Social Capital [III]

Exercise for the Research MasterMultivariate Statistics

W. M. van der VeldUniversity of Amsterdam

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Goal of the ‘groups work’

• Formulate a research question• Develop a (testable) theory• Develop measurement instruments• Data for the test• Analyze the data• Presentation of research results

Data for the test

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Data for the test• Last time we

‘completed’ the search for the measures in the questionnaire:– Social trust– Age – (Civic participation)

Social Trust

Civic Engage-

ment

Age

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Data for the test

• I will use the complex concept of social trust that includes the questions named: A8, A9, A10.– Generally speaking, would you say that most people can

be trusted, or that you can’t be too careful in dealing with people?

– Do you think that most people would try to take advantage of you if they got the chance, or would they try to be fair?

– Would you say that most of the time people try to be helpful or that they are mostly looking out for themselves?

• These questions should form a scale, measure the latent construct of social trust.

• To check this we have do analyze the data.• I won’t discuss AGE and CVP.

Analysis with SPSS

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Analysis with SPSS

• Before anything else is done:– Always check whether the missing values are specified

in the data file.

• If you have constructs by derivation, analyze them first.(I have social trust to analyze).

• If you constructed all your variables, compute correlations. They will be input for LISREL.

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Analysis with SPSS• Analysis of social trust (A8, A9, A10).

– First I checked whether missing data were defined.– Since there are only three indicator for social trust, I

cannot test whether the indicators form a indicators of 1 latent construct.

• But if you have more constructs with than a test is possible. – I will skip the analysis, and assume that the items are

indicators of 1 single factor.– I proceed with the reliability analysis, using Cronbach’s

alpha.– For social trust Cronbach’s alpha = 0.7.

• Analysis of age (yrbrn)– Not discussed

• Analysis of civic participation– Not discussed, but it is a construct by definition.

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Analysis with SPSS

• I computed the correlation between the three variables in SPSS.

• The correlations are:ST CVP YRBRN1.0000.096 1.000-0.015 0.000 1.000

• Because the measure of social trust (ST) contains random measurement error (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.7≠ 1.0), we should correct for it, so that our relations are not attenuated.

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Analysis with SPSS

• There is a trick to do this: Replace the variance (1.0) of social trust with Cronbach’s alpha (0.7).

• Note that the variables are standardized (correlations!).

• ST CVP YRBRN 0.700 (<=variance replaced by Cronbach’s alpha)

0.096 1.00-0.015 0.00 1.00

• This matrix can be used as input for LISREL, but it must be in ASCII-format; it is easiest to just retype the matrix in the LISREL input syntax.

Analysis with LISREL

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Analysis with LISREL!Simple causal model for Social Trust.DA NI=4 NO=2352 MA=KMCM0.7000.096 1.000-0.015 0.000 1.0000.157 0.154 0.212 1.000LA ST CVP YRBRN EDULVL /!NOTE: FIRST THE Y-VARIABLES THEN THE X-VARIABLESSEST CVP YRBRN /MO NX=1 NY=2 GA=FU,FI PS=FU,FI!EFFECTS ON ST and CVPFR GA 1 1 GA 2 1!RELATION BETWEEN ST AND CVPFR PS 1 1 PS 2 2 PS 2 1ST 0.5 ALL!DRAW PATH DIAGRAM OF MODELPDOU ML SC IT=500

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Analysis with LISREL

Why does the model fit perfectly (chi-square=0, and p=1)?

The LISREL output file (SocTrust 1.out)

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Get to work

• Last session, we will continue the analysis

• And we have to find another time within two weeks after that, for the presentations.