Chapter 6

Determine whether or not each activity would be considered a poll/survey.

Is a Poll/Survey filling out a customer feedback form online interviewing someone who has been clinically committed. the CDC asking questions over the telephone. Is Not a Poll/Survey watching and recording the number of times someone smiles. measuring cholesterol using a blood sample.

Read the scenario and choose the best strategy to help improve the survey. Samantha is conducting an online survey that asks participants many different questions about personality and takes nearly an hour to complete. After collecting some pilot data, Samantha notices toward the end of the survey that participants are choosing "strongly agree" for every question.

Add reverse-worded items

Match each example to the correct term.

Observer bias Researchers interpret prisoners' behavior as more aggressive than college students' behavior even though the behavior is identical. Reactivity Small children stop and stare at the experimenter taking notes in the room. Observer effects A participant is unusually polite because he thinks the study is about social interactions.

Sort the statements as either true or false.

True Observational research can provide information that cannot be accurately self-reported. Observational research can be used for more than just frequency claims. False Observational research always provides richer data than what can be collected from surveys. High interrater reliability means the information recorded was accurate.

Read the scenario and determine whether or not the strategies are helpful for this survey. DeAndre is observing consumers' behavior in a store to understand the effect that a going-out-of-business sale has on customer purchases. He walks around the store with a notebook, jotting down notes, but after a while he begins to notice that when people see him writing, they put down the object they are looking at and walk away.

Helpful Strategy Dress like an employee of the store. Count the number of items the consumers buy based on receipts obtained from the store. Unhelpful Strategy Use a masked design. Create a codebook of shopping behaviors.

Read the scenario and determine whether or not the strategies are helpful for this survey. Roy is surveying parents about the health of their children. He is worried that participants will want to be seen as excellent parents and will claim that their children exercise all the time and always eat healthy.

Helpful Strategy Remind the participants that they are anonymous. Add items to identify those who answer in socially desirable ways. Unhelpful Strategy Eliminate the neutral option. Add reverse-worded items.

Sort the statements as either true or false.

True Questions that come earlier in a survey may affect how later questions are answered. False How a question is worded has little to do with how it is answered. The main drawback of open-ended questions is that people often write things that are illegible. Even if respondents try to be completely honest, it is impossible for them to respond accurately enough to provide meaningful data on a survey.

Determine whether or not the following apply to this question. What mental health problems are you currently experiencing?

Applies leading open-ended Does Not Apply Likert scale negatively worded forced-choice

Determine whether or not the following apply to this survey. illegal immigrants should never be let into the United States. 1 Strongly disagree 2 3 4 5 Strongly agree Determine whether or not the following apply to this survey. negatively worded Likert scale semantic differential double-barreled forced-choice

Applies negatively worded Likert scale Does Not Apply semantic differential forced-choicedouble-barreled

What type of validity is most important to consider when creating a poll or survey?

Construct Validity

Respondents are asked to choose a number corresponding to how much they agree in --- questions. Respondents can provide as much or as little information as they would like in ---questions, while --- questions ask people to choose between two or more options. negatively worded Likert scale forced-choice open-ended

Likert scale Open-ended Forced-choice

Read the scenario and choose the best strategy to help improve the survey. Winston is conducting a survey gathering opinions on many controversial issues. He wants to be sure that respondents report some degree of an opinion rather than remaining neutral.

eliminate neutral options on items

When observers' knowledge of the research hypothesis influences how they record their observations, --- occurs. When participants change their behavior based on perceived expectations from the observer, it is called ---. When people change their behavior based on the presence of someone else, this is known as ----.

observer bias observer effects reactivity

Fill in the blanks to complete the passage. If respondents become fatigued, or are unengaged in the survey, they may answer questions in a general pattern without really considering their honest responses. This is known as using a ---. If respondents continually select "yes," they are showing ----. If respondents select all middle options, that would be referred to as ---. With sensitive topics, sometimes respondents will answer in such a way that their thoughts are in line with what they believe everyone else's are. This is called ---.

response set acquiescence fence sitting socially desirable responding.