Final Examination - Sociology 690 - Spring 2008
This examination is both an
exercise in demonstrating your understanding the presentation format of
scholarly research while at the same time confirming your ability to articulate
and interpret various multivariate techniques within that context. According, I have placed on the following
pages, six journal article references and their associated abstracts. It is your job to read the abstracts, link to
the articles and provide a critical summary of the research questions,
methodology and associated results in the following manner:
1. Examine the abstract and articulate the type
of research, keywords for abstracting services, methodology and primary
results.
2. Critique the introduction by judging the reason
for the research (i.e. saying something new; replicating and extending; or
resolving conflicts in the literature), pointing out the research issue and
articulating the propositions/hypotheses.
3. Elaborate the methodology by describing the
model, the type of multivariate technique used, and the approach to the
analysis (e.g. if a path model, what are the direct and indirect paths; if a
log linear model, what factors are used in the model). Be sure to articulate the source of the data
and the assumptions of the model for those data. Did the author satisfy the assumptions?
4. Report the results of the
research. How closely did the results
conform to the hypotheses? Did the model
facilitate or impede such testing.
Could a better model have been used?
What would it be and how would it contribute to a better test of the
hypotheses.
5. Did the discussion and interpretation section
point out any shorting comings with the hypotheses, operational definitions,
sample or method? Regardless, did you
see any shorting comings, not mentioned by the author?
6. Looking at the references, which style was
used (i.e. MLA, APA or ASA). How were
the footnotes and tables/graphs integrated?
Did the style flow? Based on the
above, where would you rank the journal from which the article came: Tier I, Tier II or Tier III?
Please follow this procedure for
four of the six references listed on the ensuing pages. Remember, length of your finished test is not
a criterion for grading. Say as much as
you need, but do not ramble. This will
be due in my office by next Wednesday at this time. It may also be emailed to me prior to that
date, with the caveat that you MUST asked for a receipt from me if sending via
email. I will not be responsible for
your final unless you have an email receipt.
I also cannot accept you papers past this date.
Sociology 690 Final Examination
By: Scott H. Beck -
The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 2 ( Spring, 1983), pp. 273-285
The concept of “occupational origin” has traditionally been measured by father’s occupation only, especially in studies of occupational mobility. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the occupations of the other family members are additional components of men’s occupational origins. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Men, the traditional father-son mobility table was expanded to include paternal grandfathers’ occupations and mothers’ occupations. Log-linear analyses of these expanded mobility tables showed that paternal grand-fathers’ and mothers’ occupations have significant associations with sons’ occupations, controlling for level of fathers’ occupations. The associate between grandfathers’ and sons’ occupations is stronger than that between mothers’ and sons’ occupations. It was concluded that, while father’s occupation is the main component, it does not fully capture the impact of occupational origin. Consequently, intergenerational mobility may be less frequent than is indicated in traditional father-son mobility analysis.
Belinda L. Needham, Robert Crosnoe and Chandra Muller
Social Problems, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Nov., 2004), pp. 569-586
This study explores whether the interplay of health problems and school environment predicts academic failure, an individual event with consequences for the life course, as well as for society at large. This exploration proceeds in three steps: 1) we examine whether physical and mental health problems are an academic risk factor during second school; 2) we investigate the academic mechanisms underlying this risk status; and 3) we explore whether this risk status varies by school context. A series of logistic regressions reveals that self-rated health and emotional distress are both associated with greater likelihood of failing one or more classes in the next year and that absenteeism, trouble with homework and student-teacher bonding account for much of these associations. Associations of physical and mental problems with academic failure vary only slightly across schools, however. We discuss the implications of those findings for both research and policy and argue that the examination of overlap among different domains of adolescent functioning can advance the sociological understand of health, education and social problems in general.
Herbert H. Krauss and Leslee L. Critchfield
Sociometry, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Jun., 1975), pp. 247-260
Jones (1973) has posited that self-esteem will be supported in those situations in which a subject is the target of evaluative actions and that consistency theory will hold in those contexts in which a subject observes others interacting but is not evaluated directly by them. This conjecture was tested in the following manner: high and low levels of adequacy of performance, reward, and direct involvement with performance-reward contingencies were manipulated in a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design. Dependent variables were the likeability, evaluation, potency, and activity ratings that experimental subjects attributed to the experimenter’s “stooge” (the subject who was responsible for distributing rewards). Self-esteem theory alone accounted adequately for the data.
Dean R. Hoge and Jackson W. Carroll
Social Forces, Vol. 53, No. 4 (Jun., 1975), pp. 581-594
We tested the Glock-Stark
model of the influence of particular Christian believs
in producing anti-Semitism, using a survey of Protestants in the Atlanta SMSA
and Philadelphia SMSA. Our items and
indices were almost identical to those of Glock and
Stark in their 1963
David Knoke
The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Winter, 1974), pp. 51-65
The political distinctiveness of major American religious groupings is well-documented but the role of church attendance in maintaining these cleavages has been unclear. Analysis of white respondents in five national surveys covering 16 years reveals that church attendance is significantly related to party identification and presidential vote in all but one instance. Application of Goodman’s log-linear analysis of contingency tables shows that higher rate of church attendance are related to non-Democratic preferences among Protestants and Democratic preferences among Catholics. In several years, the relationship depends as well upon region of residence. The effects, particularly on the vote, seem to be changing systematically over time as the South becomes politically similar to the non-South.
Alan E. Bayer
Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Aug., 1969), pp. 551-558
Path analysis has been widely employed in recent years as a concise means of simultaneously analyzing the interrelationships among a large number of variables. The utility of this method in family research is demonstrated in the present paper. Four independent variables--socio-economic status, aptitude, educational plans, and marriage expectations--are related to the age at marriage among a sub-sample of 4,000 married young people from a nationwide longitudinal survey. Of the four independent variables, expected age at marriage, stated some time prior to marriage, is shown through path analysis to be the best predictor of actual marriage age. The additional accuracy in prediction through assessment of the other variables is negligible. A multiple causality model, based on path analysis and including additional variables to those employed in this paper, is advocated as a means to optimize prediction of marriage and family related outcomes