STA630
Shared By Fawad <fwdwaseem@gmail.com>
Closed ended questions are those that:
a) Have a fixed range of possible answers
b) Prevent respondents from allocating themselves to a category
c) Encourage detailed, elaborate responses
d) Relate to the basic demographic characteristics of respondents
Which of the following is not a disadvantage of telephone interviewing?
a) Researchers do not have to spend so much time and money on travelling
b) Some people in the target population may not own a telephone
c) It can be difficult to build rapport over the telephone
d) Interviewers cannot use visual cues such as show cards
The acronym "CATI" stands for:
a) Camera-activated telescopic interviewing
b) Computer-assisted telephone interviewing
c) Corrective anti-terrorist interviewing
d) Critical analysis of telepathic interviewing
Which of the following might you include in an introductory letter to respondents?
a) An explanation of who you are and who is funding your research
b) An overview of what the research is about and how the data will be collected
c) A statement of their ethical rights to anonymity, confidentiality, etc.
d) All of the above
A filter question is one that:
a) Ensures that all respondents are asked every question on the schedule and in the same order
b) Leaves a space for respondents to write long and detailed answers
c) Helps the interviewer to avoid asking irrelevant questions by directing them elsewhere on the schedule
d) Allows supervisors to distinguish between good and bad interviewers
Which of the following is not advised when planning the question order of a structured interview?
a) Be wary of asking an earlier question that alters the salience of later questions
b) Expect some variation in the order in which questions are asked
c) Leave questions about sensitive or embarrassing issues until later in the interview
d) Group the questions into logically organised sections
A show card is:
a) One that prevents respondents from expressing their opinions about a statement
b) One that encourages explicit discussion of sensitive or personal information
c) One that prompts respondents to choose from a range of possible answers
d) One that researchers must present when they compete at pony club events
The response set of "acquiescence" can be a problem in that:
a) Some people consistently agree or disagree with a set of questions or items
b) Respondents tend to give answers that they think are socially desirable
c) The structured interview is so conducive to reciprocity that male respondents find it hard to stop talking
d) Researchers who wear very strong perfume will distract their respondents
Which of the following statements is correct?
a) Self-completion questionnaires are a type of postal survey
b) Postal surveys can include self-completion or email surveys
c) Self-completion questionnaires can include postal or email surveys
d) Email surveys are a type of postal questionnaire
One of the advantages of self-completion questionnaires over structured interviews is that:
a) They are quicker and cheaper to administer
b) They create interviewer effects
c) They have greater measurement validity
d) They are less prone to inter-coder variation
Which of the following is not a disadvantage of self-completion questionnaires compared to structured interviews?
a) The respondent can read the whole questionnaire before answering the first question
b) The researcher cannot ask many closed-ended questions
c) The researcher cannot probe or prompt respondents for more detail
d) The respondent may not answer all questions, resulting in missing data
Which of the following steps can be taken to improve response rates to a self-completion questionnaire?
a) Write a personalized covering letter to introduce the research
b) Enclose a stamped addressed envelope with a postal questionnaire
c) Send out polite reminder letters
d) All of the above
Why is it generally better to present fixed choice answers in vertical rather than horizontal form?
a) It takes up less space on the page
b) It encourages respondents to choose more than one answer
c) It allows questions to be spread over more than one page
d) It makes the layout of the questionnaire more clear and unambiguous
When using a Likert scale with a long list of items, it is usually better to:
a) Arrange the answers horizontally, in abbreviated form
b) List the answers vertically, for each consecutive item
c) Omit any instructions about how to select an answer
d) List all questions on one page and all answers on another
In order to identify response sets in a Likert scale, you could:
a) Pre-code all items consistently from 1-5
b) Reverse the scoring of pre-coded answers
c) Only include items about socially desirable behaviours
d) Include explicit instructions to respondents not to deceive you
Corti (1993) makes a distinction between two types of researcher-driven diary:
a) Valid and reliable diaries
b) Quantitative and qualitative diaries
c) Structured and free-text diaries
d) Open or closed answer diaries
The 'time-use' diary can provide quantitative data about:
a) The amount of time respondents spend on certain activities every day
b) The subjective meanings that concepts of 'time' have for different people
c) The way respondents make sense of their life stories in narrative form
d) The historical significance of clocks, watches and other devices for measuring time
One advantage of using diaries in quantitative research is that:
a) There is little danger of attrition, as respondents tend to be highly motivated
b) They are likely to elicit data about sensitive issues or deviant activities
c) They highlight the thoughts, feelings and experiences that are unique to each respondent
d) None of the above
Which of the following is a problem associated with survey research?
