Note to Faculty: The questions below can be modified
to your specific theme. Try doing this exercise, inserting questions about
the statistics at www.census.gov
that might be more relevant or interesting.
I. Acquiring the Data — The data set referred to in this assignment is located in the 1998 Statistical Abstract of the United States, published by the U.S. Census Bureau. It is available in hard copy in the Government Publications (basement) section of the P.S.U. library and for that matter, at most libraries. The sections you are required to obtain from the Abstract are Numbers 89, 90, and 91 — all pertaining to the subject of RELIGION. While obtaining the hard copy from the library and xeroxing it is one option, another option is to utilize the web resources available at the library. It is located at www.census.gov. However, you will need to do this from the library, as access to this data online is only available at select sites. Again, it is recommended that you go to the Government publications section of the library for this. Once you have accessed the site, there is a listing by subject (indicated by the letters of the alphabet in upper left hand corner of screen), go to R and then hit the religion link. You will be able to find the data from there. This should all go smoothly, but if you have difficulties, contact Judy Andrews or one of the other librarians in this section of the library.
II. The Questions: These are not essay questions, but requests for specific statistical calculations and some short answers.
1. What is the mode of churches reported in 1997 as delineated on number 89 of the 1998 Statistical Abstract of the United States?
2. Between mean, median, and mode, is the mode the best choice in this case? In one sentence, please explain why.
3. In Number 90, find the mean for each of the following categories in years 1980-1997: Protestant, Catholic, Jew, Other, None. Once you have done this, manually (no computer required) construct a pie chart representing the average distribution of denominations from 1980-1997.
4. According to number 91, 70.1% of the residents of Mississippi.
If one were to conclude that any given resident of Mississippi was a
Christian, this would be a case of an _______________.
5. If a person is studying the Jewish population from this data set, this population is also understood as the ___________________.
6. Briefly, using the example of a quantitative study of religion - what are the implicit assumptions about human nature within quantitative analysis? What ways of knowing humans and the world are prioritized in statistical and quantitative analysis? What aspects of human and/or "natural" life are potentially ignored? Reflect.
Bonus: Why is it difficult to compare any of the groups in Number 89?