ILTS History Practice Content Exam

a researcher studying early modern europe would be most likely to use parish baptismal and burial records in investigating which of the following research topics?

patterns of change in birthrates and mortality rates
because analysis of these records would be particularly useful for determining demographic changes

students in a social science class plan to research the attitudes of their peers toward current events. the student researchers believe that their fellow students may be more willing to express their opinions anonymously than publicly. the student researchers could best protect the anonymity of their subjects by:

conducting written surveys using questionnaires that assign numbers to subjects
because surveys are widely use in social science research as a means of granting anonymity to subjects and encouraging more candid responses.

a SS researcher is analyzing the results of a survey, in which over 500 respondents rater their level of agreement with 25 statements on a scale of 1 to 5. the researcher discovers that on a small number of questionnaires, respondents gave multiple ratings to statements or gave contradictory ratings to statements that were very similar, suggesting they may have misread statements. which of the following actions would be most appropriate for the research to take to address this issue?

removing self-contradictory questionnaires from the analysis
because the number of surveys collected in this study is relatively high and the number of apparently careless responses is low.

a SS researcher is planning a study that will include human subjects. in order to maintain ethical practices, it is most important for the research to ensure that potential participants understand:

that they may decline to participate and can opt out at any time
because ethical standards of social science research require that participants in studies give their informed consent.

the methodology of ethnography would most likely be critical in exploring which of the following social science topics?

the effect of power dynamics in determining values within a group
because ethnography is the means of studying and describing a culture/cultural group through participant observation, as well as, compiling documents, interviews, and relevant cultural symbols.

A HS SS teacher plans to take an interdisciplinary approach to instruction during a unit on the US civil war. the teacher could best use which of the following activities to introduce this approach?

comparing the development of northern and southern states during the first half of the 19thc
because industry, mining, transportation, and other economic activities grew rapidly in the norther states, while the southern states retained a largely agrarian economy based on enslaved labor.