Research Methods Midterm Review
_______ is a matter of whether a particular measurement technique, applied repeatedly to the same object, will yield the same result each time. ______ validity refers to whether a measure accurately reflects the common agreements on concepts. A definition that says exactly how a concept will be measured is a(n) ________ definition.
- Reliability - Face - operational
The ______ is an effort to convert the UCR to a more comprehensive crime report. A(n) ________ is produced by the intersection of two or more variables to create a set of categories. The NVCS is based on a nationally representative sample of _____.
-NIBRS -Typology -Household
___________ is the final stage of the research process.
Application
Confidentiality and anonymity mean the same thing, and can be used interchangeably.
False
If a measure is reliable, you are measuring what you think you are measuring
False
In grounded theory, observations rarely contribute to theory development.
False
Non-governmental organizations that conduct research involving human subjects need not establish review committees known as institutional review boards.
False
The idea that exceptions can be used to prove rules is valid.
False
The pillars of science are logic and rationality.
False
Validity refers to the degree to which every observation can be classified in terms of one and only one attribute.
False
Casual human inquiry is typically more rigorous are probabilistic methods
False
Longitudinal studies are designed to permit intensive observations over a short period of time
False
__________ leads to misrepresentation and simplification of problems.
Overgeneralization
_____________ means repeating a study, in order to determine whether similar results are obtained each time.
Replication
If a researcher uses only those subjects who volunteer for a study, then which outcome may be expected?
The results may not be generalizable.
Crimes must, at a minimum, have an offender, because without an offender there is no crime.
True
Cross-sectional studies are those based on observations made at one time
True
Explanatory scientific research centers on the notion of cause and effect.
True
Most explanatory social research uses a probabilistic model of causation.
True
Ordinal measures are variables whose attributes may be logically rank-ordered.
True
Selective observation is a danger of overgeneralization
True
To be scientifically useful, the attributes of every variable should be exhaustive as well as mutually exclusive.
True
We live in a world of two realities; agreement and experiential.
True
As you review the research literature, you should make note of how other researchers approach problems of interest, and consider whether the same designs will meet your research objective.
True
Individuals may be units of analysis in criminal justice research.
True
Individuals must be allowed to make their own decisions about participation in research.
True
The benefits and burdens of participating in research should be distributed fairly.
True
The scientific criteria for causality include ____.
a correlation between the cause and the effect
Traditional beliefs about patrol effectiveness, response time and detective work are examples of _________________ reality.
agreement
In our daily lives, we base reality of experience and __________.
agreement
Manipulation of data for the purpose of drawing conclusions is known as _____________.
analysis
When saying validity is "the approximate truth of an inference," the emphasis is on ____.
approximate
When we trust the judgments of people who have special training, such as a doctor or a lawyer, we relying on _____ as a way of knowing.
authority
To have scientific utility, a variable should be ____.
exhaustive and mutually exclusive
What are the four purposes of research?
exploration, description, explanation, application
In the U.S., adult prisoners _____.
have, historically, been physically harmed by research participation
If you believe that the exception proves the rule, you are engaging in _____________ reasoning.
illogical
Units of analysis are typically also the units of ____.
observation
A researcher asks participants to indicate how frequently they have used various illicit drugs using the following scale: 1 = never used; 2 = used 1 - 5 times; 3 = used 6 - 10 times; 4 = used more than ten times. This scale is best described as ____ level.
ordinal
A study of violence in children's programming requires counting the number of violent acts in Saturday morning cartoons for an entire year. The unit of analysis being used for this project is the ____.
social artifact
In the Stanford prison study, ____.
subjects accepted their roles very readily
A(n) _____ can be thought of as a complex set of relationships among several concepts.
theory
Since its inception, the ____ has served as a measure to monitor the volume of crime, including crimes not reported to police.
NCVS
The ____ provides nationally-representative data on the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.
NSDUH
The ____ is a panel study.
National Crime Victimization Survey
If a researcher uses only those subjects who volunteer for a study, then which outcome may be expected?
The results may not be generalizable.
If a researcher uses only those subjects who volunteer for a study, then which outcome may be expected?
The results may not be generalizable.
The dictionary definition of the word "ethical" is "conforming to standards of conduct of ____."
a given profession or group
A group of researchers from an urban university want to employ some target hardening techniques in their area. Which outcome might they expect?
an increase in crime in surrounding areas
When it is not possible to match research data to the identities of participants, _____ has been achieved.
anonymity
The relationship between attributes and variables lies at the heart of ____.
both description and explanation in science
In the U.S., federally designated special populations ____.
cannot be exposed to a greater amount of risk than other populations
A researcher is developing a scale to reflect satisfaction with police services. Which activity will yield an indication of the new scale's criterion-related validity?
comparing scores on the new scale of satisfaction to scores on an established scale of satisfaction
The words or symbols in language used to illustrate subjective thoughts or mental images about things we may encounter in daily life are known as ____.
concepts
The researcher can lessen the potential for harm when doing research by ____.
