Walden University Confidence Intervals and Afrobarometer Dataset Discussion Paper

In your Week 2 Assignment, you displayed data based on a categorical variable and continuous variable from a specific dataset. In Week 3, you used the same variables as in Week 2 to perform a descriptive analysis of the data. For this Assignment, you will calculate a confidence interval in SPSS for one of the variables from your Week 2 and Week 3 Assignments.

To prepare for this Assignment:

• Review the Learning Resources related to probability,      sampling distributions, and confidence intervals.
• For additional support, review the Skill      Builder: Confidence Intervals and the Skill Builder:      Sampling Distributions, which you can find by navigating back to your      Blackboard Course Home Page. From there, locate the Skill Builder link in      the left navigation pane.
• Using the SPSS software, open the Afrobarometer dataset      or the High School Longitudinal Study dataset (whichever you chose) from      Week 2.
• Choose an appropriate variable from Weeks 2 and 3 and      calculate a confidence interval in SPSS.
• Once you perform your confidence interval, review      Chapter 5 and 11 of the Wagner text to understand how to copy and paste      your output into your Word document.

For this Assignment:

Write a 2- to 3-paragraph analysis of your results and include a copy and paste of the appropriate visual display of the data into your document. If you are using the Afrobarometer Dataset, report the mean of Q1 (Age). If you are using the HS Long Survey Dataset, report the mean of X1SES.

Based on the results of your data in this confidence interval Assignment, provide a brief explanation of what the implications for social change might be.

Learning Resources

Required Readings

Frankfort-Nachmias, C., Leon-Guerrero, A., & Davis, G. (2020). Social statistics for a diverse society (9th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

• Chapter 5, “The Normal Distribution” (pp. 151-177)
• Chapter 6, “Sampling and Sampling Distributions” (pp. 179-209)
• Chapter 7, “Estimation” (pp. 211-240)

Wagner, III, W. E. (2020). Using IBM® SPSS® statistics for research methods and social science statistics (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

• Chapter 3, “Selecting and Sampling Cases”
• Chapter 5, “Charts and Graphs”
• Chapter 11, “Editing Output”

Magnusson, K. (n.d.). Welcome to Kristoffer Magnusson’s blog about R, Statistics, Psychology, Open Science, Data Visualization [blog]. Retrieved from http://rpsychologist.com/index.html

As you review this web blog, select the Interpreting Confidence Intervals – new d3.js visualization link, once you select the link, follow the instructions to view the interactive for confidence intervals. This interactive will help you to visualize and understand confidence intervals.

Note: This is Kristoffer Magnusson’s personal blog and his views may not necessarily reflect the views of Walden University faculty.

Walden University Library. (n.d.). Course Guide and Assignment Help for RSCH 8210. Retrieved from http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/rsch8210

For help with this week’s research, see this Course Guide and related weekly assignment resources.

Optional Resources

Rice University, University of Houston Clear Lake, and Tufts University. (n.d.). Online Statistics Education: An Interactive Multimedia Course of Study. Retrieved from http://onlinestatbook.com/2/estimation/ci_sim.html

Use this website for your practice as you consider confidence intervals and how the width changes. Also, consider why the width might be important.

Skill Builders:

• Confidence Intervals
• Sampling Distributions

To access these Skill Builders, navigate back to your Blackboard Course Home page, and locate “Skill Builders” in the left navigation pane. From there, click on the relevant Skill Builder link for this week.