Research Methods Final

The College of Arts and Science at Delta University has nine departments. The number of faculty in each department is shown below. What is the median number of faculty in the College of Arts and Science? 8, 12, 9, 15, 17, 11, 13, 14, 7

12

Given the following age distribution, the mean is _____. 18, 33, 7, 32, 6, 5, 4

15

In a 2×3 table how many cells do we need to fill in before the remainder of the table is determined by the marginal frequencies?

2

Given the following age distribution, the range is _____. 12, 15, 8, 17, 34, 43, 2, 16, 43, 3

2 to 43

How many degrees of freedom exist in the following table?

4

Given a mean of 12 and a standard deviation of 2, we can conclude that:

68 percent of cases are between 10 and 14.

Which of the following is NOT a fundamental assumption of conversation analysis?

An utterance should have the same meaning irrespective of the context.

Certain guidelines should be kept in mind when coding. Among these is the following:

Code categories should be both mutually exclusive and exhaustive.

Which statement about social research is TRUE?

Concept mapping can be used for either quantitative or qualitative analysis.

Which of the following statements about data entry is FALSE?

Data analysis can begin before data entry has begun.

Dr. Whitney has just finished a qualitative study of attitudes about race among college students. She is concerned that her analysis might be flawed. Which of the following would be BAD advice about how to ensure the quality of her research?

Have another researcher analyze your data quantitatively.

Which of the following is NOT one of the four stages of the constant comparative method?

Identifying the variables to use in the study

Which of the following statements is most appropriate when discussing the grounded theory method?

It is similar to cross-case analysis.

Which of the following is TRUE of variable-oriented analysis?

It provides a partial overall explanation using relatively few variables.

Which of the following statements is FALSE regarding semiotic analysis?

Language is the only sign system of interest to those doing semiotic analysis.

Which of the following measures of central tendency can be used for any level of measurement?

Mode

Which of the following statements is FALSE about the logic of ANOVA?

Only one explanatory variable can be used in an ANOVA analysis.

Helene has two ratio-level variables in her study and wants to calculate a measure of association. Which one of the following would be best?

Pearson's r

Michael is studying the pattern of volunteers at a local battered women's shelter. Specifically, he was following how college-age students first volunteer, then take on an internship, and then finally seek employment at the agency. What is Michael studying?

Processes

Which of the following is a benefit of the qualitative analysis of quantitative data?

Qualitative analysis adds nuance to understandings of quantitative data.

Which of the following would not be an example of sociological diagnostics?

Robert's GPA variations while in college

Computer software packages designed to analyze qualitative data include all but which of the following:

SPSS

Mikhael is examining the symbolic elements of a standard police encounter, such as the behaviors and clues an officer encounters that could signify danger. What sort of qualitative research is he performing?

Semiotic analysis

Dr. Adams is conducting a conversation analysis in a college classroom. Which of the following ethical issues should she be especially careful of?

She might accidentally reveal personally identifying information.

Studying the relationship between parental supervision and juvenile delinquency, Maria found a strong relationship between the two. She then introduced a third variable, education, and the partials still showed a strong relationship between supervision and delinquency. What may she conclude?

That replication took place.

A codebook contains the following information: COLUMNS DESCRIPTION 1-3 I.D. # (assign each respondent a unique 3-digit ID# from 001 to 851) 4 Sex 1=Male 2=Female 5 Class Standing 1=freshman 2=sophomore 3=junior 4=senior 5=transfer 6=don't know 7=no answer 8=refused Which statement concerning the codebook is TRUE? ​

The codebook contains three variables.

You are helping code one of your professor's data. You are coding occupation and notice that there is no code for a respondent's indicated occupation. Which of the following statements would be correct in relating the problem to the professor?

The coding scheme for occupation is not mutually exclusive.

A friend showed you the following table: Total Arrests in Orlando in 2005 by Type of Crime and Sex

The table doesn't violate any guidelines.

Given the following computer printout from a factor analysis, which of the following statements is TRUE?

There are seven variables.

Which of the following is NOT true for a qualitative researcher?

They always use computers to conduct statistical analyses of the data.

The formulas for some measures of association can result in coefficients with either positive or negative signs. Under which of the following circumstances can those signs be meaningfully interpreted?

When the data are measured at the ordinal level

Professor Cay notes that respondent Mary Ginger is a 54-year-old grandmother who has two grandchildren living in her household. Neither of the grandchildren's parents live with them although Mary is the maternal grandmother. Cay also learns that Ginger had to quit her job in order to stay home with the young grandchildren because Ginger feared leaving the two youngsters with a babysitter or in child care. Two of Ginger's friends were dealing with similar situations and a third friend was considering whether to obtain custody of her grandchild. Thus, Cay learned that Ginger wasn't feeling "alone" in caring for her grandchildren. Using this information alone, it sounds like Professor Cay is doing:

a case-oriented idiographic analysis.

