The GSS96 has recently been completed and there is a special module which asked some people about gender issues. These gender questions included both attitudinal items as well as behavioral/perception items. You are being asked to submit a preliminary research proposal prior to conducting your research. This will serve as the guideline for completing assignments 2 and 3 for SOC225. In the first section I describe how you are to submit your research proposal. In the second and third sections I will tell you how to complete assignments 2 and 3.

GSS questions available for analysis

Submitted Proposals:

1) Directions for Submitting a Research Proposal (COMPLETED IN PRECEPT WEEK OF 4/9/98)

a) Under the investigators section fill out your names, including your email or other appropriate contacting information (5 minutes).

b) Read through the list of variables/questions available for analysis. Think about how the different variables might be related to each other (5 minutes).

c) Discuss some possible hypotheses. Which variables might be important for predicting which outcomes and why? The answer to these questions are your potential hypotheses. Decide on a hypothesis that you would like to test. You may have a main hypothesis and then a couple of alternative hypotheses or secondary hypotheses. Your hypotheses will assume that there will be a comparison across gender (15 minutes).

For example, your hypothesis might be that higher educational attainment will lead to greater support for the statement "both the husband and the wife should contribute to the household income." However, this relationship will be tested separately for men and women, suggesting that for men education is less likely to be correlated with support for this statement than it is for women.

Write the main hypothesis down and the two secondary hypotheses on the research proposal.

d) What is your dependent variable? What is the general concept you are interested in? How is it measured in this data file? Record the answers to this question on the research proposal (5 minutes)

e) What is your independent variable? What is the general concept you are interested in? How is it measured in this data file? Record the answers to this question on the research proposal (5 minutes).

f) Define the relevant sample for your analysis and record the information in the appropriate place on the research proposal (5 minutes).

g) Briefly write the purpose of the research, the motivation, and the data and method you will use to analyze the question. (The method is to use survey data and cross tabulations of categorical variables with appropriate tests for statistical significance (Chi-square and Lambda). (5 min).

h) Come up with a title for your study (2 minutes).

2) Directions for Assignment 2: Literature Review and Justification for Hypotheses (Due 4/30)

The purpose of Assignment 2 is to review the literature for the preceding research proposal. You will be required to find at least 5 references which directly address your research question. These might be studies of previous research on your question, theoretical articles about gender issues relevant to your research question, literature reviews relevant to your research question, historical accounts, or any of the readings you have available through this class. You should use the social science librarians for assistance in searching for your literature. One of the most useful tools you can use is SOCIOFILE. This is a search engine, similar to Lexis-Nexis, which references social science research articles. This is not a reference for academic books. THIS PAPER IS 5 PAGES LONG. Do not use Lexis-Nexis for this paper.

The outline of your paper should be in the following format:

a) Introduction: What is the question and why is it interesting?

b) Background or Motivation: What has already been found, studied, suggested, regarding this research question? Some of the questions you should ask yourself and answer in this section of the paper include:

Are there any debates or disagreements in the literature? Why?

How has this question been researched (surveys, ethnographies, participant observation)? Has this influenced the results of these studies? Why?

Are there any shortcomings with the studies so far? What are they? Why are they shortcomings?

c) Proposed Research and Hypotheses: Given the discussion in the preceding section, what do you propose to do? How is this different than preceding studies (could be different or same)? What are the hypotheses that you will be testing? What is your justification for expecting a relationship between these variables? Why?

Include your research proposal as a cover sheet to this assignment.

3) Directions for Assignment 3: Revisions from Assignment 2 plus Discussion of Data, Methods, Results, and Conclusion (Due Dean's Day)

In Assignment 3 you will be asked to examine the results of your analysis and draw conclusions. You will have received Tania's and my feedback from Assignment 2 and you should incorporate those into your final submission for Assignment 3. The first half of Assignment 3 is your revised Assignment 2. The second half of Assignment 3 is the data analysis and discussion of results. ASSIGNMENT 3 IS 10 PAGES LONG) and the second half of the paper should be in the following format:

d) Data and Method of Analysis

• What is your data? How is your sample defined?

• How are your concepts measured? (What are the benefits and limitations to this measurement? Why? How are the data distributed across these values of the measure?)

• How did you test for your relationship between your concepts?

e) Results

What did you find?

Why is it interesting? Was it expected? Is it different than what you expected? Why do you think so?

f)Conclusions

Summarize the purpose of the study, what you did, what you found.

How does what you found contribute to the literature you reviewed for Assignment 3?

If you were to do this differently, what would you do next time? Or, what were the limitations of your study and how might you try to eliminate those limitations next time?

Given your findings and/or the limitations of your study, what should be the direction of future research with regards to the question you examined?

Note: I will do the data analysis for you. You will receive these data analysis the last week of class. These will be based on the research proposals submitted in Assignment 2 and completed today.