can initiate sending emails to your professor and classmates through the Classlist tool in MyClassroom, emails written
will be sent directly to their MyCampus email addresses, and their responses will be sent directly to yours. You will not be able to view the emails
within the MyClassroom environment. For this reason, we strongly advise using your MyCampus email address and campus password to login to
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Week 1 Overview
the Office 365 Widget that appears on the “Course Home” page of this course, to allow you to see when new emails arrive, and to get easy
access to your inbox, calendar, and OneDrive.
If you do not know your MyCampus email address to login to the widget, go to the navigation bar at the top of this page, click on your name, and
then “Notifications”. Your full email address will be displayed under “Contact Methods”. Use this in conjunction with your campus password to
login to your MyCampus Email account, or to the Office 365 widget.
Ask a Librarian
Have questions? Let us help!!
When it comes to library research, sometimes a little one-on-one help can make all the difference. Friendly librarians can be reached 365 days a
year using one of these convenient methods.
University Policies
The mission of American Public University System is to provide high quality higher education with emphasis on educating the nation’s military
and public service communities by offering respected, relevant, accessible, affordable, and student-focused online programs that prepare students
for service and leadership in a diverse, global society.
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Student Handbook
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Drop/Withdrawal Policy
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Extension Requests
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Academic Probation
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Appeals
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Disability Accommodations
Additional Resources
APUS Student Success Center
The Student Success Center is a new online resource available on both the AMU and APU student eCampuses. The Success Center is designed to
assist you with planning and achieving your academic, career, and personal goals. This resource contains a catalog of videos, podcasts, and other
relevant content as needed throughout an academic program. The resources in the Success Center will continue to be updated and new content
will be added, so be sure to visit it regularly!
Please check the weekly lessons for any additional resources.
Data & Privacy
We value your data and privacy. If desired, please review the following privacy statements for frequently used technologies:
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APUS Privacy Policy
TurnItIn Privacy and Security Policy
IBM Privacy Statement
Accessibility
We strive to create a culture of accessibility within the APUS family. If desired, please review the accessibility statements for frequently used
technologies:
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Brightspace Accessibility Policy
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TurnItIn Accessibility Policy
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IBM Accessibility Requirements
Week 1 Overview
SOCI332 | Overview
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SPSS & GSS Overview
You will need SPSS and the GSS data set in order to successfully
complete this course.
For statistical analyses in the course, we will be using statistical analysis software and an existing
data set. These should both be downloaded within the first few days of class. Refer to the following
information and links to download and access the required materials.
Select each tab to learn more.
SPSS
GSS
In this course we will be learning to use SPSS, a statistical analysis software, to do research.
Think of it like a calculator for stats – it allows you to run both easy and complex statistical
analyses without calculating the equations by hand. Make sure you have installed SPSS onto
your computer this first week and give yourself sufficient time to avoid missing a deadline
should you encounter technical difficulties downloading and/or using this software.
SPSS software is required for this course. You must pay to rent the software, but there is
a student rate.
How do I get the student rate?
You must use your MyCampus email address to register and purchase the software. This is
one way that they ensure you are a student.
Which package should I download?
IBM SPSS Statistics Standard GradPack
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NOTE: Please be sure to rent the Standard Grad Pack, NOT the Base or the Premium
editions.
Which version of SPSS should I use?
You can choose either the Window version of Mac version depending on your computer. The
most current version as of 2023, SPSS is on version 29. If you already own an older version of
SPSS (27-28), the software should have the basic functionality you need for the course but the
look and interface may differ slightly.
Which website should I use to purchase and download SPSS?
You have the option of purchasing from one of the following web stores:
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Hearne Software
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OntheHub
StudentDiscounts.com
Help! I have problem downloading/installing the software!
The instructor will be able to answer questions about using SPSS but will not be able to
address any technical difficulties. For all technical issues, please contact your software vendor
customer service. Hearne Software, OntheHub, and StudentDiscounts.com all have
extended support.
In Week 1, you will choose a topic of interest that can be analyzed using variables from the
General Social Survey (GSS) for a course-long project you will complete. The GSS is a biennial
survey (collected every two years) by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the
University of Chicago, whose purpose is to provide the nation’s social scientists with accurate
and up-to-date data for analysis and to provide general attitude/behavioral information
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based on the US culture. For your project, you will need to find variables in the GSS that
match your areas of interest. There are tons of choices in the data set, but the instructor will
verify that your variables are acceptable.
More on Variables
You can explore the data more by visiting the GSS Website,
for step-by-step details, view
the Week 1 Content: Choosing a Topic. Your research ideas are due by Thursday of Week 1.
This is imperative in order to receive feedback. All of the weekly discussions will revolve
around this research topic.
Once you have downloaded and installed SPSS on your computer, click the following link to
have GSS dataset automatically downloaded. Be sure to save the file somewhere you will
remember. You will not be able to open the dataset if SPSS is not properly installed on your
computer. For the purposes of the class, we will focus only on data collected from 2018.
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Click to download the GSS dataset!
About GSS
Instead of collecting and entering new data into SPSS, we will use the General Social Survey
(GSS) for our analyses in the course. The GSS is a regularly conducted survey by the National
Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, whose purpose is to provide
the nation’s social scientists with accurate and up-to-date data for analysis and to provide
general attitude/behavioral information based on the US culture. Beginning back in 1972, the
GSS was an annual survey until 1994 when it became biennial (conducted every two years).
Over its lifespan of nearly 50 years, the GSS has asked thousands of respondents more than
4,500 questions on topics ranging from religion, affirmative action, women’s duties in the
home, and homosexual marriage, to spirituality, genetic testing, abortion, and legalization of
marijuana. GSS data are a representative sample of American adults. In the GSS 2018 data
set, 2,348 non-institutionalized, English- or Spanish-speaking individuals were sampled to
provide responses to the list of survey questions via in-person or telephone interviews. More
information can be found here: General FAQS about the GSS
FAQS
and here: GSS Data Explorer
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Smith, Tom W., Davern, Michael, Freese, Jeremy, and Morgan, Stephen, General Social Surveys, 1972-2018
[machine-readable data file] /Principal Investigator, Smith, Tom W.; Co-Principal Investigators, Michael Davern,
Jeremy Freese, and Stephen Morgan; Sponsored by National Science Foundation. –NORC ed.– Chicago: NORC,
2018: NORC at the University of Chicago [producer and distributor]. Data accessed from the GSS Data Explorer
website at gssdataexplorer.norc.org.
AMU | APU
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Week 1 Overview
SOCI332 : Scope, Objectives & Assessment
Course Scope
This course is designed to provide a basic survey of the application, empirical use and interpretation of a variety of
statistics methods used in the social sciences. A key objective of the course is the instruction in best statistical practice
through the use, exploration and analysis of empirical data. Emphasis will be placed on understanding and interpreting
the meaning of statistics. The practical aspects of statistics are emphasized and students are instructed in the use of the
standard statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) which is widely used in the social sciences and in the labor
force.
Course Objectives
CO1 Perform descriptive and inferential statistical data analysis including interpretation using SPSS.
CO2 Formulate a reasoned statistical approach to problem solving.
CO3 Form critical interpretations of quantitative research literature in sociology and other social sciences
CO4 Solve a research question of your own design using statistical analysis.
Assessment Components
Category
Weight
Discussions
40%
Assignments
60%
Total
100%
Caption: Assessment Breakdown Table
SOCI332 | Overview
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