ber of 297 questionnaires were collected. Scrutiny of the study indicates that the data came from a highly restricted field of respondents. Although the data base was roughly 50% upperclassmen and 50% underclassmen, a high proportion of the students were less than 21. In fact almost 92% of the students were under 21 (12). The least represented class were seniors with their numbers only registering 14.2% (12).
One of the main reasons that this sample must be seen as skewed is that 69.0% or nearly 70% of the respondents were female. Thus, fewer than 1 in 3 respondents was male. Since a high proportion of sociology majors are women, this helps to account for the imbalance in the study. Nevertheless, since the number of women was overrepresented this study can be seen as biased toward the female perspective.
Given the biases detected in this non-random sample base, this study cannot offer a representative look at this university population as a whole. Data biased toward women and undergraduates aged 21 or younger does not offer a reliable over-view of the desired population group. Since most of the questionnaires were filled out by social science majors or students enrolled in those courses, this further limits the universal appeal of the data collected.
In looking at the measures of Involvement in Pop
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