A codebook contains the following information: COLUMNS DESCRIPTION 1-4 Case Number (a random identification number between 0001 and 9999) 4 Sex 1=Male 2=Female 5 Metropolitan Area of Residence 1=New York 2=Boston 3=Baltimore/Washington DC 4=Atlanta 5=Orlando 6=Tampa 7=Miami 8=Unknown 9=Missing ​ Following this codebook, an individual assigned the number 283921 is: ​

a female participant residing in New York.

In path analysis, the statistic measuring the strength of a relationship between pairs of variables with the effect of other variables held constant is called:

a path coefficient.

An example of multivariate analysis would be:

an analysis of the relationship between age, sex, and type of nightspot frequented in a given city in the Midwest.

A gamma value of 3.3 indicates:

an error in calculations.

Professor Smith found a relationship between education and occupation. However, when age was introduced as a test factor, the relationship between education and occupation disappeared in the partials. In Professor Smith's study, age was introduced as a(n):

antecedent control variable.

Faced with data that do not support an assumption of independence between two variables in a population, a researcher should:

attribute this discrepancy to an unrepresentative sample or reject the assumption of independence.

Using simple random sampling, 100 males were drawn from a population and asked their age. The mean age for these men was 22. The standard error for the sample was 5. We are 68% confident that the population parameter is:

between 17 and 27.

Marco wants to conduct a research study to determine if students living on campus feel more or less safe than those who live off campus. At the most basic level, he should use _____.

bivariate analysis

Contingency tables can be used to present and describe:

bivariate and multivariate relationships.

Which of the following statistics can be used to determine whether or not there is a statistically significant relationship between two variables in a contingency table?

chi square

Creating a graphic representation of the major concepts in your project and how they relate to each other is an example of:

concept mapping.

In the process of studying teenagers who play online role-playing games, Professor Johnson began her analysis with an in-depth interview with one of her students. She then takes the information from this first interview and applies it to subsequent interviews. This would be an example of:

cross-case analysis.

At the univariate level, descriptive statistics are used for:

data reduction.

Basically, path analysis attempts to:

describe relationships among variables by developing causal models.

Construction of explanatory bivariate tables involves:

dividing cases into the appropriate subgroups, describing each subgroup in terms of a given variable, and comparing those descriptions across subgroups.

Naoko performed a research project on community perceptions of police officer discretion, and after observing the empirical relationship, she created a hypothesis that explained the relationship between the variables. She engaged in:

elaboration.

Mabel did a study on regional differences in Christmas gift-giving and, after observing the empirical relationship, she developed a hypothesis to explain the relationship. Mabel was engaging in:

ex post facto hypothesizing.

Forrester found a strong positive relationship between participation in high school extracurricular activities and community involvement as adults. He controlled for gender and the relationship between high school extracurricular activities and community involvement was nonexistent for both men and women. Which type of elaboration analysis is this?

explanation

In conducting a project to study the relationship between number of criminal offenses committed and education, a researcher introduces the variable of age. When this was done, the relationship between education and crime disappeared. What type of research was conducted?

explanation

Which one of the following is the term used to describe a spurious relationship?

explanation

Which of the following is an INAPPROPRIATE unit of analysis in Geographic Information Systems?

fire departments

A description of the number of times that the various attributes of a variable are observed in a sample is called a _____.

frequency distribution

An appropriate measure of association for the data presented below is: EMPLOYMENT STATUS AGE High Medium Low 31-40 100 300 800 41-50 300 700 500 51-60 600 200 100 ​ Hide answer choices

gamma

Samuel wanted to calculate a measure of association for her two variables of age and education, both of which were coded in three ordinal categories. Which one of the following would be best?

gamma

Code notes are used to:

identify the code labels and their meanings.

Axial coding aims at:

identifying the core concepts in the study.

Jeremy was born in 1948 and grew up during the 1960s. He was sent to Vietnam in 1967. In Vietnam he was horrified by what he saw, and when he returned home he suffered sleepless nights and nightmares. He began to work at a bank but often fell asleep during the day. He met Mary, another bank employee, in 1980 and they got married in 1981. They got divorced in 1983 as Mary could not keep up with Jeremy's nightmares, bouts of depression, and bouts with alcohol. After the divorce, Jeremy's depression increased, which led to the increase of his alcohol consumption. He was fired from his job later in 1983. An explanation for Jeremy's job loss could be termed as:

idiographic and case-oriented analysis.

Forrester found a strong positive relationship between participation in high school extracurricular activities and community involvement as adults. He controlled for amount of college and the relationship between high school extracurricular activities and community involvement was nonexistent for all three categories of college attainment. Which type of elaboration analysis is this?

interpretation

To begin the elaboration paradigm, we must know whether the test variable

is antecedent or intervening to the other two variables.

Raj wanted to examine the strength of the relationship between political affiliation (Democrat, Republican, Independent, Other, None) and religious beliefs (Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Other, None). Which measure of association should he use to present this relationship?

lambda

The appropriate measure of association for two nominal-level variables is:

lambda.

