Research Methods Chapter 4

__________ refers to generalizing from what we observe and measure to the real-world things in which we are interested

Construct validity

__________ is concerned with whether research findings from one study can be reproduced in another study.

External validity

__________ are designed to permit observations over an extended period.

Longitudinal studies

Which of the following is an example of a panel study?

National Crime Victimization Survey

__________ bridges idiographic and nomothetic approaches to explanation by seeking to understand how causal mechanisms operate in specific contexts.

Scientific realism

__________ are examples of social artifacts suitable for criminal justice research.

Social interactions

Which of the following is true with respect to validity threats?

Statistical conclusion validity impacts which groups the findings apply to.

It is often said that social science is inherently probabilistic. What is meant by that?

The best that can be said of findings is that they are more or less likely to occur, but never with certainty.

__________ involves reconciling general patterns of attitudes and actions with known individual exceptions.

The individualistic fallacy

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a cross-sectional study?

The study assesses changes that take place in a specific sample over time.

Which of the following is correct?

X is a sufficient cause of Y if Y always happens when X is present.

A condition that must be present for the effect to follow is

a necessary cause

A condition that more or less guarantees the effect in question is

a sufficient cause

Which of the following is accurate with respect to time dimensions?

all of the above

With respect to causation,

all of the above

Key elements in planning a research study include

all of these

Which of the following would be an example of a retrospective approach to longitudinal studies?

asking how many child abuse victims' parents were also abuse victims

Which of the following would serve as an example of a cross-sectional study?

both Uniform Crime Reports and a single wave of the National Crime Victimization Survey

In examining the relationship between drug use and crime discussed in your text, which of the following represents an internal validity threat?

both drug use and crime can be attributed to other causes

According to the textbook, because time order is a requirement for causal inferences, the time dimension of research requires

careful planning

Rather than try to exclude or otherwise control possible outside influences, scientific realism studies how such influences are involved in

cause-and-effect relationships

Which of the following would not be an example of organizations as units of analysis?

civilians in the military

Which of the following is not true concerning a cohort study?

cohort members are studied as individuals as well as their group affiliation

Marvin Wolfgang's study of males born in Philadelphia in 1945 was an attempt to measure delinquency by following those males from their tenth birthdays until they were 18. This is an example of what type of study?

cohort study

Which of the following is not a type of validity?

concept

The well-known Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment, discussed in Chapter 1, provides another example of

construct validity problems

Of the following, which time-dimension design is the most likely to be used for descriptive purposes

cross-sectional

Another word for an exploratory research study is a(n)

cross-sectional research study

Which of the following is not a type of longitudinal study?

cross-sectional study

Which of the following would serve as a "snapshot" of a phenomenon at one point in time?

cross-sectional study

Observations of shoplifters in Pueblo, Colorado, characterized as "72 percent men and 28 percent women, with an average age of 15.4 years" constitutes which type of analysis?

descriptive analysis

Which of the following refers to the danger of making assertions about individuals as the unit of analysis based on the examination of groups or other aggregations?

ecological fallacy

Despite a record number of cars being stolen in Newark, NJ, in 2000, Newark's auto theft rate was really lower than that of Miami, Denver, and Chicago. What is unit of analysis used in this example?

group

Households used by the National Crime Victimization Survey are an example of which unit of analysis?

groups

In an examination of violent crime among the most populous nations in the world, the United States ranks very high along with England, France, and Australia. The chance of being raped is higher in France than in the United States. What units of analysis are being used?

groups

A survey distributed on a college campus discovered that males support the death penalty in greater numbers than females. The units of analysis in this case would be

individuals

In his research, Gil examined whether people living in high-crime neighborhoods are more likely to have guns at home for protection than those living in low-crime areas. His unit of analysis was

individuals

A researcher compared the recidivism rates of drug abusers who were given probation with those who were sentenced to prison and discovered that the recidivism rates were highest for those sentenced to prison. What potential error is reflected by this conclusion?

internal validity

Systematic error would be found in what type of validity problem?

internal validity

Which of the following does not represent a criterion for causality?

it is not necessary for two variables to be correlated with each other

Valerie was interested in studying neighborhood anticrime organizations. She observed the activities of a neighborhood anticrime organization from the time of its inception until the time of its demise. Valerie's study was

longitudinal

Which type of research study project is designed to permit observations over an extended period of time?

longitudinal studies

It is necessary to be charged before one can be convicted. This statement is representative of

necessary cause

A study of the commentary made about the Patriot Act in 50 major newspapers' editorials found that newspapers in the Northeast gave more attention to the subject than papers in any other part of the country. What is the unit of analysis being used?

newspaper editorials

When two variables are empirically correlated with each other, they must

occur together

After a one-year study of the recidivism rates of boot camps in the state of Georgia, the lowest rates were found in the boot camps located in Macon. What units of analysis were used in this study?

organizations

Professor Hardy has spent the last decade conducting a study of the effects of early childhood "wellness" programs on subsequent delinquency. Every year, researchers visit participating families and collect a variety of data. Over the course of ten years, many families have moved away and the research staff has been unable to locate them. What problem has Professor Hardy encountered?

panel attrition

What type of study attempts to account for errors in drawing a sample by measuring the same people on two or more occasions?

panel study

Which of the following are social artifacts?

police crime reports

Which of the following would not be an example of social artifacts as units of analysis?

probation officers

Which term best describes an overly strict limitation on the kinds of concepts and variables to be considered as causes in explaining the broad range of human behavior represented by crime and criminal justice policy?

reductionism

In a general sense, external validity is concerned with whether research findings from one study can be

reproduced in another study, often under different conditions

Ruth wanted to study the educational histories of inmates in prison. She interviewed prisoners on their involvement in school and academic performance. Ruth was conducting which type of research?

retrospective

In the following research conclusion, what units of analysis are being used? "An enormous variation of deviant activities was represented in a sample of 1,485 news items. We categorized these deviant activities into five general types of analysis: violence, economic, political, ideological/cultural, and diversionary."

social artifacts

The effects of violence in children's programming is a major research endeavor that requires counting the number of violent acts in Saturday morning cartoons for an entire year. The units of analysis being used for this project are

social artifacts

All but which of the following would be a unit of analysis?

social sentiments

Basing conclusions on the statistical relationship between two variables in a study with a less-than-ideal number of cases may compromise

statistical conclusion validity

Nonsystematic bias would be found in what type of validity problem?

statistical conclusion validity

Our ability to determine whether a change in the cause is statistically associated with a change in the effect is referring to what type of validity?

statistical conclusion validity

Our ability to determine whether a change in the suspected cause is statistically associated with change in the suspected effect is

statistical conclusion validity

A key concept for validity is the __________, a way you might be wrong.

subsidiary threat

After careful study of the relationship between the economy and arson, the conclusion was drawn that when the economy is poor and unemployment is high arson rates go up. The researcher concluded that unemployed people are more likely to commit arson than are those that are employed. What error was just committed?

the ecological fallacy

One common threat to statistical conclusion validity is

the size of the sample

A major Midwestern university does annual surveys of its alumni. These surveys are designed to gauge the attitudes that alumni hold about the university, its academic programs, and the major team sports. These surveys have been an annual event for the last two decades and represent which type of study?

trend study

Which of the following would allow a researcher to measure change in a general population over time?

trend study

In criminal justice research, there is a great deal of variation in what or who is studied—which are technically known as

units of analysis

When we are concerned with whether we are correct in inferring that a cause produced an effect, we are concerned with the

validity