SPSS LAB PROJECT 1

SPSS Project

Theory 1

Theory

For many in America, Christianity and its beliefs come to them through members of an

organized religious structure, such as pastors or prominent church members. If someone is not

confident in organized religion, they may distrust the messages of those members. Since strict

belief in the bible is a message delivered by members of an organized religion, it is reasonable

that confidence in organized religion influences belief in the bible. Therefore, I theorize that

believing how literally the bible should be interpreted is dependent on how much confidence is

held in organized religion.

H1: Believing how literally the bible should be interpreted is dependent on how much confidence

is held in organized religion.

H0: Believing how literally the bible should be interpreted is independent of how much

confidence is held in organized religion.

Raw Data

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Housekeeping

The “bible” variable represents how strictly one should interpret the bible. NA was fixed

with median replacement. 0 was left as a missing variable because there were so few. “Don’t

Know” was recoded as its own answer. Value labels were added.

RECODE bible (8 = 5) (0 = SYSMIS) (9 = 2) (ELSE = COPY) INTO biblefix.

EXECUTE.

The “conclerg” variable represents how much faith one has in organized religion. Codes

0 and 9 were fixed with median replacement because there was a significant number of them.

“Don’t Know” was recoded as its own answer. Value labels were added.

RECODE conclerg (8 = 4) (0 = 2) (9 = 2) (ELSE = COPY) INTO conclergfix.

EXECUTE.

The .01 significance level was chosen because of the inherently imprecise nature of social

science measures and the desire not to reject unless there is strong evidence to do so. There is

also a concern that these variables may seem correlated only because respondents have a

tendency to avoid extreme answers, and both variables have only three possible responses.

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Cleaned Data

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Chi-Square for Independence

The following syntax was run on both variables:

CROSSTABS /TABLES = conclergfix by biblefix /FORMAT =AVALUE TABLES

/STATISTICS = CHISQ /CELLS = COUNT EXPECTED.

EXECUTE.

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Conclusion

A significance value of .000 is lower than my .01 level of significance, which means I

can reject the null hypothesis and say there is evidence to support that believing how literally the

bible should be interpreted is dependent on how much confidence is held in organized religion at

the .01 level of significance and the 99% confidence level.

SPSS LAB PROJECT 7

Theory 2

Theory

It is likely that those who do not support gay marriage are also less amenable to allowing

pro-gay marriage rhetoric being spoken in public places. It can be theorized that people’s

opinions on morally correct rhetoric would influence what should be discussed in a public

setting. For this reason, I theorize that one’s stance on homosexuality influences their tolerance

of speech from a homosexual man.

H1: Believing whether or not a homosexual man should be allowed to speak in the community is

dependent on believing whether or not homosexual sex is wrong.

H0: Believing whether or not a homosexual man should be allowed to speak in the community is

independent of believing whether or not homosexual sex is wrong.

Raw Data

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Housekeeping

The “homosex” variable represents whether the respondent believes homosexual sex is

wrong. N/A was recoded with median replacement because there was not a significant number of

them. IAP was left missing because median replacement could have significantly skewed the

response since the extremes are so closely tied. DK was recoded as its own possible response.

RECODE homosex (8 = 6) (9 = 4) (0 = SYSMIS) (ELSE = COPY) INTO homosexfix.

EXECUTE.

The “spkhomo” variable represents whether the respondent believes a homosexual man

should be allowed to speak in public. N/A was recoded with median replacement because there

was not a significant number of them. IAP was left missing to stay consistent with the other

tested variable. DK was recoded as its own possible response.

RECODE spkhomo (8 = 3) (9 = 1) (0 = 4) (ELSE = COPY) INTO spkhomofix.

EXECUTE.

The .01 significance level was chosen because of the inherently imprecise nature of social

science measures and the desire not to reject unless there is strong evidence to do so.

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Cleaned Data

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Chi-Square for Independence

The following syntax was run on both variables:

CROSSTABS /TABLES = homosexfix by spkhomofix /FORMAT =AVALUE TABLES

/STATISTICS = CHISQ /CELLS = COUNT EXPECTED.

EXECUTE.

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Conclusion

A significance value of .000 is lower than my .01 level of significance, which means I

can reject the null hypothesis and say there is evidence to support that believing whether or not a

homosexual man should be allowed to speak in the community is dependent on believing

whether or not homosexual sex is wrong at the .01 level of significance and the 99% confidence

level.