Directions:
The first step of your project is to find a data set that interests you. Some students may gravitate towards political sentiment, mental health, or science. It is up to you to decide what data set (among the ones we have provided) will spark the most interesting questions for you. What makes a data set interesting to you may be the general topics that are covered or specific questions/topics that are covered within the data set.Next, try to narrow down particular parts of the data set you find interesting. Your goal is to brainstorm some possible research questions. One of the simplest research questions that can be asked is whether two constructs are associated.
For example, in GSS participants were asked about their happiness in marriage (rated Very Happy, Somewhat Happy, or Not Too Happy) and also about their self-assessment of their own health (Excellent, Good, Fair, or Poor). One question might be: Is there a relationship between health and relationship happiness?
As another example, in NESARC participants were asked about whether their blood/natural father was depressed (No, Yes, or Unknown), whether their blood/natural mother was depressed (No, Yes, or Unknown) and also a multitude of questions about their own mental health (A list of questions that reveal some form of depression). One question could be: Does parental depression predict an individual’s level of depression?
Remember that you can tweak your question as we move forward, but it will benefit you greatly to spend time now deciding a direction for your project.
The requirement of this assignment is to: select a dataset (also include information about why it is interesting to you), discuss potential research questions, and copy and paste the relevant components of the codebook into a document. (This will help you keep organized in the coming weeks, it is likely you will need to update it as your project and research question evolve). If applicable, let us know whether you are having trouble picking a topic or have any other concerns about how to move forward.
Sample Submission:
After looking through the codebook for the NESARC study, I have decided that I am particularly interested in studying family background and depression. Examining mental health and trying to understand contributing factors to depression is something that I explored during my summer internship. While the internship focused on activity level and depression, I was always interested how parental figure’s own depression (either biologically or through interactions) may contribute to their child’s own depression in adulthood.
My personal codebook includes all questions in the NESARC study that give me information about mother and father depression and also includes some signs of an individual’s own depression:
| S4BQ1 | BLOOD/NATURAL FATHER EVER DEPRESSED? | |
| 4126 | 1. Yes | |
| 32192 | 2. No | |
| 6775 | 9. Unknown |
| S4BQ2 | BLOOD/NATURAL MOTHER EVER DEPRESSED? | |
| 7134 | 1. Yes | |
| 31448 | 2. No | |
| 4511 | 9. Unknown |
| S4CQ1 | HAD 2+ YEARS WHEN MOOD WAS LOW, SAD OR DEPRESSED MOST OF THE DAY MORE THAN HALF THE TIME | |
| 2399 | 1. Yes | |
| 39510 | 2. No | |
| 1244 | 9. Unknown |
| S4CQ3A1 | OFTEN LOST APPETITE | |
| 1292 | 1. Yes | |
| 1013 | 2. No | |
| 34 | 9. Unknown | |
| 40754 | BL – never had 2+ years of low mood |
| S4CQ3A2 | OFTEN FOUND WANTED TO EAT MORE THAN USUAL FOR NO SPECIAL REASON | |
| 805 | 1. Yes | |
| 1505 | 2. No | |
| 29 | 9. Unknown | |
| 40754 | BL – never had 2+ years of low mood |
| S4CQ3A3 | OFTEN HAD TROUBLE GETTING TO SLEEP, FALLING ASLEEP, OR WAKING UP TOO EARLY | |
| 1613 | 1. Yes | |
| 701 | 2. No | |
| 25 | 9. Unknown | |
| 40754 | BL – never had 2+ years of low mood |
| S4CQ3A4 | OFTEN SLEPT MORE THAN USUAL | |
| 1177 | 1. Yes | |
| 1134 | 2. No | |
| 28 | 9. Unknown | |
| 40754 | BL – never had 2+ years of low mood |
Please note you can have as few as two codebook items in your personal codebook or multiple pages of your personal codebook.