Which of the following techniques would be MOST useful in analyzing the relationship between sex (male, female), political party preference (Democrat, Republican, Other), religious affiliation (believe in a higher order, unsure about a higher order, do not believe in a higher order), and support for gun control (yes, no, don't know)?

log-linear models

Inferential statistics are used to:

make inferences to the population the sample was taken from.

When summarizing heavily skewed data, the best measure of central tendency is:

median.

The most frequently occurring attribute, in either grouped or ungrouped data, is the _____.

mode

A zero-order relationship means that:

no test factors have been controlled for.

Professor Dahl was using NVivo for an analysis of relationships. Dahl created a node called "friendship" and then created a node called "same-sex" and another node called opposite-sex" under "friendship." Dahl was creating:

nodes

Which of the following is NOT an assumption underlying the use of inferential statistics?

nonprobability sampling

Which of the following hypotheses assumes that there is no relationship between two variables?

null

The grounded theory method begins with:

observations.

Caitlin studied the relationship between gender and adjustment to retirement. She controlled for type of job before retirement and set up tables relating gender to retirement adjustment for each of her three categories of job type before retirement. The relationships displayed in these tables are known as:

partial relationships.

The elaboration model examines the impact of other variables on the:

relationship first observed.

Stephen found a strong positive relationship between participation in high school extracurricular activities and community involvement as adults. He controlled for gender and got the same relationship between high school extracurricular activities and community involvement for both partial tables showing men and women. Which type of elaboration analysis is this?

replication

Walter discovered a strong positive relationship between parental engagement with their children and subsequent college success. He controlled for the educational level of parents and found the same relationship in all three partial tables for parental education level. Which type of elaboration analysis did he perform?

replication

When partial relationships and original relationships are essentially the same, it is an example of:

replication

Whenever partial relationships are essentially the same as the original relationship, the term assigned to the result, regardless of whether the test variable is antecedent or intervening, is a(n):

replication.

A relationship was found between education and income. Tables A and B are the partials controlling for sex. What do these tables indicate?

specification

Forrester found a strong positive relationship between participation in high school extracurricular activities and community involvement as adults. He controlled for amount of college and the relationship between high school extracurricular activities and community involvement was negative for low college attainment, nonexistent for medium college attainment, and positive for high college attainment. Which type of elaboration analysis is this?

specification

Forrester found a strong positive relationship between participation in high school extracurricular activities and community involvement as adults. He controlled for gender, and the relationship between high school extracurricular activities and community involvement appeared among the men but not at all among the women. Which type of elaboration analysis is this?

specification

Professor Wang wonders whether all grandparents act alike or whether there are different roles associated with grandparenting. According to Lofland et al., Wang should focus on _________ of the research in order to determine whether there are different types of grandparenting roles.

structures

The key to making ex post facto hypothesizing legitimate is that:

such hypotheses are themselves subject to testing.

The variable held constant in the elaboration model to determine the relationship between others is a(n):

test variable.

The end product of the coding process in quantitative analysis refers to:

the conversion of data items into numerical codes.

A measure of dispersion describes:

the distribution of values around some central value.

The particular value of the elaboration model is to show

the logic of causal analysis.

Looking at your data and frequency distribution, you find that a variable labeled LEVEL has only whole number values between 1 and 5. You can conclude that the variable is a(n):

the mean, median, and mode are all equal.

Suppose we observed that the more firefighters there were at a fire site, the greater the amount of fire damage. Suppose we also observed that the size of the fire was related to both the amount of damage and the number of firefighters present. The relationship between numbers of firefighters and the amount of fire damage illustrates that:

the relationship between firefighters and the amount of damage is spurious.

In reading Court decisions, Professor Wofford notices that the decisions typically discuss the "rational male." Wofford begins to write notes in which she ruminates about the notion of the rational male as well as why the concept of the rational female is not mentioned. Wofford's memos are:

theoretical notes.

A .05 level of significance means that:

there is only a 5% chance that the statistic's value could be obtained as a result of sampling error.

Interpretation differs from explanation when it comes to:

time placement of test variable.

Jeff thinks that market sales are influenced by the preceding year's unemployment rate. Jeff should use a ____ for his analysis.

time-lagged regression analysis

Professor Triker is interested in examining the occupational mobility of women in the United States. Triker believes that people's first job affects their second job and that job in turn affects their third job, and so on. To analyze the data Triker should use:

time-series analysis.

When a researcher begins with a specific case or participant, and then applies those findings to subsequent participants in order to develop a theory, he or she is:

using a cross-case method approach and grounded theory.

Professor Wilton decided to test whether blondes have more fun. Wilton surveyed 600 people and obtained the following results:

within columns, down.

The best advice for writing memos is that:

you should write memos throughout the data collection and data analysis process.

The relationship between IQ and shoe size, with no other variables measured, is an example of a(n):

zero-order relationship.