Summary of Spreadsheet Assignment
My spreadsheet consists of data taken from the THEARDA website. I selected seven different countries (mostly European ones) for which historical religious variables that applied to them were examined. These variables were the 'GFI' (Government Favoritism or Religion Index), the 'SRI' (Social Regulation Index), and 'PPP' (Purchasing Power Parity). The first two variables describe a country's openness and level of control over religious matters. The PPP, describes a country's economic purchasing power (as noted by the gross national income per capita). The connection between these variables is to find out whether economic power and level of religious freedom in a country are correlated. To make the numbers make sense, totals in terms of PPP for all the countries were calculated, as well as the totals for the variables aforementioned. The mean, standard deviation, and ranges were also displayed, to get a general sense of the countries as a group. Here's a summary, of the collection of this data:
Mean PPP = $29,882.57
SD PPP = $13,746.67
Range = $47,094 minus $8,589 = $38,505
Though the data is not as clearly conclusive for these variables as hoped for, some general patterns visible are that the higher the levels of control in a country (as evidenced by the date of countries such a Russia and Colombia) the less economic level power or PPP is found. As always, there are some anomalies to account for when conducting data studies. For example, there was no GFI or SRI data information provided for the United States. The lack of this data skews the results, because there is no way then to use that country as a comparison point. I have also generated two graphs that differ in that in one of them the PPP is represented in 'thousands'. The data ranges are then quite different between the two. Overall, it was interesting to experiment with these different variables, taking into account how different countries display different levels of social and economic behaviors.
summary of spreadsheet assignment.odt
2. Barbara Walters
Carolina -- Very nice work. Your graphs are clear and very attractive and the text accurately describes your observations in the data without leaping wildly beyond what they show. It would have been interesting to view the NRI data. I will be interested to read the comments of your classmates. Dr. Walters
04/18/12, 08:52 pm
1. JAMES DAVIS
Carolina-
I like how you used the United States in your graph and data points and talk about the lack of information in regards to the U.S. GRI and SRI skews the results because it is lacking.
I also like that you made 2 graphs and like the idea of the graph in thousands. That was very clever and makes the graph easy to read (I used more variables on the y-axis and found it a bit cluttered even though it gives more information).
Jim
04/17/12, 06:13 pm