Geography 107

Step 1. Read the background paragraphs below pasted here from your textbook’s web site and answer the questions associated with the passages.

“A map of the geography of religion may be based on any number of indicators of that religion. A map of adherents shows the proportion of the population that adheres to the religion, whether or not they have formal ties to a religious institution. A map of membership, on the other hand, depicts those adherents that do have a formal affiliation with a religious institution.” (http://bcs.whfreeman.com/jordan9e/cat_060/ch03/index.htm)

Question 1: If I were to call myself a “Christian” but did not go to any church, I would be a(n):

1. adherent.
2. member.
3. either.
4. neither.

Answer 1 -Select- A B C D

Continuing from the website: “The spatiality of religion can also be understood through mapping locations of objects in the visible landscape: the number and distribution of churches, for example, or the locations of shrines and other holy sites. Geographers try to find the combination of indicators that will best help to uncover spatiality.  Religion is particularly challenging, however, as Edwin Scott Gaustad and Philip L. Barlow note in their New Historical Atlas of Religion in America. Gaustad and Barlow note that there is no standard definition of church or other place of worship, nor of adherent, nor member. What makes a church? Is a child an adherent? The more information the map reader has about a particular faith and its records, the more likely an interpretation of the map can be made” (http://bcs.whfreeman.com/jordan9e/cat_060/ch03/index.htm).

Question 2: The above paragraph points to a problem with defining “place of worship”:  Which of these denominations may therefore be undercounted in terms of their overall membership because their "churches" are not as easy to count?

1. Baptists.
2. Catholics.
3. Muslims.
4. Buddhists.

Answer 2 -Select- A B C D

Part 2: Reading and constructing maps of American Religion

In this section of the lab, you will read and construct several choropleth maps. You may choose to follow the step-by-step directions below. An Adobe Flash based demonstration tutorial video has also been constructed to help you learn how to use this website. You may want to work you way through this using both the video and the text instructions.

If you don't have the free Adobe Flash video player on your computer (it's very common, so it's probably already there) you may need to download it by clicking here.

Step 2: Click on the link to the ARDA (The Association of Religion Data Archives ) . A new window (or tab) will open. Depending on how your browser is set up, it may open a completely new browser window, or a tab within a single browser window. To navigate quickly between windows (or tabs) try holding down the Alt key and pressing Tab. You may want to press and hold Ctrl key and then press the Tab key to navigate between tabs. Try it now.

Step 3: In the ARDA web site, find the link to "US Congregational Membership" and click on it. It should open the a page with several tabs near the top of the page. Click on the Maps tab to bring up a page called "U.S. Congregational Membership: Maps"

Step 4. Click on the link "U.S. Maps" to open another window that presents you with a set of options and variables you can map.

Step 5. Note that "All Denominations--Total Number of Congregations (2000)" is selected as the default option. Leave that as it is and click on the Submit button. Wait a moment and a choropleth map will appear in your browser window. It will show the number of "congregations" by state. Roughly translated, that means the number of churches in the state as a whole. These maps are great and widely used, but you should recognize that they hide internal variation within a state. To assume that the state has a homogenous distribution of any activity across the state is to commit the "ecological fallacy" . So don't assume that all individuals (or places) within a larger group (or state) conform to the pattern set by the whole or larger group.

Find the gray tabs above the map. Click on the "Total Adherents" tab and inspect the map. Click on the "Rates of Adherence" tab to see that map. As you look at these three maps, note that there is a table of the data that is used to make the map below the map.

Step 6. Answer the questions below.

Question 3. What state has the most congregations? (select from the drop down menu below).

Question 4: What state has the most adherents? (select from the drop down menu below).

Question 5: What state has the lowest rate of adherence? (select from the drop down menu below).

Question 6: What state has the highest rate of adherence? (select from the drop down menu below).

Step 7: Note the legend to the right of the "Rates of Adherence" map. Find the letter "N". It stands for "number of observations". This method of dividing the observations is called "equal number". It has some good qualities and some bad qualities.

Question 7: How many observations (or N) in each category? (select from the drop down menu below).

Answer 7 -Select- 1 5 10 20

Step 8: Now you are going to make a second map. Note that below your map there is an area entitled "Compare Maps". From the drop down menu that by default contains <--Select a Category--> . Select U.S. Census Variables.
Note that the submenu changes and has "Population 2000" showing. From this submenu, select the first option "2000: Resident Population In 1000s (census)". Click Submit. Answer the questions below.

Question 8: Look at the population map you just made. What state has the largest population? (select from the drop down menu below).

Question 9: What is the population of that state in the year 2000? (select from the drop down menu below).

Question 10: What is the state with lowest population among the top 10 (darkest shade) most populous states? (select from the drop down menu below).

Question 11: What is the population of the state with the 10th most population? (select from the drop down menu below).

