Research Methods for Social Sciences
Textbook Exam Questions
Course Introduction
This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental principles and techniques of research in the social sciences. Students will explore both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, including research design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Emphasis is placed on critical thinking, ethical considerations, and the application of appropriate methods to real-world social phenomena. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to design and evaluate research projects, interpret findings, and understand the role of research in informing policy and practice within the social sciences.
Recommended Textbook
Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences 4th Edition by Frederick J Gravetter
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction, Acquiring Knowledge, and the Scientific Method
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Q1) In a testable hypothesis
A)the variables must be measurable.
B)the independent must be manipulated.
C)a theory is supported.
D)a theory is confirmed.
Answer: A
Q2) The last step in the research process is
A)actually collecting the data.
B)using statistical techniques to evaluate the results.
C)replicating the study.
D)generating new questions or new hypotheses to restart the research process.
Answer: D
Q3) Which of the following is not a basic characteristic of scientific research?
A)Scientific research is public.
B)Scientific research is empirical.
C)Scientific research is conducted in a laboratory.
D)Scientific research is objective.
Answer: C
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Chapter 2: Research Ideas
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Q1) Which section of a research article is most likely to provide suggestions for the interpretation and applications of research results?
A)introduction
B)method
C)results
D)discussion
Answer: D
Q2) A textbook is a primary source.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) Adolescents occasionally develop eating disorders.You wonder what is the best way to treat eating disorders.This is an example of getting research ideas from A)theory.
B)vague thoughts.
C)practical problems.
D)systematic observation.
Answer: C
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Chapter 3: Defining and Measuring Variables
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Q1) A measurement procedure can be reliable without being valid.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) A ratio scale has an arbitrary zero point.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) If people score high on one measure and score low on another measure,there is
A)a positive relationship between the two measures.
B)a negative relationship between the two measures.
C)no relationship between the two measures.
D)a cause-and-effect relationship between the two measures.
Answer: B
Q4) Validity of a measurement procedure is usually established with a correlation.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Ethics in Research
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Q1) If deception is used,participants must be debriefed as soon as possible after the study.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Deliberately putting inaccurate information in a research report is an example of fraud.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Fraud involves
A)errors made while measuring individual participants.
B)errors made while entering data into a computer program.
C)changing scores to make them fit the hypothesis.
D)the other three choices are all examples of fraud.
Q4) Deception is in direct contradiction with which element of the ethical guidelines?
A)no harm
B)informed consent
C)confidentiality
D)anonymity
Q5) Describe the common components of consent forms.
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Chapter 5: Selecting Research Participants
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Questions
Q1) The primary advantage of a stratified random sample is that
A) it ensures that there will be enough participants in each group to be able to make statistical decisions concerning the group.
B)it provides a sample that is guaranteed to be representative of the population.
C)it ensures that no single group is over-represented in the sample.
D)the other three choices are all advantages of a stratified random sample.
Q2) A researcher asks students to sign up for a research study and then selects the first 15 males and 15 females who sign up.The researcher is using A)cluster sampling.
B)quota sampling.
C)simple random sampling.
D)convenience sampling.
Q3) A cluster sample usually does not qualify as a true random sample because A)the individual groups selected are not determined by a random process. B)the selections are not independent of each other.
C)the individuals within each group are usually not independent. D)all of the other choices are correct.
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Chapter 6: Research Strategies and Validity
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Q1) The tendency for individuals who have extreme scores (high or low)on one measurement and to have less extreme scores on a second measurement is called A)history.
B)instrumentation.
C)maturation.
D)regression toward the mean.
Q2) The purpose of the correlational research strategy is to describe the relationship between two variables and measure its strength.
A)True
B)False
Q3) As the values for one variable increase from one person to another,the values for a second variable tend to decrease.This is an example of a __________ relationship.
A)positive
B)negative
C)curvilinear
D)These data show no consistent relationship.
Q4) Describe the kind of question that each of the five research strategies intends to answer.
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Chapter 7: The Experimental Research Strategy
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Q1) What is the advantage of a field study over a laboratory study?
A)increased internal validity
B)increased external validity
C)increased reliability
D)elimination of history effects
Q2) Explain the difference between a no-treatment control group and a placebo control group.
Q3) Dr.Jones is interested in studying how indoor lighting can influence people's moods during the winter.A sample of 100 households is selected.Fifty of the homes are randomly assigned to the bright-light condition where Dr.Jones replaces all the lights with 100-watt bulbs.In the other 50 houses,all the lights are changed to 60-watt bulbs.After two months,Dr.Jones measures the level of depression for the people living in the houses.Assuming that the study uses people from different age groups,participant age would be a(n)__________ variable in the experiment.
A)dependent
B)independent
C)extraneous
D)confounding
Q4) Explain how simulation and field studies increase external validity.
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Chapter 8: Experimental Designs: Between-Subjects Design
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Q1) Matching a variable across treatment guarantees that the variable cannot become a confounding variable.
A)True
B)False
Q2) An advantage of holding a variable constant rather than using random assignment to form your groups is that
A)holding a variable constant reduces error due to participant differences.
B)holding a variable constant is easier than randomization.
C)holding a variable constant guarantees that there is no systematic relationship between participant characteristics and the treatment conditions.
D)holding a variable constant ensures a nonbiased sample.
Q3) Holding a variable constant prevents a variable from becoming a confound by
A)eliminating the possibility that the variable will be substantially different from one group to another.
B)reducing error.
C)ensuring a nonbiased sample.
D)increasing the differences between the groups.
Q4) Describe the basic characteristics of a between-subjects experiment.
Q5) Explain the benefit of independent scores in a between-subjects design.
