Political Science 310
Problem Set 1
The purpose of this assignment is to select variables from the 2008 National Election Study and to begin to become familiar with the data. You will be working with these variables through the first five problem sets. Group projects should include the name of each contributing member of the group.
You will need to following to complete the problem set:
The first column of the list provides the variable name; the second column a short description of the concept measured. Variables of interest begin with V085001a. Variables V083xxx through V084xxx are from the pre-election survey. Variables starting with V085001a are from the post-election survey.
Codebook of
the 2016 National
Election Study
The
codebook
provides the text of the question asked, and how responses
were
categorized. It also provides the frequency of each
response. This
material begins on page 50.
DO NOT print these -- they are lengthy. I suggest that some member of the group download them to a laptop or thumb drive to have them available.
1. Browse the list of variables. Your first task is to decide what behavior you wish to explain -- the dependent variable. This may be captured by a single variable in the codebook, or it may be constructed from two or more variables in the codebook (this process will be discussed in class).
2. Choose three more concepts that you believe are causes of the dependent variable. These will become your independent variables. Select variables from the codebook that represent these concepts.
In your report:
1. Write a lengthy paragraph defining what you are trying to explain and your ideas about its causes -- your theory,. Explain briefly how and why each independent variable is a cause of the dependent variable.
2 . Discuss clearly and precisely how and why the measure you have selected or created reflects the meaning of the concept it represents (i.e., explain why you believe your measure to be a valid measure of the concept).
3. Assess the initial reliability of each of your measures. What potential sources of unreliability would concern you?
4. What is the level of measurement for each variable? What restrictions does this level of measurement place on your use of the data?
Finally:
Print two copies of a summary coding
form for your
project. One copy will be returned to you with your
problem set, and I
will retain one copy for my use. We will discuss
recoding in class.