Final Exam Flashcards
1
Q
The differences between the Farmer brothers provide which cases for a “nature” explanation?
A
James was born good, Tommy was born bad AND Tommy was born “acquisitive” and wanted to own things
2
Q
Should children be locked up as “tiny adults” or given treatment in secure treatment centers? What is the current thinking?
A
Treatment, Lockup, or Combination
3
Q
The homicide rate has decreased; clearly there are less murders and less violence (T/F)
A
False
4
Q
What is the “fatal conundrum” posed by the competency issue for execution?
A
A sane person may become crazy after serving time on death row AND the state sees no obligation in evaluating people for competency more than once
5
Q
Can a state keep a sexual offender who is “dangerous, but not mentally ill” confined in a mental hospital after the expiration of their criminal sentence?
A
Yes
6
Q
Which of the following is NOT an example of how values influence research in the social sciences?
A
Values exert influence upon the data that has been collect
7
Q
Social research relies most heavily on which of the following processes in order to test hypotheses?
A
Observation
8
Q
The assumption of operationalism refers to the idea that
A
all constructs can be somehow measured or observed
9
Q
The purpose of measurement (psychometric or sociometric) research is to
A
examine whether or not a variable accurately measures a given construct
10
Q
In a replication research study:
A
the original researcher repeats the study’s procedures w/ a different sample of subjects, the original researcher repeats the study’s procedures in a different setting, AND other researchers repeat the study’s procedures with different subjects or in a different setting
11
Q
When a researcher chooses variable to measure a theoretical construct, they have __________ the construct.
A
operationalized
12
Q
A variable chosen to measure a theoretical construct usually
A
measures the other constructs as well as the constructs of interest
13
Q
Research has _________ validity when it shows something is true beyond the limited setting and conditions of the study.
A
external
14
Q
One effective way to control for major threats to internal validity in a study to
A
randomly assign subjects to the different levels of the independent variable
15
Q
If we draw a random sample, we
A
randomly select subjects to be in our study
16
Q
When a potentially beneficial treatment is studied in a true experimental design, _________ may pose an ethics problem.
A
withholding the research treatment from a placebo or control group
17
Q
A typical limitation of any operational definition is that it
A
will likely be too concrete and specific
18
Q
A construct’s nomological net refers to
A
the effects of other constructs on the construct of interest, a set of relationships between it and other related constructs, AND a set of measurements that assess the construct
19
Q
Which of the following are components of an observed score?
A
Systematic Error & Random Error
20
Q
A requirement for reliability of an instrument is that it
A
includes little to no random error
21
Q
If an instrument has face validity
A
its items appear to measure what the test was intended to measure
22
Q
In order to assess to test-retest reliability we should
A
administer the test to the same people on two separate occasions
23
Q
When employing the multitrait-multimethod matrix to assess convergent validity, one should determine the correlation between measures of ________ traits obtained by _________ methods.
A
the same; different
24
Q
Despite their limitations, structured questionnaires are commonly used because they
A
often provide the only practical way to gather data on some questions
25
Which of the following types of information are respondents likely to distort or report incorrectly?
Opinions, sensitive information about behaviors, AND statistical information
26
Which are possible advantages of a written questionnaire over a face-to-face or telephone interview?
Less pressure while composing answers, greater confidence in anonymity of responses, AND more motivation to give accurate answers
27
If all participants from a free program from an ad in the paper complete and return a questionnaire the quality of estimating the data for the population at large...
is likely to be low because the sample is probably not representative of the population at large
28
Which are potentially serious drawbacks of telephone interviews?
Not all households have telephones, the difficulties can arise in asking complicated questions over the phone, AND the inability to use any kind of visual aids
29
Random digit dialing allows researchers to
reach people with unlisted telephone numbers
30
A pretest is useful for
Interviewer training, identifying problems in question wording and sequencing, AND item analysis for scales
31
It is best to pretest a questionnaire on
respondents from the target population
32
Attitude or opinion questions can be challenging to develop because:
A respondent may not know what their attitude is on an issue, an opinion can be complex or multidimensional, AND opinions and attitudes vary in intensity depending on circumstance
33
If the purpose of a study is to replicate earlier questionnaire research
question wordings should be repeated verbatim
34
Open ended questions
produce answers that are often difficult to code
35
"Should our armed services have sufficient funding to fight to protect our freedoms, or do you favor an entirely volunteer army?" This is an example of a _________ question.
