EDD8210

WEEK 2 Discussion: Displaying Data

ASSIGNMENT TASK PART 2

Respond to at least one of your colleagues’ post in 125 words and determine whether you are able to understand the “whole picture” of the data or understand the data in its entirety. What might you add to their display and why? What might you change to their display and why?

2 days ago

Kehinde Obadina 

Create a figure from a few selected variables within the dataset.

                                                Respondents’(RS) Sex 

The categorical variable is the respondent’s gender which is referred to as respondents’ sex on the data set. It is a nominal variable that has two groups that cannot be ranked; male and female. Graphic representation of data helps convey a story that provides details about the variable ((Frankfort-Nachmias, 2020). The respondent’s sex is identified with an icon of three balloons. The pie chart displays variables with less than four levels and is used to show the percentages of the respondents. Here, the female group is larger (55.04%) than the male group (44.96%). This may not be the best way to display data because the focus of the chart is limited to displaying data as a proportion of the whole. No other information is provided on the char

                                               RS Highest Degree

This categorical variable is the respondent’s highest degree and it is a nominal variable that has five groups or levels. A bar chart is most appropriate to display information that has more than four levels (Walden University, 2016j). The bar chart below shows that high school students represent the respondents with the highest degree (% = 50.0) and junior college students with the lowest percentage (% = 7.33%).

                                                  Number of hours worked

The number of hours usually worked in a week is a continuous ratio variable with an absolute zero point. The researcher, at the ratio level, collects data at the highest level possible with extensive information. SPSS refers to ratio and Interval measures as scale (Wagner, 2020). A histogram is applicable to display the data with bars as well as a nominal curve that provides more information on the data set. The mean, the standard deviation, and the sample size are additional information on the Histogram. It is good that the histogram provides more insight into the data that can be used to compare and contrast with other variables in the dataset.

The mean is 38.7

The Standard Deviation = 12.416, where

N= Number of respondents = 40

Frequency is the number of times a data value occurs

The data shows that the average number of hours worked in a week is 38.7hours. The normal curve shows that the variable is not proportionally positioned on both sides and provides information that may impact staffing across different industries.

                                                     Positive Social Change

The information about the percentage of males or females in the General Social Survey (GSS), the number of hours worked in a week, and the highest degree earned is valuable information to stakeholders in the Labor Department, Department of Education, CDC, and other large governmental organizations. This information benefits employers in the local labor force in several organizations like the public schools' system, manufacturing industries, food and health sectors of individual states.

                       References

Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2016j). Visual displays of data [Video]. Baltimore, MD.

Wagner, III, W. E. (2020). Using IBM® SPSS® statistics for research methods and 

          social science statistics (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Frankfort-Nachmias, C., Leon-Guerrero, A., & Davis, G. (2020). Social statistics for a 

         diverse society (9th ed., pp. 27-74). Sage

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Financial Goals Assignment

This assignment has made me really give critical thought on my financial goals. Through this, I have had a more definitive experience on where I stand financially. It is needless to say that our financial lives pretty much dictate various aspects of our lives. This situation is made even more significant if one has dependents as then one’s financial goals are then developed with the dependents lives and welfare in mind. Therefore, this assignment has challenged me to really define what exactly my short-term, intermediate and long-term financial goals are. A detailed description of where my financial life stands with respect to the above time-frames is contained in the subsequent paragraphs below.

Short-Term Financial Goals

These are the financial goals that I intend to accomplish within a period of the next 12 months are explained as follows;

1. Finish house repairs in two months;

The house I currently live in, and have for a considerable amount of time now has various issues to deal with its plumbing system. In addition, a section of my house occasionally has a leaking roof. I have received professional advice to completely overhaul the plumbing system in my house as well as replace my roof with a new one. This does not come cheap. However, after saving for some months now, I intend to continue saving according to my plan so that I can have these repairs done in my house by the June this year. These living conditions are a small sacrifice that I am making so that I could invest in the real estate that I purchased a couple of weeks ago. I realize that to be successful you have to be willing to make sacrifices.

