Home > Teaching > SYG 3300 > Assignments > Lab 2

Lab 2: Frequency Distributions, Graphical Displays, Transforming Data

1.  For which of the following variables would it be appropriate to obtain a frequency distribution? 

1. Miles driven to work each week 
2. Attitude toward affirmative action 
3. Blood pressure 
4. Annual household income 
5. Happiness of marriage 
6. Region of country 
7. Subjective social class identification 
8. Age in years

2.  For which of the following variables would cumulative percentages be meaningful? 

1. Political party identification 
2. Gender 
3. Occupational prestige 
4. Religious identification 
5. Job satisfaction 
6. Marital status 
7. Level of self-reported health 
8. Attitude toward US foreign aid

3.  Find the following variables in the dataset POLITI96, and specify the level of measurement for each (Note: the "measurement level" pre-defined for each variable in the data set is not necessarily correct).

1. POLVIEWS __________________________
2. POLINT     __________________________
3. PARTYID   __________________________
4. PRES92     __________________________

4.  Now produce frequency distributions for the variables POLVIEWS and PARTYID. Use the output to fill in the following summaries: 

1. The greatest number of respondents regard their political views as _______________ ___________, with _________ %. The second most common response was _____________________, representing _______ % of cases. ________ % of respondents consider themselves conservative or extremely conservative, but only ________ % view themselves as liberal or extremely liberal. 
2. Those who report being Democrats (both strong and not strong) constitute _______ % of the sample, whereas those who report being Republicans (both strong and not strong) are _______ %. The least common party affiliation is ___________________ ______________________, with ________ %.

5.  Produce a bar chart for PARTYID. Print the chart and submit it with your assignment. Describe the chart below. What are the advantages and disadvantages of presenting the data in bar chart form rather than in a frequency distribution table?

6.  Choose a variable from any dataset that interests you. You may choose a variable that you have selected for other assignments, but you are not required to do so. Produce a frequency distribution and bar chart for the variable. Submit a printout of the chart with your work, and summarize it in a few sentences below.

7.  Suppose you were interested only in broad groupings of party affiliation. Then you might want to collapse categories of PARTYID into a smaller number of alternatives. Create a new variable named PARTY2 by recoding PARTYID and assigning new labels to the values of PARTY2. 

1. Which categories of PARTYID do you plan to combine? What are the new values and value labels of PARTY2? Why have you chosen to collapse the categories as you have?
2. Summarize the frequency distribution of your new variable, PARTY2.