Bivariate Descriptive Statistical Analysis: Practical Research

1. Have Microsoft Excel produce a cross-tabulation (or a contingency table) between (a) level of fundamentalism (fund) and (b) opinion on homosexual relations (homosex). Here, we are treating opinion on homosexual relations (homosex) as the dependent variable (Y). In addition to a cross-tab showing cell counts, you must have separate crosstabs showing row percentages and column percentages.

Note: Be sure to exclude the "blank" entries when you are constructing your pivot tables. The dependent variable (Y) should have only four (4) categories and the independent variable (X) three (3) categories.

Answer the following questions:

a. How many respondents are both (a) liberal and (b) believe that homosexual relations are always wrong?
b. What percentage of respondents who believe homosexual relations are always wrong are fundamentalists?
c. What percentage of fundamentalists believe that homosexual relations are always wrong?

d. Is there a relationship between (a) level of fundamentalism/liberalism and (b) opinions about homosexual relations in this sample? [Note: We are not yet doing inferential analysis here. We are just stating patterns of relationships between variables in the sample.] How do you know that there is or there is no relationship between the two variables in the sample? That is, what is your empirical evidence?

2. To cut costs, for-profit, non-profit, and public organizations sometimes resort to "downsizing" or "reduction-in-force" (RIF) in which a number of employees are terminated. Older employees are usually the "casualty" of these downsizing efforts. Analyze the following crosstab to determine the direction of relationship between an individual's age and performance in this sample of 1,254 employees. That is, is age positively or negatively associated with performance? As an employee becomes older, will it be more likely or less likely that she fully meets/exceeds performance expectations? Cite statistics in the crosstab to support your answer.

Table 1. Age-Performance Crosstabulation
Age (X) Total
1
under 40 2
40 and over
Performance (Y) 1 Partially meets expectations Count 82 230 312
Column Percentage 16.5% 30.3% 24.9%
2 Fully meets expectations Count 353 497 850
Column Percentage 71.2% 65.6% 67.8%
3 Usually exceeds expectations Count 61 31 92
Column Percentage 12.3% 4.1% 7.3%
Total Count 496 758 1254
Column Percentage 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

3. Identify two variables that you want to analyze through a crosstab, e.g., Table 1 of Q2 above. Why do you want to examine these two variables simultaneously? What will be the categories of your dependent (Y) and independent (X) variables?