WANDA

Should Marijuana Be Made Legal – Categorical Variable- Nominal

1. A frequency distribution. According to Wagner (2020), a categorical frequency is a table you use to organize nominal or ordinal-level data that can be placed in a particular category (2020, pp.53).

2. An appropriate measure of variation. According to Wagner (2020), the measure of variation tells how far the values in the data points are apart. Such as, the lowest points of data are subtracted from the highest point of data and are described in percentages, ranges, and quartiles. For example, the measure of variation in the chart below is .497, the standard deviation.

3. How variable are the data? According to Wagner (2020), data is organized by variables, also called data items. And data is the set of values. Such as described below, how the simple graph bar chart shows the results on marijuana should be made legal.

4. How would you describe this data? This data is nominal data that was taken on 1574 responders. An average of 870 responders voted yes for marijuana to be legal, and 704 voted for marijuana not to be legal. Therefore, this data is described as showing the most votes for marijuana to be made legal.

5. What sort of research question would this variable help answer that might inform social change? What is the preferred choice of marijuana to be made legal?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Statistics
SHOULD MARIJUANA BE MADE LEGAL
N	Valid	1574
	Missing	964
Mean	1.45
Median	1.00
Mode	1
Std. Deviation	.497
Percentiles	25	1.00
	50	1.00
	75	2.00

 

 

 

SHOULD MARIJUANA BE MADE LEGAL
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	LEGAL	870	34.3	55.3	55.3
	NOT LEGAL	704	27.7	44.7	100.0
	Total	1574	62.0	100.0
Missing	IAP	851	33.5
	DK	111	4.4
	NA	2	.1
	Total	964	38.0
Total	2538	100.0

 

 

 

Hours Per Day Watching TV. Continuous Variable, Scale

1. Report the mean, median, and mode. The mean is 2.98, the median is 2.00, and the mode is 2.

2. What might be the better measure for central tendency? And why? The better measure for the central tendency is the mean. Frankfort-Nachmias, Leon-Guerrero, and Davis (2020) stated that the means is the better-used measure of central tendency because it identifies the interval ratio values, adds up all the scores, and divides it by the total number of scores (2020, pp.83).

3. Report the standard deviation. The standard deviation is 2.587.

4. How variable is the data? According to Wagner (2020), data is organized by variables, also called data items. And data is the set of values. Such as described below, how the simple histogram graph bar chart shows the results of hours per day watching TV.

5. How would you describe this data? This continuous data is described as a positively skewed distribution. For example, the mean is greater than the median. The mean is 2.98, and the median is 2,00; the mean is larger than the median. According to Frankfort-Nachmias, Leon-Guerrero, and Davis (2020), a positively skewed distribution is when the mean, median, and mode do not coincide (pp. 90).

6. What sort of research question would this variable help answer that might inform social change? How many hours per day do adults between the age of 25-35 watch TV?

 

 

 

Statistics
HOURS PER DAY WATCHING TV
N	Valid	1669
	Missing	869
Mean	2.98
Median	2.00
Mode	2
Std. Deviation	2.587
Percentiles	25	1.00
	50	2.00
	75	4.00

 

 

 

HOURS PER DAY WATCHING TV
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	0	120	4.7	7.2	7.2
	1	310	12.2	18.6	25.8
	2	437	17.2	26.2	51.9
	3	293	11.5	17.6	69.5
	4	227	8.9	13.6	83.1
	5	113	4.5	6.8	89.9
	6	75	3.0	4.5	94.4
	7	11	.4	.7	95.0
	8	37	1.5	2.2	97.2
	9	1	.0	.1	97.3
	10	17	.7	1.0	98.3
	12	14	.6	.8	99.2
	14	2	.1	.1	99.3
	16	3	.1	.2	99.5
	17	1	.0	.1	99.5
	18	1	.0	.1	99.6
	20	2	.1	.1	99.7
	24	5	.2	.3	100.0
	Total	1669	65.8	100.0
Missing	IAP	863	34.0
	DK	6	.2
	Total	869	34.2
Total	2538	100.0

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Frankfort-Nachmias, C., Leon-Guerrero, A., & Davis, G. (2020).  Social Statistics for a diverse

Society (9th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Chapter 1, “The What and the Why of Statistics” (pp. 83-88)

Wagner, III, W. E. (2020). Using IBM® SPSS® statistics for research methods and social

science statistics (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Chapter 11, “Editing

Output”