Trends in Public Opinion & Marijuana Use

The hypothesis test for the equality of two population proportions was not applied in the testing of the four hypotheses. Rather, the equation to estimate the difference in two population proportions was used. This latter equation is typically used to establish a confidence interval estimate of the difference in population proportions (Summers, Peters, and Armstrong, 1985, pp. 361362). The criterion for the rejection of the null was p<.05, which, in the difference of proportions test applied in this study, means that z observed must be either less than 1.96 or more than +1.96 before the null may be rejected. The Data

The data upon which the testing of the hypotheses were based were extr

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ed the following equation: z = P1  P2  square root [(P1(100  P1)/N1))+(P2(100  P2)/N2))] z = .80  .79  sq rt [(.80(.20)/1316))] + [(.79(.21)/188))] z = .01  sq rt [.16/1316] + [.1659/188] z = .01  sq rt [.00012 + .00088] z = .01  sq rt .001 z = .01  .03162 z = 0.3163 The observed z statistic was 0.3163. The associated P value for this z statistic is .6240. Consistent with the region of statistical significance for p<.05, the results of the difference of proportions test failed to provide a basis for the rejection of the null. Thus, by inference, hypothesis number three, as it applied to the 1973 survey, is rejected. The proportion of the white population opposing the legalization of the use of marijuana in 1973 (80 percent) was almost identical to the proportion of non whites opposing legalization (79 percent). This difference did not provide a reasonable basis for an assumptio
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Approximate Word count = 5066
Approximate Pages = 20 (250 words per page)

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