1. Use the SPSS Frequencies command to produce a frequency table for the variable MARITAL as mea­sured in the GSS10SSDS. How would you describe where most students in the sample were raised?

1. What percentage of the sample is divorced?
2. What percentage of the sample is married?
3. What percentage of the sample would you describe as being currently single? (Include all relevant categories.)

2. The GSS2010 SSDS included a series of questions on respondent’s attitudes about immigrants. In the chapter, we examined the relationship between race and attitudes about immigrants and jobs (IMMJOBS). The other two GSS variables include IMMCRIME and IMMAMECO.

1. Run frequencies for all the three variables (including IMMJOBS).
2. Prepare a general statement summarizing your results from the three frequency tables. Identify the level of measurement for each variable. How would you describe respondents’ attitudes about immigrants?

3. Based on GSS10SSDS, produce the frequency table for the RACIDIMP, the importance of one’s racial identity.

1. What is the level of measurement for this variable?
2. Identify two independent variables (included in the GSS10SSDS data set) that may be related to RACIDIMP. Explain the relationship between these variables and RACINIMP.

4. The GSS2010 SSDS asked respondents to report in their highest year of school (EDUC). Run the fre­quency table for this variable. Collapse this interval ratio variable into an ordinal measure (omitting those who did not respond to the question). How many categories do you have? Prepare a frequency and cumulative percentage table of your recoded EDUC variable.

5.  Collapse the variables LABORRATEFEMALE and LABORRATEMALE (included in GLOBAL13SSDS) into ordinal measures. How many categories do you have? Prepare a frequency and cumulative per­centage table of your recoded variables. What can you conclude about the difference in labor force participation between males and females?

[HINTS12SSDS]

6. You’ve decided to examine the differences in the age of male and female subjects in HINTS2012 data set. You examine AGEGRPA (age group of respondent).

1. Construct a bar graph for AGEGRPA (Hint: From the SPSS menu, choose Graphs–Legacy Dialogs–Bar.).
2. Construct bar graphs separately for men and women (insert the variable GENDERC in the Panel by/Columns box).
3. Briefly describe overall age distribution and the difference in age groups between men and women.

7. Are individuals with higher educational attainment more likely to look for information about health or medical topics from any source? Construct separate pie charts for SeekHealthInfo (does respondent look for information about health or medical topics?). You will need to select Pie under Graphs–Legacy Dialogs. In the first dialog box, select “Summaries for groups of cases.” Then, make sure you select % of cases under Slices Represent. In the box for Define slices by, insert SeekHealthInfo and in the Panel by/Columns box insert Education (degree). Compare the pie charts. What difference in seeking for information about health exists between the different educational (degree) groups?

8. Examine if there is a difference in responses between men and women in terms of their health condi­tion (GeneralHealth) and their occupational status (OccupationStatus) and whether they have ever been diagnosed as having cancer (EverHadCancer). Based on the level of measurement for each vari­able, determine the appropriate graphic display. Produce separate graphs for men and women. What differences, if any, are evident in the data?

9. Determine how best to represent the following variables graphically:

RentOrOwn—whether respondent rents or owns her/his house

WhenDiagnosedCancer—age when first told that you had cancer

IncomeRanges—annual family income of respondent

QualityCare—how respondent rates the quality of health care she/he received in the last 12 months 

Note: Before constructing the histogram or pie chart, you may want to review the variable by first using the Frequencies or Utilities–Variables command. The levels of measurement for several variables are mislabeled in SPSS. If you are using the Utilities–Variables option to review each variable and its level of measurement, you should confirm the level of measure­ment by reviewing the variable’s frequency table (Analyze–Descriptive–Frequencies).