Fall, 2004 (Roos, Soc. 311)

Assignment 3: Elaboration Exercise (due Tuesday, October 5th)

Because we will talk about this assignment in class on October 5th, LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED!!

Continuing on our political theme, presented below are data from the 2002 General Social Survey describing a sample of men and women in the U.S. who voted in the 2000 election. The variables are (1) sex, (2) whether or not the respondent was currently working, and (3) whether the respondent voted for Gore or Bush in the 2000 election.

Your assignment is to use the elaboration model to test fully the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis: Women were more likely than men to vote for Gore in 2000

To test this hypothesis using the elaboration model, follow these steps (show all your work and don't forget to title and label each table):

1. Which of the variables is the independent variable? the dependent variable? the test variable?

2. Is the test variable antecedent or intervening?

3. Make a bivariate percentage table showing the "original relationship" (round your percentages to the nearest 1/10th of a decimal place).

4. Make the trivariate percentage table illustrating the elaboration of the original relationship (rounding as above).

5. Summarize in several paragraphs the results of your analyses, indicating how they reflect on the original hypothesis. Focus in your discussion on the original and trivariate tables (you can also make the "other two" bivariate tables to understand what is going on, but there is no need to interpret them). Which elaboration model best describes your findings? Explain your answer.

ASSIGNMENTS MUST BE TYPED, including tables (12 Font)