a) The problem of objectivity
b) The problem of "going native"
c) The problem of omission
d) The problem of robustness
The key advantage of structured observation over survey research is that:
a) It does not rely on the researcher's ability to take notes
b) The researcher is immersed as a participant in the field they are studying
c) It does not impose any expectations of behaviour on the respondents
d) It allows you to observe people's behaviour directly
What is an observation schedule?
a) A set of explicit rules for assigning behaviour to categories
b) A timetable of days on which you plan to carry out your observation
c) A list of questions to ask your interviewees
d) A way of testing for measurement validity
LaPiere conducted a study of the way restaurant owners granted or refused access to a Chinese couple. This is an example of observing behaviour in terms of:
a) Individuals
b) Incidents
c) Short time periods
d) Long time periods
It may not be possible to use a probability sample to observe behaviour in public places because:
a) The findings of such studies are not intended to have external validity
b) It is not feasible to construct a sampling frame of interactions
c) It is difficult to gain access to such social settings
d) Researchers prefer not to use random samples whenever possible
Which of the following is not a type of sampling used in structured observation?
a) Focal sampling
b) Scan sampling
c) Emotional sampling
d) Behaviour sampling
Cohen's kappa is a measure of:
a) Inter-surveyor consistency
b) Intra-observer validity
c) Intra-coder validity
d) Inter-observer consistency
What is meant by the term "reactive effect"?
a) If people know they are being observed, they may change their behaviour
b) Research subjects may have a bad reaction to the drugs they are given
c) Researchers sometimes react to their informants' behaviour with horror
d) The categories on an observation schedule may not be mutually exclusive
What did Salancik mean by "field stimulations"?
a) Being immersed in the field can help to simulate the experience of your informants
b) Researchers can intervene in and manipulate a setting to observe the effects
c) Surveys conducted in the field are more effective than structured observation
d) Some researchers find their projects so stimulating that they have to lie down
One of the criticisms often levelled at structured observation is that:
a) It does not allow us to impose any framework on the social setting
b) It only generates a small amount of data
c) It is unethical to observe people without an observation schedule
d) It does not allow us to understand the meanings behind behaviour
Quantitative content analysis is an approach that aims to:
a) Objectively and systematically measure the content of a text
b) Reach an interpretive understanding of social action
c) Engage in a critical dialogue about ethical issues in research
d) Provide a feminist alternative to 'male-stream' quantitative methods
Which of the following could be subjected to a textual content analysis?
a) Interview transcripts
b) Newspaper articles
c) Song lyrics
d) All of the above
Why did Warde sample food magazines from four different months in the year?
a) Because there weren't enough food adverts in the first two magazines
b) To take into account any seasonal variation in the recipes included in the magazines
c) To find information from more than one form of mass media communication
d) Because he couldn't decide which of the recipes were the most appetizing
Which of the following is not an example of a 'unit of analysis'?
a) Validity
b) significant actors
c) Words
d) subjects and themes
Why might a researcher want to count the frequency of certain words in a text?
a) It increases the reliability of the coding measures
b) It is a good way of finding out about the journalist's favourite words
c) Emotive words can be used excessively to provoke a moral panic
d) It shows which words are most common in the English language
The purpose of a coding manual is to:
a) Provide a form onto which the data can be entered
b) Provide researchers with instructions about how to code the data
c) List all the categories that have been omitted from the schedule
d) Test researchers' knowledge of statistics
The data from each row in a coding schedule can be entered into a quantitative analysis computer program called:
a) Endnote
b) N-Vivo
c) Outlook
d) SPSS
One of the potential pitfalls in devising a coding scheme is that:
a) It can be difficult to obtain a random sample of newspapers
b) You might run out of photocopier paper
c) The categories may not be mutually exclusive
d) The unit of analysis is too clearly defined
Which of the following is not an advantage of content analysis?