Step 9: Think about this. Does it make sense to include the tenth most populous state in the same category as the most populous state? Not really. The population data is "skewed", which means that most populous state has around 13 million more people than the second most populous state, and about four times more population than the state in 10th place. Still, each of the states in the top 10 in this category share the same color shading, which is misleading. Maps can be misleading. It's important that you can recognize these little measures by which map makers accidentally or purposefully color your perception of reality. If the map was divided on the basis of "equal interval", which is generally better for skewed data, the top state would be in a category all by itself. About half the states would be in a single category. Keep this in mind and ask your instructor about this if you are confused. There may be an exam question on this very point.

Part 3: Analyzing relationships between two variables

Step 10: Look to the right and just below the bottom map. You'll note that there is the word "correlation" and a number to the the right following an equals sign. This is the correlation coefficient. This number tells you the strength and direction of the relationship between the two data sets. If there is a strong relationship, this number will approach 1.0 or -1.0 (negative). When the relationship is strong, and the correlation coefficient approaches postive one, then you can say "when the first variable goes up, so does the other at about the same rate." When the correlation is strong and approaches negative one (-1.0), then you can say, "when the first variable goes up, then the other goes down at about the same rate."

The correlation coefficient for these two maps (Rates of Adherence and Total Population) is 0.008. This is positive, but very low or weak. Roughly translated, the correlation coefficient, as it is expressed here, suggests that less than one percent of the variation (or change) in one variable can be explained by changes in the other variable. In other words, you might say, "when the first variable goes up, the second variable is unpredictable. It might go up or down or not change." This should come as no surprise to you. Why should more populous states have greater rates of religious adherence than states with small populations?

NOTE: There is another reason why the correlation coefficient is low in this case. The first map (rates of adherence) is essentially a RATE or a ratio (adherents per 1,000 persons) and the second map is made from integer scale data (regular numbers). These two maps look similar, but the data is like "apple and oranges", so comparing them is difficult. Remember this point because you'll need to avoid this mistake as you make your own maps in the latter stages of this exercise.

Step 11: Now find the "Total Adherents" tab above the top map and click on it. The top map will change so that the top map displays the number of religious persons (or adherents) by state. Now take a look at the correlation coefficient. It has changed and is now equal to 0.982. Translated roughly, you can say about these two variables, "When one variable goes up, 98.2% of the time, the other variable also goes up at the same rate." This makes sense. As the population gets larger in a state, so does the number of religious people (adherents) at about the same rate. Populous states have lots of adherents. Sparsely populated states have fewer people who belong to a religion. Very simple.

Step 12: Now click on the "Total Congregations" tab above the top map. Answer the next question.

Question 12: What is the correlation coefficient between "Total Congregations" and "2000: Resident Population In 1000s (census)", (select from the drop down menu below). For you information, the two asterisks (**) following the correlation coefficient tells you that you can be 99 percent confident that this relationship is as it appears.

Part 4: Making and Testing a Hypothesis with Maps

Step 13: Next, you are going to make some maps of data that you chose. Try to have some fun with this. Experiment...explore.

To start, click on the "Relgious Groups" link near the top of the page. It shoud return you to the "Maps" homepage . From there take 10 minutes or so and explore the maps that are available to you in the three categories they list: "Indidividual Denominations", "U.S. Census Variables" and "Crime, Voting and Other Measures". Some of this stuff is pretty cool. Think about the things you've heard about religions and religious denominations and religious people.

Your task to make a hypothesis about a relationship between two variables of your chosing. One of the variables has to be a religious variable. The other can be anything from any of the three lists of variables.

You will write down your hypothesis, in the responses boxes below. Then you will test it by comparing two maps and interpreting the correlation coefficient that is generated for you by the online mapping software. The last, and hardest part, is to explain why you think the correlation coefficient came out as it did.

An example is provided for you.

Step 14: After you have thought up a test you'd like to perform, complete the hypothesis below by filling in the blanks and chosing from the drop down menus provided.

I hypothesis that there is Answer 13 -Select- a Positive a Negative (inverse) No relationship between the Answer 14 -Select- Number of congregations Number of adherents Rate of adherence D of / for

Answer 15 and the

Step 15: Report the correlation coefficient that the software generated.

Question 17: Fill in the blank to complete the sentence below.

The correlation coefficient between my two variables is: Answer 17:

Step 16: Offer an explanation of the pattern that you see. Did the correlation coefficient have the same direction (positive/negative) that you thought it would? Was the relationship between the two variable as strong or weak as you thought it would be? If it wasn't why do you think it was or was not as you predicted? What other variables might affect the relationship you found?

Answer 18: Insert your explanation here. Refer to the example above if you need an idea.

Are you ready to submit the assignment?

Your instructor -Select- Steve Graves - Tuesday Section Steve Graves - Monday Section (pick one from the drop down list).

Name:

code:

When you click the button below, you will be directed to a web page that shows your answers. The instructor will get a copy of this email as well, but you may want to keep a copy for your records. If you are curious about the correct answers, please bring your questions to class.