Quantitative Methods in Sociology
Textbook Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Quantitative Methods in Sociology introduces students to the principles and techniques of systematically analyzing social phenomena using numerical data. The course covers research design, hypothesis formation, data collection, and statistical analysis, focusing on the interpretation of sociological data with tools such as surveys, experiments, and secondary analysis of large datasets. Emphasis is placed on understanding and applying statistical concepts like correlation, regression, and hypothesis testing to real-world social questions. Students will learn practical skills in using statistical software to analyze data and communicate findings, enabling them to critically assess quantitative research in the field of sociology.
Recommended Textbook
Answering Questions With Statistics 1st Edition by Robert F. Szafran
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Chapter 1: Introduction
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Q1) The variable "cause of death" (categories: stroke, cancer, heart disease, accident, other) has what level of measurement?
A) nominal
B) ordinal
C) interval/ratio
Answer: A
Q2) Is the variable "percent of time a married person spends with his or her spouse" continuous or discrete?
A) continuous
B) discrete
Answer: A
Q3) Who are the four groups we will be comparing in the chapter examples and practice problems?
* 2. In what roles will you be better because you understand data analysis?
* 3. What are some common units of analysis in social science research studies? Answer: 1980 young adults (1980 twentysomethings), 1980 middle-age adults (1980 fiftysomethings), 2010 young adults (2010 twentysomethings), and 2010 middle-age adults (2010 fiftysomethings)
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Chapter 2: Data Sets
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the difference between numeric and string variable types?
Answer: Values for numeric variables may only include numbers, decimal points, negative signs, and positive signs. Values for string variables, however, may include any characters and may include spaces
Q2) Convert this number from scientific notation into normal notation: 1.23E 03
A) 1230
B) .00123
C) .00123
D) 1230
Answer: C
Q3) SPSS is showing variable labels in its variable lists. How do you get it to show variable names instead?
Answer: Pull down the Edit menu, click on Options, click on the "General" tab, choose "Display names" under Variable Lists, and click OK.
Q4) What characters can SPSS variable names begin with?
Answer: SPSS variable names must begin with a letter or @. Under certain circumstances, names may also begin with a # or $.
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Chapter 3: Frequency Tables and Univariate Charts
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Sample Questions
Q1) What kinds of questions are answered with frequencies from a frequency table?
Answer: questions about the actual number of cases in each category of the variable; also questions about the actual number of cases with missing data
Q2) What advantages do charts have over frequency tables? What advantages do frequency tables have over charts?
Answer: An advantage of charts is that they provide visual impact. Persons can more quickly grasp and remember things visually presented. An advantage of tables is that they usually provide more information and they provide it more precisely
Q3) A file has data on 600 college students. One of the variables in the data file is the brand of the first car the student owned. 300 students had never owned a car and, thus, had missing data on this variable. Of the 300 students who had owned a car, 30 said Ford was the brand of their first car. As these terms are used in an SPSS frequency table, A) What "percent" first owned a Ford? __________ B) What "valid percent" first owned a Ford? __________
Answer: a. 5%
b. 10%
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Chapter 4: Central Tendency and Dispersion
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Sample Questions
Q1) You want to see the mean, standard deviation, minimum, and maximum for a variable. Which SPSS procedure would be most appropriate?
A) Display Data File Information
B) Edit Options
C) Frequencies
D) Select Cases
Q2) The admissions office has ordinal-level data on parental income levels of enrolled students. What would an appropriate measure of central tendency be to report?
A) mean
B) median
C) percent distribution
D) standard deviation
(Note: * indicates
Q3) A mean is
A) a multivariate descriptive statistic
B) a multivariate inferential statistic
C) a univariate descriptive statistic
D) a univariate inferential statistic
Q4) Name five different univariate descriptive statistics.
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Chapter 5: Creating New Variables
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Q1) "A set of items all assumed to be of approximately equal importance in measuring a single underlying concept that are then combined to yield a single overall score on the underlying concept" defines what the text calls a(n)
A) dimension
B) index
C) numeric variable
D) real variable
Q2) You want to collapse the coding scheme for a variable that is currently coded 1 through 5. The first two categories of the variable get combined and the last two categories of the variable get combined. The new codes will go from just 1 to 3. Indicate below what the new values are for each of the old values.
Q3) Write out a Select If condition that would limit the analysis to persons under the age of 30 who have been fired from their jobs 3 or more times. (Variables: AGE, TIMESFIRED)
Q4) Why are z-scores useful?
