What are the differences in your variable between countries? Compare the distribution of your chosen variable across your two selected countries carrying out

Researching Social Life II SC203/SC208

Your end of term assignment is a data analysis paper. The aim is to show that you have a good grasp of the basic
statistical methods we have covered in the module and that you can write up statistical findings in a clear and
competent way.
The dataset you will analyse is from the European Social Survey (Round 8, 2016). The European Social Survey
(ESS) is an academically driven cross-national survey that has been conducted across Europe since 2001. Every two
years, face-to-face interviews are conducted with newly selected, cross-sectional samples. You can download the
dataset and find out about the survey design, the questionnaires and the data here and there is a copy on Moodle too:
www.europeansocialsurvey.org/about/
The task
Select a variable and two countries to compare; carry out some statistical analyses and write the results up in a short
report in sections as described below. Your report should be no more than 750-1000 words not including tables and
figures and references.
What you should do
First: select two countries that you want to compare. They need not include the UK. In SPSS, you can select those
two countries and either filter out the other countries or save a new version of your datafile, discarding the other
countries. (You will see how to do this in the lab, and here is a video tutorial on how to do it:
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/spss-statistics-essential-training/selecting-cases?u=51088249
Topics
There are lots of interesting subjective and attitudinal variables on topics such as personal values, welfare attitudes,
sexual identity as well as several demographic variables. Some of these are measured on 11 point scales, some on
four or five point scales. You can use any of them as if they are interval variables for the purposes of this assignment.
You can also treat those that have four or five points as categorical variables if you wish. The demographic variables
are a mixture of interval/ordinal variables. You will need to look at the 2016 questionnaire in order to see the full
wordings of the survey items:
https://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/docs/round8/fieldwork/source/ESS8_source_questionnaires.pdf
Some background on each of the question topics covered in the dataset can be found in the following references:
Basic Values
https://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/docs/methodology/core_ess_questionnaire/ESS_core_questionnaire_human_
values.pdf
Welfare attitudes
http://www.bsa.natcen.ac.uk/latest-report/british-social-attitudes-32/welfare.aspx
Fear of Crime
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_crime
Happiness and life satisfaction
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/behaviouralscience/2016/01/04/happiness-research-draws-our-attention-to-both-structure-andagency/
Health
http://esr.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/05/16/esr.jcw019.full
Data analysis tasks
1. Select one subjective (that is to say, attitudes, values, beliefs) variable as your variable of interest. This is the
focus of your report. Write a paragraph explaining what your variable measures and what
sociological/psychological construct it taps into. You can include one or two references to literature on the
topic if you wish. (300 words max)
2. Using data from both of your chosen countries combined (what we call the pooled sample), do the following.
If your variable is quantitative then present in a table some summary statistics (mean, standard deviation,
range and confidence interval) and a histogram. If you are treating your variable as categorical (ie not more
than 5 possible values) then present a frequency table and a bar chart or histogram. Describe what you see
(250 words max)
3. What are the differences in your variable between countries? Compare the distribution of your chosen
variable across your two selected countries carrying out
a) a crosstabulation with chi2 test if your variable is categorical (up to five categories)
b) comparing means using an independent samples t-test if your variable is quantitative (five or more scale
points)
Write up what you see in terms of the differences in your variable between countries:
c) Are the distributions similar or different? If different (they almost certainly will be at least a bit different)
then say in what way (differences in mean, standard deviation, percentages in which categories and so on).
(250 words max)
d) Are the differences statistically significant? Interpret the results of either the t-test or the chi-square test,
depending on which you have carried out, to answer this question. You will need to mention what is the null
hypothesis and alternate hypothesis and to say what the p-value (sometimes shown as sig. in SPSS).
(200 words max)
General tips
Make sure that you label all of your tables and figures and include them in the main text, not in an appendix. Only
include SPSS output that you actually comment on in the text. You will not get marks for output that you do not
discuss. Format the report so that it looks neat and presentable. The easiest way to produce good tables and graphs is
by using Excel. You will get marks for presentation as well as what you write.
Some examples of the analyses and how to write up results:
Mean and standard deviation
https://0-methods-sagepub-com.serlib0.essex.ac.uk/dataset/disp-continuous-in-edfacts-cspr-2013
Frequency distribution tables
https://0-methods-sagepub-com.serlib0.essex.ac.uk/dataset/frequency-in-gss-2012
Crosstabulation
https://0-methods-sagepub-com.serlib0.essex.ac.uk/dataset/crosstab-education-in-gss-2012
Chi-Sq test
https://0-methods-sagepub-com.serlib0.essex.ac.uk/dataset/chi2-in-gss-2012
T-test
https://0-dx-doi-org.serlib0.essex.ac.uk/10.4135/9781473937789