Applying Course Concepts: Ethical Concerns and Practical Application

Applying Course Concepts
Citing the required course readings for this week and at least 1 additional, peer-reviewed source (in addition to the Bible), address the following concepts:
Ethical Concerns:
* What are some general ethical concerns that must be considered when conducting research?
* What does Scripture say specifically about the Christians' responsibility to act ethically toward his fellow man?
Practical Application:
* Research a current newspaper or popular-press magazine article that cites some sort of data. Explain how data support the message of the article. Would the article seem less authoritative without the data? Were the analyses descriptive or inferential? Provide a link to the article you discuss.
* Discuss why statistics is important to public policy.
* Based on the requirements laid out in O'Sullivan et al. Chapter 1, develop a research question in some area of public policy that interests you. Explain why your question meets the two criteria for a good research question.
Research Topic
Review the list of possible research questions found in the Resources section.
List, in order of preference, your top three research question choices from the list (do not simply list numbers -- write out the questions).
You will be assigned 1 of the 3 selected questions.  The assigned question will then be used in Discussion: Research Paper Development and People Research, Research Paper: Annotated Bibliography Assignment, and the Research Paper: Final Paper Assignment.
Discussion Resources
* Possible Research Questions
POSSIBLE RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Below is a list of research questions you can use to guide your research project. These are all
questions that can be answered using the States_Student.sav SPSS dataset located in the
Research Paper
Resources section. Please remember that the question you choose will be the
focus of your research paper and all related assignments over the course of the term.
Please choose your top 3 questions from this list and include them in the Module 1: Week 1
Discussion.
Tax policy:
1. What is the relationship between cigarette taxes and the percentage of the states
population who smoke? Or, do higher cigarette taxes discourage smoking?
2. What is the relationship between citizen education and cigarette taxes? Or, do states with
higher levels of overall citizen education have higher or lower cigarette taxes?
3. What is the relationship between the partisan makeup of the state legislature and cigarette
taxes?
4. What is the relationship between the percentage of female legislatures and cigarette
taxes? Or, do states with a higher percentage of female legislators have higher cigarette
taxes?
5. What is the relationship between the partisan makeup of the state legislature and cigarette
taxes?
Abortion policy:
6.Do states with higher percentages of pro-life residents have more restrictive abortion laws
than states with lower percentages of pro-life residents?
7. What is the relationship between the percentage of a state’s population that is pro-choice
and the percentage of the state legislature that is Democratic?
8.What is the relationship between citizen education and abortion restrictions?
9. What is the relationship between the percentage of female legislatures and restrictive
abortion laws? Or, do states with a higher percentage of female legislators have less
restrictive abortion laws?
10. What is the relationship between the partisan makeup of the state legislature and abortion
restrictions?
11. What is the relationship between the percentage of the public who consider themselves
pro-choice and the percentage who consider themselves conservative?
Voting behavior:
12. What is the relationship between the percentage of the state’s population who frequently
attend religious services and the percentage of the vote Obama received?
13. What is the relationship between the percentage of the state that considers themselves
conservative and the percentage of the vote Obama received?
14. What is the relationship between the percentage of the workforce that is unionized and
the percentage of the vote Obama received?
*

* Download Possible Research Questions

These questions are only a guide to your discussion, and while you should thoroughly answer them, you should also feel free to move beyond these questions in your discussion.
Please review the Discussion Assignment Instructions
You will post one thread of at least 500-750 words by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Thursday of the
assigned Module: Week. You must then post 2 replies of at least 200-300 words by 11:59 p.m.
(ET) on Sunday of the assigned Module: Week. For each thread, students must support their
assertions with course texts or presentations and at least 3 scholarly citations in APA format.
Each reply must incorporate at least 1 scholarly citation in current APA format. Acceptable
sources include course texts, course presentations, the Bible, and scholarly journal articles.