a) It allows us to observe otherwise inaccessible populations at first hand
b) It is a transparent and easily replicable technique
c) It allows us to track changes in media representations over time
d) It is a non-reactive method
If coders differed in their interpretations of the categories in the schedule, this could negatively affect the data's:
a) Internal generalisability
b) Intra-interviewer reliability
c) Construct validity
d) Inter-coder reliability
The term "secondary analysis" refers to the technique of:
a) Conducting a study of seconds, minutes and other measures of time
b) Analysing your own data in two different ways
c) Analysing existing data that have been collected by another person or organisation
d) Working part time on a project alongside other responsibilities
Why might secondary analysis be a particularly useful method for students?
a) It is relatively easy to do
b) It saves time and money
c) It does not require any knowledge of statistics
d) It only requires a half-hearted effort
Which of the following is not an advantage of secondary analysis?
a) It immerses the researcher in the field they are studying
b) It tends to be based on high quality data
c) It provides an opportunity for longitudinal analysis
d) It allows you to study patterns and social trends over time
The large samples used in national social surveys enable new researchers to
a) Avoid using probability sampling
b) Identify any bias in the question wording
c) Evaluate the inter-coder reliability of the data
d) Conduct subgroup analysis
Which of the following is not a disadvantage of using secondary analysis?
a) The researcher's lack of familiarity with the data
b) It is a relatively expensive and time consuming process
c) Hierarchical datasets can be very confusing
d) The researcher has no control over the quality of the data
Which of the following provides official statistics that could be analysed as secondary data?
a) Local Government Survey (LGS)
b) Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS)
c) Dwelling and Furnishings Survey (DFS)
d) Rowing and Oars Survey (ROS)
What is one of the advantages that official statistics have over structured interview data?
a) The researcher can conduct natural experiments in the field
b) They are completely objective and reliable
c) They have greater measurement validity
d) They allow the researcher to identify social trends over time
Studying the official crime rate may provide unreliable data because:
a) Categories of criminal behaviour change over time
b) There is a "dark figure" of unreported and unrecorded crime
c) Police use their discretion to investigate some crimes and not others
d) All of the above
What is the "ecological fallacy"?
a) The assumption that secondary data analysis can be carried out at home
b) The mistake of observing people in their natural setting
c) The error of making inferences about individual behaviour from aggregate data
d) The myth that it is easy to research environmentalist action groups
Why has the secondary analysis of official statistics been seen as an "unobtrusive" method?
a) It increases the risk of "reactive effects" from participants
b) The researcher is removed from the social settings that they are investigating
c) The data were originally collected for the same purposes as those of the current researcher
d) They do not intrude too much into the researcher's spare time
What is the difference between interval/ratio and ordinal variables?
a) The distance between categories is equal across the range of interval/ratio data
b) Ordinal data can be rank ordered, but interval/ratio data cannot
c) Interval/ratio variables contain only two categories
d) Ordinal variables have a fixed zero point, whereas interval/ratio variables do not
What is the difference between a bar chart and a histogram?
a) A histogram does not show the entire range of scores in a distribution
b) Bar charts are circular, whereas histograms are square
c) There are no gaps between the bars on a histogram
d) Bar charts represents numbers, whereas histograms represent percentages
What is an outlier?
a) A type of variable that cannot be quantified
b) A compulsive liar who is proud to be gay
c) A score that is left out of the analysis because of missing data
d) An extreme value at either end of a distribution
What is the function of a contingency table, in the context of bivariate analysis?
a) It shows the results you would expect to find by chance
b) It summarises the frequencies of two variables so that they can be compared
c) It lists the different levels of p value for tests of significance
d) It compares the results you might get from various statistical tests
If there were a perfect positive correlation between two interval/ratio variables, the Pearson's r test would give a correlation coefficient of:
a) - 0.328
b) +1
c) +0.328
d) - 1
What is the name of the test that is used to assess the relationship between two ordinal variables?
a) Spearman's rho
b) Phi
c) Cramer's V
d) Chi Square