2. Finish student loan payments by the end of one year from now;

For quite a while now, I have been bugged with the financial nightmares of huge student loans repayments. However, all is in the clear now and if I just faithfully and dutifully make my monthly payments towards clearing my student loan, I might just have it all cleared 12 months from now.

3. Set-up a personal emergency fund by the end of one-year;

I am not one of the best ‘savers’ alive. However, I do realize that I have to set-up an emergency fund to take care of unanticipated incidents that tend to require significant amount of cash to finance. I shall set aside some monthly payments to this fund and after every 3 months, make an evaluation of how-well my emergency fund is coming up. This will also be mandatory, considering the fact that I am a rental property owner.

Intermediate Financial Goals

These are the financial goals I intend to achieve in the next 5 years;

1. Take more control of my clothes’ spending habits by the end of two years;

I am a huge lover of nice coats. I love them exotic, stylish and unique. However, over the past, I have come to the realization that sometimes I spend more than I should on coats and shoes that I like. Therefore, I have to strike a balance between satisfying my love for nice coats, and shoes and abiding by my financial reality. As such, I intend to restrict myself to buying not more than one coat in one month, and later on, allow myself only one new-coat, and a pair of shoes every three months.

2. Save for a car-down payment to buy a Tesla Model S two years from now;

I have always wanted to drive a state-of-the art electric car. Specifically, I have given great thought on getting myself a Tesla Model S. This means that I will have to ensure that I begin saving enough money to allow me to make a car-down payment by the end of two years from now.

3. Clear all my debt in three years

In the spirit of taking better control of my spending habits, I intend to clear all my credit card debt within three years from now. At this time, credit rating score would have improved and I would have developed the will to reduce dependency on credit for personal purchases.

Long-Term Financial Goals

These are my ultimate financial goals;

1. Buy a larger house in 8 years from now;

I envision myself living in a better larger house, large enough to accommodate a larger family. This will require lots of savings and a suitable mortgage, or investment plan. By the sixth year, I should have confidently started looking around for my dream house.

2. Have my own business 10 years from now;

I intend to continue being an employer, running my own real estate business in the future. This business will have a touch on an interest of mine. To get enough investment capital, I shall partly have to make sacrificial devotions of my salary income. In the 10th year, I should have had a physical place to set the ball rolling.

3. Retiring according to my schedule

If all goes according to plan, I intend to retire from active business at the age of 55. This would require that I have a sound pension plan. Also, hopefully, my business would be functional and running by this time so as to guarantee my financial security as I wedge deeper into old age.

EDD8210

WEEK 2 Discussion: Displaying Data

Visual displays of data provide you and anyone else with a graphical display of what is often a complex array of quantitative data. A key strength of visualization is the ability to quickly enlighten you with key data. Rather than solely relying on your audience to interpret numerical values and statistics explained in a narrative, a visual display can easily illustrate descriptions, relationships, and trends. Although the focus is on simplicity, the researcher has an obligation to present these graphical displays in a clear and meaningful way.

For this Discussion, you will explore ways to appropriately display data.

To prepare for this Discussion:

· Review the Learning Resources for this week related to frequency distributions and graphic displays of data.

· Using the SPSS software, open the General Social Survey dataset found in this week’s Learning Resources.

· Next, create a figure or table from a few selected variables within the dataset.

· Finally, think about what is good about how the data are displayed in the figure or table you created and what is not so good.

ASSIGNMENT TASK PART 1

Post your display of the table or figure you created and provide an explanation of why this would be the best way to display the data provided, include the General Social Survey Dataset’s mean of Age to verify the dataset you used.

Be sure to support your Main Post and Response Post with reference to the week’s Learning Resources and other scholarly evidence in APA Style.

ASSIGNMENT TASK PART 2

Respond to at least one of your colleagues’ post in 125 words and determine whether you are able to understand the “whole picture” of the data or understand the data in its entirety. What might you add to their display and why? What might you change to their display and why?