considering which study design to use based on its potential for harm
Validity that is related to the logical relationships between variables is known as ____ validity.
construct
Traditional approaches to finding cause and effect usually try to isolate causal mechanisms from other possible influences while the scientific realist approach views these other possible influences as ____.
contexts
With respect to harm in the conduct of research, ____.
criminal justice research may generate special considerations regarding physical harm
You observe police activity in your city for one week, and then you summarize what you observed. What type of study have you performed?
descriptive
Which action is central to voluntary participation?
disclosing research purpose with informed consent
Determining whether a program designed to reduce burglary actually had the intended effect is an example of _____.
evaluation
Things we know from direct experience are a direct result of ____ reality.
experiential
We live in a world of two realities: _____.
experiential and agreement
When we attempt to answer questions about why something happens, the purpose of our research is _____.
explanation
A researcher wants to measure attitudes towards gun control by asking people whether they would be worried about traveling to areas where there are known to be a lot of illegal guns. Critics argue that the conceptualization does not really look as though it is related to attitudes about gun control, in other words, that it lacks ____ validity.
face
Ethical issues raised with the Sanford prison study include ________.
failure to obtain informed consent
A conceptual definition ____.
focuses our observational strategy
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
The NVCS is based on a nationally representative sample of _____.
households
Which pair refers to whether an explanation seeks to explain a particular event or a class of events?
idiographic and nomothetic
A scientific realist approach to examining mechanisms in context bridges ____.
idiographic and nomothetic approaches to causation
The idea that "the exception that proves the rule" is an example of _____.
illogical reasoning
After reading current research on the causes of juvenile crime and noting that lack of opportunity, school failure, and parental neglect are often prominently mentioned, you have trouble reconciling what you read with what your personal experience. You think in particular of someone you went to high school with who, despite coming from a well-educated, wealthy family, being a star student and athlete, and having very attentive parents, carried out a series of burglaries and arsons. This illustrates the ____ fallacy.
individualistic
A survey distributed on a college campus discovered that males support the death penalty in greater numbers than do females. The units of analysis in this case would be ____.
individuals
Suppose a researcher describes the age, race, and gender distributions for people who are charged with shoplifting. The unit of analysis is ____.
individuals
The norm of voluntary participation is usually satisfied by ____.
informed consent
One objective of this book is to help future criminal justice professionals become _____.
informed consumers of research
Which levels of measurement allow for attributes to be placed on a continuum with equal distance between points?
interval and ratio
The two essentials of science are ____.
logic and observation
Attempts to guard against harm to the participants in the simulated prison were accomplished by ____.
making certain that all participants were psychologically healthy
A researcher using social artifacts as the unit of analysis might be studying ____.
newspaper editorials
When conducting field or survey interviews, ____.
only legitimate researchers should have access to the master file
If a cross-sectional study can be likened to a "snapshot," and a trend study to a "slide show," then which study is most like a "motion picture?"
panel study
What might be a useful indicator of the dimension "victim harm"?
physical injury
Patterns of cause and effect are _____ in nature.
probabilistic
Justice organizations are increasingly using techniques of _____ to study patterns of cases and devise appropriate responses
problem analysis
When assessing the potential for harm, the researcher should _____.
proceed when the potential benefit outweighs the potential harm
The two major types of applied research are _____.
program evaluation and policy analysis
Institutional review boards ____.
provide expert advice on how to resolve ethical dilemmas present in some research
The age of an offender is an example of the ____ level of measurement?
ratio
The production report generated at the city police department contains the number of arrests made by each officer on a monthly basis. The number of arrests would be what level of measurement?
ratio
The primary difference between the interval and the ratio level of variables is that ____.
ratio level is on a true zero point, while interval level is not
The test-retest method is used to examine ____.
reliability
What unit of analysis is being used in the following statement? "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
Suppose a researcher wants to understand why some stores have higher rates of shoplifting than do others and looks at the relationship between rates of shoplifting for particular stores and the characteristics of the stores (e.g., what is sold there, the type of neighborhood, staffing levels, etc.). In this case, the unit of analysis is ____.
stores at which shoplifting occurs
A researcher is developing a measure of the impact of living in high-crime neighborhoods and, in assessing its reliability administers it to the same people on two occasions several weeks apart. The researcher is assessing ____ reliability.
test-retest
Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo designed a simulated prison to measure ____.
the situational hypothesis
Researchers may face legal liability when _____.
they become participants in the criminal activity they are observing
Which study design would allow a researcher to measure change in a general population over time?
trend study
When we say something is valid, we make a judgment about the extent to which relevant evidence supports that inference as being ____.
true or correct
Logical sets of attributes are known as ____.
variables
One of the most important issues addressed by institutional review boards relates to _____.
voluntariness of participation
A local university is hosting the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) for a large group of prospective law students. Since there is such a large group taking the test, some professors of sociology from the local university decide to administer a questionnaire to the group asking their ideas on teenage sexual promiscuity. The professors informed the group about their research project. They assured them that their identity will not be disclosed and all information gathered will remain confidential. Which ethical issue was not considered?
voluntary participation