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Statistical Analysis For The Social Sciences

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Mental Health Research Project Sociology 315: Statistical Analysis for the Social Sciences Professor Dana Williams By: Hayden Beaudreau 12/11/15 Question: This research project will try to grasp a better understanding of an individual’s mental health based off a few different variables including respondent’s income, alcohol consumption, and marital status. The main focus for this research will be to try and grasp a further understanding of the effects each of these have on an individuals mental health. Too commonly we see people who determine their own self-worth based off monetary income, such as bigots like Donald Trump. Although everyone’s perception and definition of success is different, the …show more content…

Data: The information provided for this research project came from the General Social Survey, (GSS). Using IBM’s SPSS predictive analytics software I analyzed the data to determine the significance of these factors. The alcohol variable I used accounted for the number of alcoholic beverages in a given year (GSS variable “DRINKYR”). The other variable tested for significance was marital status (GSS variable “MARITAL”). This method of sampling is considered random probabilistic sampling, as we should be able to draw a conclusion with our results about the general population using entirely quantitative data. In examining the data I will be searching for causality to determine the significance of these factors and whether or not they correlate with over overall quality of mental health. Focal Relationship: I believe that income will have the highest significance between the three of these factors, that’s why I’ve chosen income and mental health as the focal relationship. Two variables are needed to determine whether or not causality exists between mental health and income. The dependent variable will be identified as an individual’s amount of poor mental health days in the last 30 days (GSS variable “mntlhlth”). This data will be considered interval/ratio due to the close-ended survey question. Answers to the survey were provided in ranked numerical intervals representing the frequency of respondent’s poor mental health days in the past

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