Analysis Exercises

The online data analysis system (DAS) used on this site uses a system called Survey Documentation and Analysis (SDA), developed and maintained by the Computer-assisted Survey Methods Program (CSM) at the University of California, Berkeley. Documentation for DAS/SDA can be found on their website.

You may choose to explore the DAS independently, or try the following exercises:

1. Two-variable relationships

   The following two exercises illustrate how to create basic two-variable tables and how to interpret the tables.

   • Exercise 1 (Party identification and presidential vote)

   • Exercise 2 (Marital status and congressional vote)

2. Three-variable relationships

   These exercise illustrate how to further examine a two-variable relationship by introducing a control variable into the analysis.

   1. Examining potential intervening variables

      • Exercise 3 (Personal financial situation and presidential vote)

      • Exercise 4 (Gender and presidential vote)

   2. Examining potential extraneous or confounding variables

      • Exercise 5 (Attitude toward school vouchers and presidential vote)

      • Exercise 6 (Attitude toward gay marriage and presidential vote)

   3. Examining conditional relationships

      • Exercise 7 (Gender, presidential vote, and marital status)

      • Exercise 8 (Ideology, party identification, and education)

   4. Joint influence of two independent variables

      • Exercise 9 (Candidate character and presidential vote)

      • Exercise 10 (Approval of Bush's performance and presidential vote)

3. Conducting your own research

   This discussion provides some guidance for using this dataset for more elaborate research projects.