This interactive project is based on one of our own theoretical pieces. But see how much you can tell just by the graph, before you turn to the actual piece on which it was used.

In order to discuss the Figure more easily use Figure 2.

Figure 2

Click on the BACK button of your browser to return to the interpretation practice.

1. Can you guess what the variables might be on this graph?

   jeanne's lecture notes

   Well, J and P seem to be overlapping circles. So J must be a variable that is somehow related to P. Both J and P are limited and closed, and they share the section U. J and P could be variables that are characteristics of groups.

   They could represent a group of males and a group of females. We usually measure gender by M and F. Maybe some of the males and some of the females felt that they were overly constrained by that duality and that would make U the intersection of those males and females who objected to the structural constraint of M,F.

   Or . . . J could represent the statistics class; P could represent the campus. U could represent the overlapping evaluation criteria set up by the college and recognized by the class. And S could represent the overall academic constraint on evaluation.

   Or . . .

2. How would you explain interaction on this graph?

   jeanne's lecture notes

   There seems to be a clear example of interaction between areas J and P, which produces the orange area, U. Any two variables that might produce different results (like the color orange) when they occur together could be illustrated in this manner.

   In a sample of indigenous peoples and colonizers, J might represent the indigenous people, P might represent the colonizers, and U might represent the offspring of the two: mixed background.

   There is further indication of interaction in that both J and P are wholly contained within S. S might represent the climate of the area, which would affect both indigenous people and allies.

3. What do you suppose the relative size of the areas represents?

   jeanne's lecture notes

   The size of the various areas might represent the size of the group. So that in the above example, there were more colonizers than indigenous peoples, and the climate and geography of the area might have encompassed both the indigenous peoples and the colonizers.

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   Now, turn to the actual graph and see how it was used to help explain theory. Note that it is traditional to draw graphs technically, but I don't think it was in the Ten Commandments that we had to. I had more fun making this graph as it is. jeanne

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