Indexes & Scales
Logic of Sampling
Experiments
Survey Design
Unobtrusive Research
100
The following items measure the extent to which Americans are willing to associate with Germans. --It’s OK if my child marries a German. --It’s OK to have a German for a friend. --It’s OK to have a German living on the block. --It’s OK to have a German living in my community.
Bogardus social distance scale
100
You want to examine the relationship between family size and family cohesion. You use as your sample all the students in your research methods class. What kind of sampling design are you using? a. simple random sampling b. cluster sampling c. stratified sampling d. reliance on available subjects or convenience sampling
Reliance on available subjects/convenience sampling
100
The classical experiment includes all of the following EXCEPT a. independent and dependent variables. b. pretesting and posttesting. c. laboratory and natural settings. d. experimental and control groups.
Laboratory and natural settings.
100
A questionnaire includes the following question: "What do you feel is the most important issue facing the U.S. today?" followed by a blank line where respondents can provide their own response. This is an example of a: a. Close-ended question b. Open-ended question c. Matrix question d. Contingency question
Open-ended question
100
Fantanella did a content analysis of letters to the editor. She counted the number of times that the words “disagree” and “agree” appeared, but she also coded the underlying message of the letters as being positive or negative. Coding the underlying meaning of the letters is known as coding the a. ideal types. b. manifest content. c. nonobvious meaning. d. latent content.
Latent content
200
What is the main similarity of indexes and scales?
They use several indicators of a variable in one summary measure..
200
John took a systematic sample from the list of members in his car club by selecting every sixth member. The list of members is known as the a. sampling interval. b. sampling ratio. c. sampling frame. d. sampling unit
Sampling frame
200
Mitchel did an experiment on children in a classroom. He measured their social anxiety on Monday, randomly assigned half of them to be taught yoga on Wednesday, and measured their social anxiety again on Friday. Measuring the children’s social anxiety on Monday is the a. independent variable. b. pretest. c. control group. d. posttest.
Pretest
200
A survey question intended for only some respondents, determined by their responses to some other question is called a ___________________.
Contingency question
200
Unobtrusive measures can reduce the problem of a. the researcher’s impact on the phenomenon being studied. b. invalid operationalization of concepts. c. unreliable measurements. d. the ecological fallacy.
The researcher's impact on the phenomenon being studied
300
Professor Duncan administered a questionnaire containing the following items: Please tell me how you feel about your supervisor’s leadership style on the following three items: valuable ----:----:----:----:--- worthless easy ----:----:----:----:--- demanding critical ----:----:----:----:--- uncritical Duncan was using what kind of scale?
Semantic differential scale
300
What does the following statement mean? A Gallup poll indicates that 70% of voters would report that they plan to vote for Mayor Johnson with a margin of error of +/-5%
If the researchers polled another sample, they estimate that no fewer than 65% and no more than 75% of the new group would say they would vote for Mayor Johnson.
300
Which of the research projects listed below would NOT be an appropriate topic for an experiment? a. To test the effect of an exercise program on elementary students performance on an exam. b. To observe differences in the way various small groups approach a task, such as popularizing car pools. c. To describe the American travelers’ opinions on airport security. d. To test the effect of a documentary film on the contributions of Muslims to society on prejudice against Muslims.
To describe the American travelers' opinions on airport security.
300
The following four questions appeared in a survey. Which of the following questions is(are) a contingency question? Q1:Are you married? (Yes, No) Q2:How old was your spouse on his/her last birthday? Q3:What is your spouse’s current employment status? Q4:What is your current employment status?
Q2 and Q3 are contingency questions and Q1 and Q4 are not.
300
The incorrect assumption that patterns of behavior at the group level reflect corresponding patterns on an individual level is known as
Ecological fallacy
400
For inclusion into an index, two variables should have what kind of relationship? a. perfect bivariate relationship. b. strong bivariate relationship. c. weak bivariate relationship. d. no bivariate relationship.
Strong bivariate relationship
400
The average income of all citizens within a the entire population of Dallas residents is an example of a a. variable. b. parameter. c. confidence interval. d. statistic.
Parameter
400
During the experiments at the Western General Electric factory, the fact that productivity among workers increased both when the lights were dimmed as well as when the lights were brightened is likely due to the effect from
The presence of the researchers.
400
What questions should be included in a questionnaire?
1. Questions pertaining to your independent and dependent variable. 2. Demographic questions. 3. Questions about variables that might influence your dependent variable.
400
Ryan did a content analysis of political speeches to determine if candidates who discussed the economy more than other issues are likely to be elected. In this study, _______________________ are the units of observation and ___________________ are the units of analysis.
political speeches; political candidates
500
Why do researchers use indexes and scales?
Sometimes, it is necessary to use multiple indicators to measure a complex concept.
500
A group of researchers want to ask adolescents important questions about their health behaviors, and they want to have a sample that is representative of the entire U.S. population of adolescents. Since they do not have a list of every adolescent who lives in the U.S., which of the following is the best way to obtain a sampling frame? a. They should try to find locations where students “hang out” all over the country and do convenience sampling. b. They should take a sample of schools from a list of all high schools in the U.S., then use the list of students attending those schools c. They should obtain a list of landline phone numbers from all over the U.S. d. They should obtain a list of all high school students involved in Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA)
They should obtain a list of landline phone numbers from all over the U.S.
500
In an experiment, the difference between the experimental group and the control group is what?
Experimental group receives the independent variable and the control group does not.
500
When deciding the order of your questions, where should you put demographic questions for interviews vs. self-administered questionnaires?
Ask the demographic items first in interviews and last in questionnaires.
500
Professor Jenner was interested in using Census Bureau data to examine the trend in unemployment rates in the United States. However, Jenner’s definition of unemployment did not match the one used by the Census Bureau. Jenner was dealing with the issue of ___________.
Validity
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