Intro To Social Research 337 Final Exam Chapter 9

Interview surveys are recommended to open with

A brief conversation

Professor Smidlapp mailed a questionnaire to students on the issue of academic dishonesty. Smidlapp planned to use inferential statistics in the analyses and was concerned about the response rate. You tell Smidlapp that technically the use of inferential statistics assumes that:

All members of the initial sample complete and return the questionnaire

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of interviews? - They are more effective than self-administered questionnaires for dealing with complicated issues - You can conduct a survey interview based on a sample of addresses - You can conduct a survey interview based on a sample of phone numbers - All of these choices are TRUE

All of these choices are TRUE

A questionnaire item, distributed to a random sample of adults, reading "Are you not in support of nationalized health care", with a yes or no possible response, would violate which concept?

Avoid negative items

A return-rate graph:

Begins on the day the questionnaires were mailed

A variety of methods are available for the presentation of response categories. Which of the following methods does Babbie prefer?

Boxes

Which of the following is NOT recommended for conducting online surveys? - Change terminology to keep the respondent interested - Use plain, simple language - Offer to share selected results from the study with everyone who completes the survey - Plan the time of day and day of week to send the email

Change terminology to keep the respondent interested

During an interviwer training session, Jones, a trainee, asks you, "What should I do if . . . ?" You tell Jones:

Check the specifications

The number of potential respondents that a researcher encounters, whether they participate or not, is labeled by the American Association For Public Opinion Research is

Contact rate

One of the most important abilities that good interviewers have is the ability to:

Determine very quickly the kind of person with whom the respondent feels most comfortable

The questionnaire item,"Did you file federal and state income tax reports last year?" with a response set of yes, no, can't remember, other, is an example of a(n):

Double-Barreled question

Which of the following statements about contingency questions is FALSE? Contingency questions are designed to: - Increase the likelihood of responses from those whom the questions are relevant - Square respondents the frustration of reading and puzzling over questions that are irrelevant to them - Enable the researcher to ask several questions that have the same set of answer set - Facilitate the respondent's task in completing the questionnaire

Enable the researcher to ask several questions that have the same set of answer set

Bias in a questionnaire item:

Encourages respondents to answer questions in a particular way

Which of the following techniques tends to have the highest response rate? - Mail surveys - Fax surveys - Telephone surveys - Face-to-face interviews

Face-to-face interviews

Which of the following lists the three main methods of administering survey questionnaires? - Self-administered questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, and mail surveys - Face-to-face interviews, mail surveys, and electronic surveys - Face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, electronic surveys - Face-to-face interviews, self-administered questionnaires, and telephone surveys

Face-to-face interviews, self-administered questionnaires, and telephone surveys

The primary function of the probe is to:

Get the respondent to answer a question more fully

In contrast to interviews, self-administrered questionnaires have the advantage(s) of:

Handling sensitive issues more effectively if the surveys are anonymous

Monitoring self-administered questionnaire returns may enable you to detect which of the following threats to internal invalidity? - Standard errors - Statistical regression - Compensatory rivalry - History

History

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of the telephone interview as compared to face-to-face interview? - Saves time - Less expensive - Safe - No interviewer bias

No interviewer bias

Which of the following is NOT true regarding closed-ended and open-ended questions? - Close-ended questions are more easily quantifiable - Open-ended questions need not be coded before analysis - Open-ended questions lead to a greater variety of responses - Close-ended questions are usually limited to three or four choices

Open-ended questions need not be coded before analysis

A well designed training session for new interviewers should include all but which of the following? - A review of the survey instrument to build familiarization - Strategies on how to probe for additional information when appropriate - A description of what the study is about - Practice interviewing on actual participants in the research

Practice interviewing on actual participants in the research

Professor Donnelly wants to conduct a training session for new interviewers working on his project. Donnelly asks you to review his plan for the training session. After reviewing the plan you should tell Donnelly to exclude _____ from the session?

Practice interviews on people that Donnelly's selected for the sample

On a survey measuring respondents' fear of crime, including a question about one's political views would be an example of which of the problem in survey research?

Question should be relevant

Asking subjects "Did your children go to high school?" after they told you that they have no children violates which of the following criteria in question construction? - Avoid double-barreled questions - Questions should be relevant - Avoid biased items - Avoid negative items

Questions should be relevant

When follow-ups are planned with mail surveys:

Response rates typically increase

Interactive Voice Recognition is a developing technology in what current method of conducting survey research?

Robopolling

In general, survey research is:

Strong on reliability and weak on validity

Which of the following advantages of the interview may raise ethical issues? - Its higher response rate - Its fewer number of "don't knows" - The ability of interviewers to clarify questions - The ability of interviewers to observe respondents as well as ask questions

The ability of interviewers to observe respondents as well as ask questions

Interview surveys have a number of advantages over mail surveys; which of the following is NOT one of those advantages? - Higher response rates - There is generally a smaller number of "don't knows" and "no answers" - There is a smaller number of relevant responses given - Observations can be made

There is a smaller number of relevant responses given

Which of the following is a benefit of mail surveys over interview surveys? - Higher response rates - There is generally a smaller number of "don't knows" and "no answers" - Questions can be clarified rather than skipped by the participant - They allow more honest responses from participants

They allow more honest responses from participants

Working with a very limited budget, Professor Jenner undertook a national survey of 3,000 households. Jenner felt that the topic under investigation would produce a low response rate. What advice would you give Jenner?

Use bulk rate for the outgoing mail and business reply for the return mail

A key problem of secondary analysis is:

Validity