Double-barreled
36
During an interview, if the respondent fails to understand the question. The interviewer should
repeat the question slowly, provide explanation if one is available on the survey, then skip if it is still not understood
37
Scales may be used to measure
political attitudes, personality traits, AND reactions to styles of art
38
Emily is an excellent salesperson, but has trouble getting along with coworkers. A rater from a consulting firm rates Emily highly on sales performance and on teamwork, that rater has fallen under
The halo effect
39
Ian is your pal. When rating him on a scale of positive and negative personality traits, you are most likely to commit which type of systematic error?
The generosity effect
40
If the raters are asked to indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree with the items they are completing a _________ scale.
summated
41
An individual member of a sample or population is called
an element
42
The use of probability sampling _________ the likelihood that data from a sample will be similar to the true population figures.
Increases AND randomly determines
43
Estimations of the likelihood of sampling error may be obtained only for _______ samples.
Probability
44
"Handpicking" of elements to represent a population is used in _________ sampling.
Purposive
45
Drawing large random samples from a population
increases the likelihood that the sample mean will be close to the true population mean
46
Nonprobability sampling may be more appropriate than probability sampling when
the goal of research is to obtain ideas or critical appraisals rather than estimates of population values, internal validity is of more concern than external validity, AND time or money for conducting a study is limited
47
In a true simple random sample each sampling element has ________ and _________ probability of being selected.
An independent; equal
48
Dividing a population according to one or more criteria and doing a simple random sample within each category is called ________ sampling.
stratified random
49
The process of ________ corrects the proportions of strata sampled in relationship to their proportions in the target population.
weighting
50
The daily diary is accurately described as ________ method of sampling.
a purposive
51
In developing a measurement tool for experiencing sampling research, the researcher must be sure that the respondent answers the question
from the appropriate frame of reference
52
Which is NOT a typical signaling strategy in experience sampling research?
Participant's will
53
One possible problem with the interpretation of the results of laboratory experiments is that they:
are artificial and sometimes do not generalize well to the "outside world"
54
In utilizing random assignment in a research study, the experimenter:
randomly determines which participants will experience the different treatment conditions
55
In laboratory experiments, in order to maximize control, the study often loses some:
external validity (generalizability)
56
Laboratory experiments usually have greater _________; field studies usually have greater _________.
Internal validity; external validity
57
Variables such as gender, religion, income, and education are known as _________.
Individual difference variables
58
In the factorial design
Interactions between variables can be examined, all combinations of independent variables are presented, AND main effects can be examined whether or not interactions are observed
59
In a study performed at a children's sleepaway camp, residents who were signed up for a four-week program reported greater levels of satisfaction when assigned to a private room, and residents who were signed up for a two-week program reported greater levels of satisfaction when assigned to a dormitory. This is an example of
An interaction effect
60
A laboratory setting is suitable for research in which the goal is to
manipulate an independent variable
61
The difference between basic and applied research is most closely related to
the ways in which the research results are used
62
The laboratory setting enhances internal validity because it allows for
Random assignment AND manipulation of the independent variable
63
Experimenter expectancy bias can be effectively prevented by keeping the experimenter from knowing
the condition to which each subject has been assigned
64
A manipulation check involves measures designed to assess whether
the manipulations achieve the desired effect on the participants
65
The practice of using a large enough number of dependent variables so that it is likely that one of them will yield a significant result is referred to as __________.
Capitalizing on chance
66
One legitimate reason to use a quasi-experimental design is
because it is unethical to manipulate the independent variable
67
Quasi-experimental designs
Do not use random assignment AND will typically suffer from many threats to validity
68
The extent to which a researcher can rule out rival explanations is a measure of the study's
internal validity
69
A researcher is interested in whether or not being a parent makes a person more likely to get along well with children. She administers a questionnaire to couples. Half of the couples have children. This is a
static-group comparison
70
A researcher wonders whether regular visits to the dentist prevent cavities. She finds a group of subjects who go to the dentist regularly and compares the number of cavities that they have to the number of cavities among subjects who don't go to the dentist regularly. This is a
static-group comparison
71
The major threat to internal validity associated with the static-group comparison is
selection
72
The major advantage of the pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group design over the static group comparison design is that
we can measure pre-existing differences between groups
73
The tendency of participant's extreme scores to become less extreme upon retesting is known as
regression to the mean
74
Applied research differs from basic research
in the audience to which it must appeal AND in its ultimate goals
75
Evaluation research is
often summative, usually concerned with the effects of a social policy or program, AND a type of applied research
76
Summative evaluations provide information about the _______ while formative evaluations provide information about the _______ of a program.
outcome; ongoing processes
77
The following title suggests which type of research? "The Carnegie Infant Education Project: Final Report."
