Final Examination - Sociology 680 - Fall 2014 

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 Tuesday December 17 at 6:00 pm. 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.

1. Family Experience in Preadolescence and the Development of Male Delinquency”

Author(s): Chris Coughlin and Samuel Vuchinich.

Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 58, No. 2 (May, 1996), pp. 491-501

This study examined aspects of the family experience of 194 males at age 10 as predictors of police arrest by age 17. Effects for quality of parent-child relations, parental discipline practices, family structure, and family problem solving on arrest were found, with intelligence, socioeconomic status, and peer relations as controls. Experience in stepfamilies or single-parent families more than doubled the risk of delinquency that began by age 14, but did not increase the risk for delinquency that began between ages 14 and 17. The elevated risks associated with poor peer relations and antisocial characteristics were constant across the family structures. Effects of family problem solving were found only in stepfamilies and single-parent families. The results clarified the timing and indirect nature of family effects on the development of delinquency.

2. Contrasting Self-Esteem Theory and Consistency Theory in Predicting Interpersonal Attraction

Author(s) 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.

3. Family Worship Patterns and Their Correlation with Adolescent Behavior and Beliefs

Author(s) Jerry W. Lee, Gail T. Rice and V. Bailey Gillespie

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Sep., 1997), pp. 372-381

We examine behaviors involved in family worship, how these behaviors cluster together into specific patterns of family worship, and how these patterns of family worship relate to the behaviors and beliefs of adolescents attending Seventh-day Adventist schools. Seven patterns of family worship were detected by cluster analysis of questionnaires completed by 7,658 Seventh-day Adventist youth, grades 6 through 12. Worship patterns that actively involved youth in reading, praying, and sharing their religious experience were rated as more meaningful and interesting and were associated with higher levels of Active Faith (a factor score). Youth in families with worship patterns that did not actively involve the youth were even lower on Active Faith than youth whose families had no worship. However, No Worship youth were highest on Materialism/Legalism and Alcohol/Drug Use. With one exception, worship patterns with high youth involvement were associated with lower Alcohol/Drug Use and lower Materialism/Legalism. Youth in the Shared Worship group, in which every family member participated in every phase of worship every day, were high on Active Faith but also relatively high on Materialism/Legalism, and Alcohol/Drug use suggesting a pattern of compulsive behavior.

4. Forgiveness: An Exploratory Factor Analysis and Its Relationships to Religious Variables

Author(s): Richard L. Gorsuch and Judy Y. Hao

Review of Religious Research, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Jun., 1993), pp. 333-347

Few psychological investigators have empirically defined forgiveness, although many theoretical and case study discussions exist. Two emergent views--forgiveness as unidimensional or as multidimensional--were considered by conducting a dimensional factor analysis and then relating the factors to religious variables. Over 1000 respondents, chosen by stratified random sampling, were administered a Gallup poll questionnaire. Based on 25 forgiveness item responses, four primary factors were found: Forgiving Motive, Religious Response, Forgiving Pro-Action, and Hostility. A higher-order forgiveness factor also was extracted; thus forgiveness may be viewed as a single factor. However, forgiveness more accurately is best measured as a multifactorial concept, especially in the investigation of religion. Consistent with traditional Christian teachings, Protestants, Catholics, evangelicals, and the more personally religious generally reported more forgiving responses than Jewish, no/other religious preference, non-evangelical, and less personally religious respondents. Implications for theoretical models of forgiveness also are noted.

5. Sex Education in the Public Schools: A Discriminant Analysis of Characteristics of Pro and Anti Individuals

Author(s): E. R. Mahoney

The Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Nov., 1979), pp. 264-275

A modified probability sample of adults in the United States in 1977 was used to examine factors related to attitude toward sex education in the public schools. On the basis of previous research and statements of prominent anti-sex-education advocates, it was predicted that pro- and anti-sex-education individuals would differ in political orientation, religious orientation, attitude toward the traditional family, premarital sexual values, attitudes toward women's roles, age, social class, gender, and attitudes toward education in general. The ability of these variables to distinguish between pro- and anti-sex-education subsamples was examined through discriminant analysis. The results suggest that political liberalism-conservatism, aright-wing political view, religious liberalism-conservatism, and age are not important discriminating characteristics. Rather, pro- and anti-sex-education subsamples were most clearly distinguished on the factors of having a traditional orientation toward the family, women's roles, and premarital sexual behavior. These important distinguishing characteristics suggest that attitude toward sex education has more to do with views of the role of women, family, and sexuality than with political-religious views, a reasonable expectation given the traditional linkage of these three aspects of American society.

6. Life Plans and Marriage Age: An Application of Path Analysis

Author(s): 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