Studied by 1 person
A nominal variable can have only three categories
False
To determine whether a variable has criterion-related validity, figure out whether it accurately predicts a set of interrelated variables.
false
If not entirely sure how you’re going to use collected data, it is best to operationalize your variables as ratio, as opposed to ordinal, measures
false
The key difference between an index and a scale is that index items are weighted, whereas scale items are not
false
A set of questionnaire items that formed a Guttman scale on one data set will always form a Guttman scale on another data set.
False
You should always include at least one item in an index on which all respondents give the same answer.
False
In research, the statistic is more accurate than the parameter
false
A confidence interval at the 68% confidence level will be larger than one constructed at the 95% confidence level
false
findings based on a sample can be taken as representing only the aggregation of elements from which the sample was drawn, not the entire population
true
open-ended questions are comparable to essay questions on an exam, while closed-ended questions are comparable to multiple choice question so on an exam
true
When conducting a face-to-face survey, it is essential that interviewers use probes to elicit more information in response to closed-ended questions.
false
The viewpoint of the researcher should always be made clear when writing survey questions.
false
What is a nominal variable
Categories exhaustive and mutually exclusive.
Political scientists would not accept the operationalization of political ideology as eye color because such measurement lacks
validity
Imagine you collect data on how voters feel about gun control when you are actually interested in how much they know about what federal gun control measures are currently in place. You have an operationalization problem concerning
the specific dimension of the variable to be studied.
What should social scientists take into account when considering use of a composite measure
Item has face validity, sufficient variance, unidimensional
Why do social scientists use composite measures
unable to measure a complex concept with a single item, single item can’t provide sufficient variation, composite measures efficiently achieve data reduction.
Coefficient of reproducibility is only appropriate when using
Guttman scale
Coefficient of reproducibility must stay below
.5
You want to examine the relationship between sex and partisanship. You use as your sample all the students in your research methods class. What kind of sampling design are you using?
reliance of available subjects
I would like to survey 50 people on their attitudes regarding Bowling Green's "Not In My Town" campaign. I choose to stand on the corner of Main St. and Wooster, and give my short survey to the first 50 people who pass by the corner, I have engaged in ____________.
reliance on available subjects or convenience sampling
You are doing research on hospital personnel - orderlies, technicians, nurses, and doctors. You want to be sure you draw a sample that has cases in each of the personnel categories. You want to use probability sampling. An appropriate strategy would be
stratified sampling.
You want to examine the relationship between party identification and religion. You use as your sample all of the members of 3 churches located near campus. What kind of sampling design are you using?
reliance on available subjects
A researcher discovered that 40% of the households in City X are Republican households and that 60% are Democratic households. The researcher sends interviewers into the field and tells them to conduct 80 interviews and that 40% of their interviews should be with Republican households, and 60% should be with Democratic households. Since this is all the researcher tells the interviewers, this research uses
quota sampling.
What is the chief problem with the following survey question, asked of a random sample of US adults?
Do you think the presidential campaigns should be publicly funded and limited to a 6-week period?
It is double-barreled.
sampling interval calculation- standard distance between elements selected from a population.
K= study population size/ sample size
Sampling ration- proportion of elements in a population selected for inclusion in sample.
sample size/ study population size
How do you do systematic sampling?
Assign a single number to every member of the study population, choose a random start, include every Kth element in the sample.
How do you random sample
Assign a single number to every member of the study population, use a random number generator to select sample members.
How do you do stratified sampling?
stratify list, draw a systematic sample. Organize list based on every element
Coefficient of reproducibility
1- number of errors/ number of guesses
number of guesses = number of survey questions * respondents
How to calculate response rate
# completed surveys/ # surveys attempted
50%- adequate
60%- good
70% or higher- very good
Note 
Flashcard (102)