Formative
78
Which of the following types of evaluation research is most likely to encounter administrative resistance?
Summative & Formative
79
The Sesame Street Experiment became a Quasi-Experiment because
subjects in the control group watched Sesame Street (the extent of actual watching could not be controlled)
80
________ is to "dependent variable" as ________ is to "independent variable."
natural behavior; natural event
81
Naturalness is a research study
may lead to reduced internal validity
82
Using ______ observation may minimize participant reactivity
unobtrusive
83
The reliability of observational measures may be assessed by examining
repeatability of measures over time AND level of agreement between two independent observers
84
_________ is an example of an unobtrusive measure involving physical traces
the amount of wear and tear to a library book
85
A listing of physical gestures and postures in a systematic observation of employee-supervisor interactions is an example of which of the following components of systematic observation?
Encoding
86
Which of the following is likely to occur when participants are aware that they are being observed?
Participants are more likely to give socially desirable responses
87
A major advantage of using archival data is that
it is relatively economical, it is relatively easy to locate data, AND it is a "quick and dirty" way to do a study
88
Material for narrative analysis can be derived from
fairy tales and myths, personal accounts, AND novels and works of fiction
89
_________ is a method used to translate narrative analysis into quantitative research information.
Content analysis
90
Major advantages of using focus groups include
convenience and low cost
91
A researcher may use ________ to learn about the effects of important historical events.
oral history, narrative analysis, AND archival research
92
A general rule of thumb when making field notes is to
record everything
93
A researcher is interested in whether towns in a state voted Democratic or Republican in the last election. Their unit of analysis should be:
towns
94
An arbitrarily defined coding system is used whenever a variable is measured on a _______ scale.
A nominal
95
An investigator hypothesizes that people who belong to religious organizations tend to be involved in community activities as well. Their unit of analysis should be:
individuals
96
In developing a coding scheme for a variable, it is important that
the coded categories of response are mutually exclusive
97
Which of the following contains the instructions used to classify observations into numerical values?
The codebook
98
The stem and leaf diagram
is used to examine the shape of a distribution, presents the raw data on which a distribution is based, AND reveals the outliers in the distribution
99
The median is sometimes used as an index of central tendency because
it is more robust than the mean with regard to the influence of outliers
100
A correlation of -.60 indicates that _______ of the variation in Y is explained by X ***
36%
101
To analyze a continuous variable as if it were a dichotomous variable, ________ is used.
a median split
102
If we assign every left-handed participant a 0 on a "handedness" variable, and every right-handed participant a 1, we are using _______ coding.
dummy variable
103
Type I error is committed if the researcher
rejects the null hypothesis when it is true
104
The question of whether or not one variable causes another
must be determined through statistical analysis, requires random assignment to levels of the independent variable, AND must be answered by considering the research design
105
If we discover that a certain area has a low per capita income and a high rate of drug and alcohol-related arrests, it is possible that
they may or may not have a causational relationship
106
The number of participants used in a study has a direction relationship to
statistical power
107
Checking the reference list of a research report for other references on the same topic is a strategy for literature review called _________.
ancestry approach
108
Published information concerning the reliability and validity of a psychological or social science measurement tool is referred to as its ___________.
psychometric properties
109
____________ refers the distortion that occurs in literature reviews and meta-analyses because these reports tend to include only studies that yielded significant results.
Publication bias
110
Which is (are) true about meta-analysis and narrative analysis?
Narrative analysis allows the reviewer to include more studies, meta-analysis allows for a more consistent and reliable approach with the ability for exact replication, AND a narrative analysis can be consistently and reliably replicated using the exact same studies, but this does not guarantee similar conclusions
111
Narrative reviews tend to be more _________; while meta-analyses tend to be more ________.
subjective; objective
112
An effect size is
the magnitude of an effect
113
Significance levels
indicate the likelihood that the results are due to chance
114
Which of the following is the proper order for sections within a research report?
Introduction, method, results, discussion
115
The "hourglass" rule for writing research reports specifies that one proceeds from:
general to specific to general
116
One should summarize the results of other studies pertinent to the same topic in the ________ section.
Introduction
117
Copies of questionnaires and standardized tests would probably be found in the _______ section
appendix (none of the above)
118
Tukey suggests using the term "hint" under which of the following probability levels?
.15 < p < .25
