Researched By: Katie Valder

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Does age affect your social views?

• Researched By Katie Valder
• SOC 201/ CJS 201/ PSC 202
• Taught By Dr. Ridzi

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Abstract

• My study asks is the myth true that as you age,
  your social views become more conservative?
  Something along the lines of you cant teach an
  old dog new tricks. I felt that researching this
  would be important because todays young adults
  are soon going to be stepping into leadership
  roles, if they havent already, and this study
  will help predict the general trend in leadership
  action. Will our government head towards a more
  conservative or liberal policy agenda. My
  independent variable was age, and my dependent
  variables were perspectives on homosexual
  relations, legalization of marijuana use, is it
  better for a man to work and the woman to stay
  home, sex before marriage, are women not suited
  for politics, and birth control for teens 14-16
  years old. I controlled for sex. I found that all
  but one variable with the control was
  statistically significant at the .000 level. My
  research goes to show that my original hypothesis
  is correct and your social views do tend to
  change with age. I found that the older you get
  the more conservative your views will be.

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Literature Review
I am expecting to find that as you get older,
your views will in fact gradually become more
conservative. From personal experience, and the
general trend in political office, I think that
the younger adults have more liberal views and
opinions as opposed to the middle aged and senior
citizens. From my literature reviews I have found
that although this is the preconceived and widely
held belief, that there is mixed findings on this
topic. As far as legalization on marijuana, the
general trend in all studies has clearly shown a
more widespread acceptance, from 12 in 1969 to
roughly 33.3 in 2000. This is evenly divided
(Carroll, 2005, 1). One article clearly stated
that young men and young women all hold the
belief that the women should have careers right
along beside the men.
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In this increasing diverse world, youre going to
have a liberation of more radical ideas. More of
todays youth are choosing to go independent and
not choosing between the Democratic and
Republican party (Mitchell, 1993, 51-52). Another
article noted that trend of the oldest
respondents to be more conservative and the
youngest the most liberal, (Danigelis and
Cutler, 1991, 27). It is important to note that
not all surveys are showing this. One survey
conducted by Nicholas Danigelis and Stephen
Cutler found that there were only slight
discrepancies in the respondents answers, not
enough to really come to a conclusive answer
(Danigelis and Cutler, 1991, 27). That is why I
wanted to research this topic and find out for
myself what was really going on.
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Methodology
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DV1 Homosexual Relations ( homosex2)
DV2 Should marijuana be legalized (grass2)
CV AGE
DV3 Is having sex with someone not yet your
marriage partner wrong? (premarsx2)
CV AGE
IV Age of Respondents
CV AGE
CV AGE
DV4 Is it better for everyone if the man is the
main achiever in the household and the women
stays home and takes care of the house and the
kids? (fefam2)
CV AGE
CV AGE
DV6 Teens between 14-16 years old should have
access to birth control (pillok2)
DV5 Women are not suited for politics (fepol2)
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Frequency of the Ages (IV)
This was helpful to show the exact dynamic of the
sample we are working with and to make sure it is
a fair and non-bias sample
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Distribution of the Ages
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Sexual relations between two adults of the same
sex?
Notice the huge discrepancy
This clearly shows that young adults are
defiantly more approving then senior citizens or
homosexual relations.
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Both males and females have significance at the
.01 level. We find women a bit more distinct in
their opinions.
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INCREASES
DECREASES
Legalize marijuana?
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The variables are significant at the .01 level
and once again goes to prove that age does affect
your conservative views.
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Sex between a man and a women before marriage?
30.5 Discrepancy!
The vast MAJORITY of senior citizens condone sex
before marriage while almost HALF of young adults
find NOTHING wrong with it!!!
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Males and females tended to respond the same
exact way. The percentages tended to match up.
Both are more likely to say it is wrong when they
are older.
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Is it better for the man to be the achiever in
the household and the woman to stay home and take
care of the house and the family?
44.4 Discrepancy
Clearly more senior citizens think that the man
ought to be the breadwinner and the wife ought to
be the housewife.
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This graph shows that there is notable increase
in the older respondents as far as whether women
are more qualified in office.
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There is no clear distinction between the mens
responses where as women, you can see a clear
increase in the older female respondents saying
that women are not suitable in politics!
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Should methods of birth control should be made
available to teens between the ages of 14-16
years?
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• What does this mean? Your age does affect your
  social views. The trend goes to show that as you
  age, your views become more conservative!

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Bibliography
Carroll, Joseph. 2005. Who Supports Marijuana
Legalization? Gallup Poll, November 1, pp.
1-3. Danigelis, Nicholas L. and Stephen J.
Cutler. 1991. "Cohort Trends in Attitudes About
Law and Order Who's Leading the Conservative
Wave?" The Public Opinion Quarterly 55
24-49. Mitchell, Susan. 1993. "How to Talk to
Young Adults. American Demographics 15
50-54. IMAGES credited to http//images.google.
com