MAT114 (STATISTICS)
Project 2 Report

Alejandra Ferrer
April 15, 2014

Introduction:
During an election year, there will be many polls to investigate how the 2 parties will do. The purpose of this current research was to examine how the different genders (Male and Female) and the different political parties (Democrats and Republicans) feel about how our President and Congress are handling our economy and our foreign policy. This might provide insight as to how the election may go in November of 2014.
Method:
To investigate these research questions and hypotheses, an online survey was created using “Survey Monkey” .A convenient sample of 30 people were asked to complete the survey online (See Appendix A for the survey).

RESULTS

Table 1:Q1 (President and the economy) | Mean | SD | N | Men | 6.62 | 0.65 | 13 | Women | 5.53 | 2.03 | 17 | Total | 6.07 | 1.34 | 30 |

Table 2:Q2 (President and foreign policy) | Mean | SD | N | Men | 5.94 | 1.41 | 13 | Women | 6.85 | 1.89 | 17 | Total | 6.39 | 1.65 | 30 |

Table 3:Q3 (congress and the economy) | Mean | SD | N | Men | 6.77 | 1.46 | 13 | Women | 4.94 | 1.89 | 17 | Total | 5.55 | 1.68 | 30 |

Table 4:Q4 (Congress and foreign policy) | Mean | SD | N | Men | 6.77 | 1.42 | 13 | Women | 5.71 | 2.26 | 17 | Total | 6.24 | 1.84 | 30 |

Table 5:Q1 (President and the economy) | Mean | SD | N | Dem | 6.25 | 1.73 | 16 | Rep | 5.71 | 1.59 | 14 | Total | 5.98 | 1.66 | 30 |

Table 6:Q2 (President and foreign policy) | Mean | SD | N | Dem | 6.69 | 1.78 | 16 | Rep | 5.93 | 1.64 | 14 | Total | 6.31 | 1.71 | 30 |

Table 7:Q3 (Congress and the economy) | Mean | SD | N | Dem | 5.50 | 1.93 | 16 | Rep | 5.43 | 1.70 | 14 | Total | 5.46 | 1.82 | 30 |

Table 8:Q4 (President and the foreign policy) | Mean | SD | N | Dem | 6.06 | 2.11 | 16 | Rep | 6.29 | 1.90 | 14 | Total | 6.17 | 2.01 | 30 |

Research Question 1a. Is there a difference between Men and Women on their mean rating of how well the President is handling our economy? A non-directional t-test showed that there was not enough evidence to show a difference between men and women in the mean rating of how the president is handling the economy (t= 2.07, p=0.51)
Research hypothesis 1b. Democrats will give our President a higher mean rating for handling our economy than Republicans. A directional t-test showed that Republics do give our president a higher mean rating for how our president is handling our economy (t= 0.89, p=0.38)
The 95% confidence interval for Democrats reveals that with 95% confidence, the average rating of our President’s handling of the economy is between 5.32 and 7.17. For Republicans, with 95% confidence, the average rating of how our President is handling the economy is between 5.36 and 6.05.
2a. Is there a difference between Men and Women on their mean rating of how well the President is handling our foreign policy? A non-directional t-test showed that there was enough evidence to show a difference between men and women in the mean rating of how the president is handling the foreign policy (t= -1.51, p=0.14)
2b. Democrats will give our President a higher mean rating for handling our foreign policy than Republicans. A directional t-test showed that Republics do give our president a higher mean rating for how our president is handling our foreign policy (t= 1.22, p=0.23)
The 95% confidence interval for Democrats reveals that with 95% confidence, the average rating of our President’s handling our foreign policy is between 5.74 and 7.64. For Republicans, with 95% confidence, the average rating of how our President is handling our foreign policy is between 4.98 and 6.88.
3a. Is there a difference between Men and Women on their mean rating of how well the Congress is handling our economy? A non-directional t-test showed that there was not enough evidence to show a difference between men and women in the mean rating of how the congress is handling the economy (t= 2.99, p=0.01)
3b. Is there a difference between Democrats and Republicans on their mean rating of how well Congress is handling our economy? A directional t-test showed that Republics and Democrats do give our congress the same mean rating for how they are handling our economy (t= 0.10, p=0.92)
The 95% confidence interval for Democrats reveals that with 95% confidence, the average rating of congress is handling our economy is between 4.47 and 6.53. For Republicans, with 95% confidence, the average rating of how our congress is handling our economy is between 4.45 and 6.41.
4a. Is there a difference between Men and Women on their mean rating of how well the Congress is handling our foreign policy? A non-directional t-test showed that there was not enough evidence to show a difference between men and women in the mean rating of how the congress is handling our foreign policy (t= 1.57, p=0.13)
4b. Is there a difference between Democrats and Republicans on their mean rating of how well the Congress is handling our foreign policy? A directional t-test showed that Republics do give our congress a higher mean rating for how congress is handling our foreign policy (t= 0.31, p=0.76)
The 95% confidence interval for Democrats reveals that with 95% confidence, the average rating of the congress is handling the foreign policy is between 4.94 and 7.18. For Republicans, with 95% confidence, the average rating of how the congress is handling the foreign policy is between 5.19 and 7.39.
Conclusions
Based upon this research, we can conclude that there are differences between Democrats and Republicans in their mean rating of how our President is handling our economy.
Note: Since this research used a convenient sample, the results of this study can not be generalized to any larger population.