Select A Specific Issue Of Public Concern And/Or Policy

SXU4004 Research Strategy and Design - Bangor University

ASSIGNMENT

Practical exercise using secondary data, SPSS and basic statistical analysis

Task:
The purpose of the following exercise is to give you some familiarity with using official data, and practice in evaluating it as a tool for applied social research. You will find it helpful to review topics from SPSS_1 to SPSS_5and use what you learned during the data analysis and SPSS sessions.

Links to four SPSS datasets and their associated. The 4 datasets are: Welsh Health Survey;Crime Survey for England & Wales; Quarterly Labour Force Survey; and National Survey for Wales.

You should complete the following steps.

1. Bearing in mind the 4 datasets, select a specific issue of public concern and/or policy relevance in recent media reporting (e.g. a particular crime trend, health care strategy, demographic change and pension provision, ethnic inequalities, educational achievement, etc.).

2. Choose one of the 4 datasets relevant to the selected issue and download the SPSS file and user guide.

3. Extract some quantitative data to illuminate the problem.

4. Provide a brief methodological evaluation of the data, including its strengths and weaknesses for informing policy debates about the selected topic.

Remember, keep to a well-defined topic and focus on the quantitative data.

Format:

Analytical report of 1500 words (plus tables as appropriate).