and Professional Developed in collaboration with Alan Kemp,
Professor of Sociology and author of the book Death, Dying and
Bereavement in a Changing World, published by Pearson, 2013. This
topic is discussed in SOC 212, Sociology of Death.
- Why Statistical Reasoning Is Important For A Sociology Student And Professional Developed In Collaboration With Alan Kem 1 (91.1 KiB) Viewed 32 times
5. Why Statistical Reasoning Is Important for a Sociology Student and Professional Developed in collaboration with Alan Kemp, Professor of Sociology and author of the book Death, Dying and Bereavement in a Changing World, published by Pearson, 2013. This topic is discussed in SOC 212, Sociology of Death. Briefing 4.2 Terror Management Theory (TMT) was developed by Ernest Becker in the 1960s and 1970s. Extensive experimentation has been done to test these theories. This problem is based on the article Evidence for terror management theory: 1. The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who violate or uphold cultural values. By Rosenblatt, Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski and Lyon. It was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 57(4), Oct, 1989 pp 681-690. A basic premise behind the theory is that humans are the only species who recognize their own mortality (they know they will die in the future). Consequently, humans need a way to manage the emotions related to this knowledge. The two predominate ways that humans cope are with culture (e.g. religion and other beliefs) and self-efficacy which means that we want to know that what we do matters within our cultural worldview. One such consequence of this is that following a terrorist attack or deadly natural disaster, patriotism increases (culture) as does heroism (self-efficacy). Cultures are an artificial construction and therefore the worldview they portray can be exposed to potential threats. Since a culture can provide the standards by which a person can feel that life is fair, any person or idea that threatens the cultural norms must be removed or punished. Consequently, an expected outcome of this theory is that people will respond positively toward those who support cultural values and negatively toward those who violate these values. To test the theory, the authors of the article designed an experiment to determine if a reminder of one's own mortality would lead to more negative responses for something that violates cultural values. Municipal court judges were selected for this experiment. The purpose of the experiment was disguised. The judges were given a questionnaire. Within the questionnaire of half the judges were questions about their thoughts and feelings about the prospect of their own death. The remaining judges did not have these questions. Judges were randomly assigned the questionnaire. Following questions, the judges were given a scenario about a case of alleged prostitution and asked to set the amount of bail for the prostitute. Prostitution was used because it emphasized the moral nature of the alleged crime. No effort was made to determine the judge's opinion about prostitution, which could affect their bail amount. Judges were selected for this experiment because they have been trained to make such punishments. The objective was to determine if the reminder about their own mortality would lead to harsher penalties when someone violated the cultural norms. The average bail amount between the two groups will be compared. The hypotheses that will be tested are meant to show that judges who have been reminded about their own mortality (impact) will set higher bail amounts than judges who have not been reminded (control). The subscript i is for impact, the subscript c is for control. Ho: Mi = fc, H1: Hi > pc, a = 0.05 The following data is not authentic, but it closely approximates the results obtained by the researchers. The impact group of judges was reminded of their own mortality. The control group was not.
The following data is not authentic, but it closely approximates the results obtained by the researchers. The impact group of judges was reminded of their own mortality. The control group was not. Amount of Bait Impact 50 | 50 | 150 200 1500 || 1500 || 1200 205 | 50 | 50 | 50 Control 25 25 25 50 150 125 50 25 25 25 25 5a. Make an appropriate graph using Excel or Tableau, so that the two groups can be compared. You need to decide what is appropriate. Upload it here. Choose File No file chosen 5b. Complete the table below. Amount of Bail Impact Control Mean 455 50 Standard Deviation 614.796 44.72131 Median 150 25 5c. The p-value for the comparison of the mean bail amount is 0.041. The sample size is 22. Write a complete concluding sentence to show if there is a significant difference between the bail amounts set by judges reminded of their own mortality and judges who were not reminded. 5d. Do the results of this experiment support the contention that contemplation of one's own death leads to increased punishment of those who violate cultural norms? Why or why not?