Q5) When would you use Select Cases and when would you use Split File?
Q6) Why would an analyst want to know the value of Cronbach's alpha?
Q7) How can missing data be handled when constructing an index?
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Comparing Group Means
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Sample Questions
Q1) You want to compare groups on an interval/ratio variable (for example, the average SAT score of students at different colleges). Which SPSS procedure should you run?
A) Display Data File Information
B) Explore
C) Frequencies
D) Means
(Note: * indicates
Q2) A(n) _____ is when the size and/or direction of one independent variable's effect on the dependent variable varies depending on the value of one or more other independent variables.
A) asymmetry
B) correlation
C) interaction effect
D) main effect
Q3) What is the lowest level of measurement permissible for the variable that is averaged for each group in the Means procedure?
A) nominal
B) ordinal
C) interval/ratio
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Chapter 7: Crosstab Tables
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Sample Questions
Q1) How can comparing percents indicate the independent variable's effect on the dependent variable?
Q2) On the basis of the following Crosstabs, which group had the highest percentage that was liberal?
A) 1980 GSS young adults
B) 1980 GSS middle-age adults
C) 2010 GSS young adults
D) 2010 GSS middle-age adults
Q3) In the following Crosstabs, a number has been replaced with xxx. What number should go there?
A) 19.7
B) 38.3
C) 42.7
D) 50.4
Q4) What kinds of questions can you answer using a crosstab table?
Q5) What is the difference between a column percent and a row percent?
Q6) How can layering reveal if the relationship between the original two variables was spurious or not?
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Chapter 8: Nominal and Ordinal Measures of Association
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Q1) What is the difference between a concordant pair of cases and a discordant pair of cases?
Q2) How do you decide for a pair of variables whether you need a nominal, ordinal, or interval/ratio measure of association?
Q3) Which of the following is most appropriate for measuring the relationship between a nominal and an ordinal variable?
A) Cramer's V
B) Kendall's tau-b
C) gamma
D) Spearman's correlation
Q4) What kinds of questions can you answer using a measure of association?
Q5) Which of the following is a proportional reduction in error (PRE) measure of association?
A) Cramer's V
B) gamma
C) lambda
D) tau-b
Q6) Why would it not make sense for a nominal measure of association to indicate direction of the relationship?
10
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Chapter 9: Pearsons Correlation and Bivariate Regression
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Sample Questions
Q1) If the value of the multiple correlation coefficient is .40, what is the value of the coefficient of determination (R<sup>2</sup>)?
A) .16
B) .40
C) .60
D) 4.00
Q2) Number of children is regressed on years of schooling. The unstandardized regression coefficient for years of schooling is .125. Do persons with more years of schooling have more, less, or the same number of children as persons with fewer years of schooling?
A) more
B) less
C) the same
Q3) The "best-fitting" straight line which describes the data points in a scatterplot is the line that
A) goes through the greatest number of points
B) has the smallest y-intercept
C) has the steepest slope
D) minimizes the sum of the squared vertical distances of points from the line
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Chapter 10: Multiple Regression
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Sample Questions
Q1) Answer the questions that follow this SPSS output:
If the three variables in the correlation matrix were all used as independent variables in a single multiple regression analysis, would there be a multicollinearity problem?
A) State yes or no. __________
B) Justify your answer by referring to one or more statistics in the matrix.
Q2) If the variables in this matrix were all used as independent variables in a regression equation, would there be a multicollinearity problem?
A) no
B) yes due to the correlation between ACT and SAT
C) yes due to the correlation between BIRTH and HSRank
D) yes due to the correlation between HSRank and SAT
Q3) What is a net effect?
Q4) What types of dependent variables are ok to use for linear regression?
A) interval/ratio variables
B) interval/ratio variables and dichotomies
C) interval/ratio variables, ordinal variables, and dichotomies
D) interval/ratio variables, ordinal variables, and nominal variables
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Chapter 11: Sampling Distributions and Normal Distributions
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Q1) A sampling distribution has a mean of 100 and a standard error of 2. What percent of samples will get sample results between 98 and 102?
A) 2%
B) 4%
C) 68%
D) 95%
Q2) Which of the following statements is correct?
A) A probability sample will always give you a result within one standard error of the true value (census value) in the population.
B) Most variables are normally distributed in the population but very few sampling distributions are normal distributions.
C) Both "a" and "b" are correct.
D) None of the above is correct.
Q3) Why do researchers prefer sampling distributions with small standard errors?
