Reflective Essay
IS 301- 01
Donald Simpson
December 13, 2017
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D. Chase Simpson
Reflective Essay
Over the course of the Fall Semester 2017 IS 301 served as my first true exposure to statistical analysis in political science. The first quarter of the course was largely refresher information but highly important none the less. Readings on theory, causality and conceptualization were critical because they set the foundation for the research project that took place during the second half of the semester. Of these initial topics, I found the discussion of causality uniquely pertinent to our group project. As I mentioned in my blog post on September 21st, Jon Elster argued that in social science research analysis must be accompanied by developed theory with a strong causal mechanism to have any legitimacy. (Elster 1989) The importance of a strong causal mechanism was apparent in the early days of our group project. Our research sought to examine how the source of cadet income determined their spending habits on products such as alcohol, tobacco, and fast food. Through an examination of past research on the spending habits of adolescents we decided to test a causal relationship between money from ROTC stipends and spending on these products. Our theory stated that this source of income provides both a windfall feeling, that cadets will not link income with hours worked, and a high degree of freedom to its use as the money is deposited straight into a cadet’s checking account and does not come from a parent or guardian who may have a degree of control on its use. We theorized that when combined these two factors would result in a higher propensity to consume in the previously mentioned items.
As the course transitioned from theoretical concepts in political research to the practical applications of using SPSS to analyze data and find correlation I experienced very little frustration with completing the worksheets. As I stated in my blog post of October 13th, I found the workbook to be extremely easy to follow with step by step instructions including illustrations. I found SPSS itself to be not overly sophisticated but extremely user friendly, logical and perfectly capable to fulfill the requirements of the course. The one critical weakness of this learning method was that I often felt that I was often simply going through the motions to complete the assigned problem without taking the time to read and understand why I would use certain functions in different situations. This would have profound effects on the challenges I faced during the group project.
The last half of the course centered primarily on the group project. The group project provided for an opportunity to practice the concepts learned during the worksheets and provided myself ample opportunity for trial and error practice in using SPSS effectively. As stated in numerous blog posts my group found a degree of difficulty in creating an appropriate survey to collect data on cadet spending habits. Our first concern was to get a high participation rate while also collecting meaningful data. While we felt that we could get more meaningful data if we allowed cadets to simply write in their own answers to the questions, as suggested by LTC Sanborn, we also felt that we would have a much higher participation rate if we were able to condense the survey down to less than ten predominately multiple choice questions. Ultimately we chose to go with the latter but this was not without its problems. Poor questions, such as “how much did you spend last week?”, proved to be less useful than expected because of non-average spending habits in the holiday season. Also, a lapse in the numbering scheme of our surveys resulted in many cadets simply skipping the first, or first few questions on many surveys. Seeing that the majority of cadets had not written in their class year was exceptionally frustrating as that variable was supposed to be our primary control during the analysis. This problem was quickly resolved, however, when we began to sort the surveys by stoop as they were collected to determine from which class each cadet belonged. After the data had been inputted into the spreadsheet and coded, we sat out to conduct analysis. Despite having easily completed all the worksheets and learning all of the necessary functions of SPSS which I would use to conduct my analysis, my group and I were at a complete loss as to what to do. After a few frustrating hours I felt that we should wait and seek guidance during class the following day. This is where I began to feel all the concepts of the course coming together. I had learned the different uses of SPSS from creating new variables to running correlations, but it was only as LTC Sanborn described what needed to be done in the context of my group model was I able to understand why certain functions are used, and when.
In conclusion, the structure of the course, in most instances, set me up for success in completing the group project. My feelings throughout the course shifted from being interested in and challenged by writings and quizzes on causality and conceptualization to a perhaps a bit of overconfidence in my knowledge of using SPSS by easily completing the assigned worksheets. This overconfidence quickly transitioned into frustration during the group project as the realities of research began to set in. Poor wording in some questions and a questionable numbering patter on the survey led to significate confusion in how to fill out the survey and could have impacted our final analysis. Through the frustration of the group project, however, I was able to strongly increase my understanding of using statistical analysis effectively. Concepts began to make sense only once they were part of n research application and separated from the step by step instruction of the text book.
Works Cited
Darling , Helen , Anthony Reeder , Rob Mcgee, and Shelia Williams . 2006. “Brief report: Disposable income, and spending on fast food, alcohol, cigarettes, and gambling by New Zealand secondary school students .” Journal of adolescence 837-843.
Elster, Jon. 1989. Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences. Canbridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pollock III, Philip H. 2016. An IBM SPSS Companion to Political Analysis . Los Angeles : Sage.