SYG 2000
Hurley
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In order for you to complete the "Gordon Rule" requirement for this course you must complete
ONE of the three exercise options presented to you in this packet. The analysis of your project data
must be at least 600 typed (double spaced) words, with the appropriate title page and accompanied by
all forms and tally sheets and submitted by the due date noted on your syllabus.
These three exercises provide you with a sample of Quantitative sociological research
techniques. This sample is far from an exhaustive display of these procedures. On the contrary, it is a
mere introduction to possibilities of this form of research. However, these exercises are sufficient to
provide you with valuable experience at actual data collection and analysis.
For the purpose of this exercise, we will assume that you do not have a computer system
available to you to help tabulate and analyze your data. If you do have such a resource available, by all
means, take advantage of the more sophisticated statistical treatment options. Impressive results are
always encouraged. On the other hand, the percentages minimally required can be easily calculated by
hand.
The successful completion of this exercise requires that you conduct one of three different types
of survey projects. Choose the one that best suits your needs. All of the forms and tally sheets that you
need are available at Professor Hurley's office in A-207 during his posted office hours. Stop by during
one of these times an pick up the material you need.
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SYG 2000
Hurley
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The recent murder of two Doctors in Florida who work at Women's Health Centers which
allow the surgical termination of pregnancy has added to the controversy surrounding a Woman's legal
right to control her life. Your task, for this assignment is to survey students at Santa Fe Community
College, using the survey schedule provided with this exercise, to assess their beliefs about this topic.
Present your written paper in the sociological research format that you are now familiar with.
Follow these steps:
1. Describe your topic. Describe the national controversy over woman's rights and abortion.
Be specific about those issues which you believe may have a influence on the attitudes and opinions of
Santa Fe students.
2. Review the Literature. Go to the Library and investigate your topic. You may look up
recent Newspaper and Magazine accounts of violence directed against abortion clinics and/or
discussions about specific issues involved in the current abortion debate. For this assignment, you must
cite at least one source that looks at both sides of this issue. In addition, you must also cite at least one
previous survey of people’s opinion about abortion. Use proper MLA notation to document these
sources.
3. Specify the population for your survey. You are going to simulate a random sample by
selecting student responses by soliciting responses from your fellow students at several different
locations around campus at several different times of the day and night. DO NOT distribute these forms
to students in regularly scheduled classes (that registration is not random). Specify where and when you
collected these 100 survey forms.
4. State your research hypotheses. That is, PREDICT the relationships that you expect to find
between the dependent and independent variable. The major topic under investigation is the students'
attitudes towards abortion. This is the DEPENDENT variable. You need to predict which of the
following INDEPENDENT variables will be most significantly correlated with student attitudes toward
abortion: age, sex, ethnicity, religion, college major, career professional goal. For instance, you might
predict that women favor abortion on demand more than men, Protestants more than Catholics, younger
students more than older students and those with more professional career goals more than with
technical career objectives.
5. Describe the methods of statistical analysis you will use. If you have access to reasonably
sophisticated data analysis, by all means use it. As a minimum requirement, you must compare your
statistical data by using percentages. Because you are required to collect 100 completed survey forms,
your percentage count will be remarkably easy to perform.
6. Analyze your data. Compare all of the obvious points of contrast: age, sex, ethnicity,
religion, major, and career goal. Be sure that you specifically report all of the percentages correlated to
your predicted independent variable hypotheses. Any tables, graphs or charts that illustrate this data
would be most welcome.
7. State your hypotheses in terms of the specific correlations that you predicted. And don't be
bashful if you believe that the data you obtained is highly skewed in one direction, say so. However, do
not attribute a cause to any of your findings; we must be content with only documenting correlations.
Even so, state a conclusion for each of the dependent variable predictions you made.
8. Offer your interpretation and analysis of the results. This is your chance to explain what you
believe your survey means. Please express your opinions about this subject and your data collection
process.
9. Implications for future research on this topic. Give future researchers on this topic the
benefit of your advice. Suggest different variable to tactics that you believe might now be appropriate.
Finis. There you have it. Describing these nine steps should have you meet the Gordon Rule
requirement for this exercise. Good luck, and have fun!
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1. Your age? 15-17 [ ], 18-20 [ ], 21-23 [ ], 24-26 [ ], 27-29 [ ], 30-39 [ ], 40- + [ ]
2. Your sex? Male [ ], Female [ ]
3. Your ethnic identity? White [ ], Black [ ], Asian [ ], Hispanic [ ], Other [ ]
4. Your intended College major?________________________________
5. Your personal career objective?_____________________________
6. Your Religious affiliation?_________________________________
7. Are there any circumstances that would allow you to approve of the right of a woman to obtain
8. Do you believe that Abortion is a moral issue that should be decided by: the woman only [ ],
9. Do you believe that an Abortion is warranted in the case of incest, rape, sexual abuse or to save
10. At what point do you believe the unborn child should be regarded as a distinct entity
11. Do you believe that it is a sin to take the potential life of an unborn fetus? Yes [ ], No [ ],
12. Because of the threat of overpopulation, do you believe that a woman is justified in having an
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Qualitative Analysis Exercises
an abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy? Yes [ ], No [ ]
the woman and her doctor only [ ], the woman and her husband/boyfriend only [ ],
the woman's church [ ], your church [ ], Society [ ]
the life of the woman? Yes [ ], No [ ]
separate from the mother with specific legal rights? At conception [ ], at the time a
regular heart beat begins [ ], at the time sexual distinction is complete [ ], at the time the
fetus is physically able to survive outside of the mother [ ], at the time of birth [ ]
only after the first trimester [ ].
abortion because she is afraid to bring another child in the world? Yes [ ], No [ ]