Q4) Which sampling distribution will typically have the smallest standard error?
A) a sampling distribution based on cluster random sampling
B) a sampling distribution based on simple random sampling
C) a sampling distribution based on stratified random sampling
D) a sampling distribution based on systematic random sampling
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Chapter 12: Hypothesis Testing and One-Sample T Tests
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Q1) You have a 95% level of confidence that, in the population, the actual average number of siblings is between _____ and _____.
A) .34 1.13
B) .68 2.26
C) 1.077 1.867
D) 2.34 3.13
Q2) Results are described as statistically significant when A) the null hypothesis was not rejected B) the null hypothesis was rejected C) the sample results were consistent with the null hypothesis D) the significance level was high
Q3) What kinds of questions can you answer using a one-sample t test?
Q4) A researcher has done a one-sample t-test. She reports the test's degrees of freedom to be 15. How many cases were there in the sample? __________
Q5) A researcher does a one-sample t test with 999 cases. How many degrees of freedom does the t test have? __________
Q6) How can you tell which hypothesis is the null hypothesis and which the research hypothesis?
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Paired and Independent-Samples T Tests
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Q1) You are doing a paired-samples t test with 694 valid cases. How many degrees of freedom will the t test have?
A) 692
B) 693
C) 694
D) 695
Q2) If the mean IQ of a sample of right-handed persons is significantly higher than the mean IQ of a sample of left-handed persons, then which of the following must be true?
A) All right-handed persons must have higher IQs than all left-handed persons.
B) Most right-handed persons must have higher IQs than most left-handed persons.
C) The median IQ of right-handed persons must be higher than the median IQ of left-handed persons.
D) None of the above must be true.
Q3) If the significance of Levene's test is greater than .05, are "equal variances assumed" or "equal variances not assumed" for the independent-samples t test?
Q4) Why are paired samples called that?
Q5) When does a researcher risk making a Type I error?
Q6) What kinds of questions can you answer using a paired-samples t test?
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Chapter 14: Analysis of Variance
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Q1) Your research hypothesis is "In the population, there is a difference between men and women in the average number of work days per year lost due to injury." What type of hypothesis test should be used?
A) one-sample t test
B) paired-samples t test
C) independent-samples t test
D) one-way ANOVA
E) two-way ANOVA
Q2) Your research hypothesis is "In the population, first stays in the U.S. by unauthorized immigrants are on average longer than second stays in the U.S. by these same immigrants." What type of hypothesis test should be used?
A) one-sample t test
B) paired-samples t test
C) independent-samples t test
D) one-way ANOVA
E) two-way ANOVA
Q3) What kinds of questions can you answer using a two-way analysis of variance?
Q4) What are the three rounds for analyzing a two-way ANOVA?
Q5) What is a main effect?
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Chapter 15: Chi-Square
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Q1) Which religious group is most over-represented in the South?
RELIGION * REGION Crosstabulation
Residual
RELIGION
\(\begin{array}{|l|l|r|r|r|r|}
\hline & \text { 1 Northeast } & \text { 2 Midwest } & \text { 3 South } & \text { 4 West } \\
\hline \text { RELIGION 1 Protestant } & -45.4 & -4.3 & 84.9 & -35.2 \\
\text { 2 Catholic } & 44.9 & 1.3 & -42.9 & -3.3 \\
\text { 3 Jewish } & 5.1 & .4 & -4.7 & -.8 \\
\text { 4 other } & -.2 & -3.5 & -4.3 & 8.0 \\
\text { 5 none } & -4.4 & 6.1 & -32.9 & 31.3 \\
\hline
\end{array}\)
A) Protestants
B) Catholics
C) Jews
D) persons belonging to other religions
Q2) Variables included in a chi-square hypothesis test can have which levels of measurement?
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Chapter 16: Hypothesis Testing With Measures of
Association and Regression
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Q1) Which SPSS procedure would you use to answer the question "Does a nation's level of economic development have a significant negative net effect on its population growth rate after controlling for climate and religion?"
A) Bivariate Correlation
B) Independent-Sample T Test
C) Linear Regression
D) One-way ANOVA
Q2) Which SPSS procedure would you use to answer the question "Does gender have a significant net effect on amount given to charity after controlling for age and personal earnings?"
A) Bivariate Correlation
B) Chi-square
C) Linear Regression
D) One-way ANOVA
Q3) Are weak associations between variables always nonsignificant? Are strong associations always significant?
Q4) What kinds of questions can you answer using tests of significance for regression coefficients?
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