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Chapter 9: Experimental Designs: Within-Subjects Design
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Q1) A matched-subjects design attempts to eliminate the problems associated with _______ that are a concern for between-subjects designs and also eliminate the problems associated with ______ that are a concern for between-subjects designs.
A)order effects,order effects
B)order effects,individual differences
C)individual differences,individual differences
D)individual differences,order effects
Q2) If the measurement device changes during the course of a within-subjects study so that the participants' scores are influenced,internal validity is threatened by statistical regression.
A)True
B)False
Q3) One general concern for within-subjects research is that participation in one treatment condition may influence an individual's scores in a later treatment condition.This creates a threat to internal validity known as order effects or testing effects.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Describe the limitations or problems that can occur with counterbalancing.
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Chapter 10: The Nonexperimental and Quasi-Experimental Strategies: Nonequivalent Group, Pre-Post, and Developmental Designs
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Q1) Describe the strengths and weaknesses of cross-sectional and longitudinal research.
Q2) Describe the fundamental flaw that prevents a nonequivalent group design from being a true experiment? (That is,why can't these designs produce an unambiguous cause-and-effect explanation?)Explain how the pretest scores in a pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group design help reduce this problem.
Q3) A quasi-experimental design
A)makes no attempt to minimize threats to validity.
B)makes some attempts to minimize threats to validity.
C)controls extraneous variables,similar to an experiment.
D)manipulates one variable,similar to an experiment.
Q4) Describe how the relationship between memory ability and age could be examined using a cross-sectional design.How would the relationship be examined with a longitudinal design?
Q5) The basic threat to internal validity for a nonequivalent groups design is A)history.
B)assignment bias.
C)regression.
D)reactivity.
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Chapter 11: Factorial Designs
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Q1) In a two-factor design,an interaction means that the effect of one factor depends on the levels of the second factor.
A)True
B)False
Q2) How many main effects are there in a 2*3 factorial design?
A)2
B)3
C)6
D)9
Q3) A two-factor experimental design evaluates two main effects and one interaction.
A)True
B)False
Q4) A factorial study that measures depression before and after treatment for a treatment group and a control group is an example of a _______.
A)between-subjects design
B)within-subjects design
C)repeated measures design
D)mixed design
Q5) Describe two situations in which factorial designs are commonly used.
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Chapter 12: The Correlational Research Strategy
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Q1) The results from a research study indicate that adolescents who watch more sexual content on television also tend to engage in more sexual behavior that their peers.The correlation between amount of TV sexual content and amount of sexual behavior is an example of
A)a positive correlation.
B)a negative correlation.
C)a correlation near zero.
D)a correlation near one.
Q2) A researcher reports an inverse relationship between weight and exercise level for a group of 8-year-old children (greater weight is associated with less exercise).However,the researcher cannot be sure whether the extra weight is preventing the children from exercising or whether the lack of exercise is leading to greater weight.This is an example of
A)the third-variable problem.
B)the directionality problem.
C)the reversal problem.
D)the criterion problem.
Q3) Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the correlational research strategy.
Q4) Describe the differences between a correlational study and differential research.
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Chapter 13: Descriptive Research Strategy
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Q1) One advantage of administering a survey by mail is that it minimizes the risk of interviewer bias.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The main advantage of contrived observation (compared with other types of observational research)is
A)you can be more confident that the observed behaviors are natural.
B)there is less concern that the researcher is influencing the behaviors being observed.
C) it is more efficient because you do not have to wait for specific behaviors to occur.
D)it is less likely that the researcher will impose subjective interpretations on the data.
Q3) A researcher who brings dating couples into the laboratory to be observed while they are solving a problem is using
A)participant observation.
B)naturalistic observation.
C)contrived observation.
D)case study research.
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15
Chapter 14: Single-Subject Research Designs
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Q1) In a single-subject design when no treatment is being administered,the observations are called
A)no-treatment observations.
B)baseline observations.
C)treatment observations.
D)all of the other choices are correct.
Q2) A therapist has created a program for treating stuttering.Most people who complete the two-week program are permanently cured.If the therapist decided to evaluate the program with a single-subject design,which design would be appropriate?
A)ABAB design
B)multiple-baseline design
C)alternating-treatments design
D)changing-criterion design
Q3) In an ABAB design the critical element for demonstrating that the treatment causes changes in behavior is
A)the change from the initial baseline to the initial treatment phase.
B)the return to baseline after the first treatment phase.
C)the second treatment phase that replicates the first.
D)the consistency of the pattern of scores obtained in the two baseline phases.
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Page 16
Chapter 15: Statistical Evaluation of Data
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Q1) By convention,it has been determined that alpha levels should be set no larger than A).50.
B).10.
C).05.
D).01 .
Q2) Without some correction,measures of inter-rater reliability
A)tend to overestimate the true level of agreement between the raters.
B)tend to underestimate the true level of agreement between the raters.
C)provide a very inaccurate estimate of the true level of agreement between the raters.
D)Inter-rater reliability tends to be accurate without correction.
Q3) Identify the two basic concerns with using a correlation to measure split-half reliability and explain how these concerns are addressed by Spearman-Brown,K-R 20,and Cronbach's alpha.
Q4) If the data in a scatter plot form a nearly perfect circle,the Pearson correlation would be approximately
A)+0.8 or +0.9.
B)1.00.
C)zero.
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Page 17
Chapter 16: Writing a Research Report
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Q1) How should author names be shown in the reference section of an APA-style research report?
A)only the last name for every author
B)the last name and initials for every author
C)the first and last name for every author
D)the last name and initials for the first author only
Q2) The pages of a research report are
A)numbered starting on the title page.
B)numbered starting on the abstract page.
C)numbered starting with the body of the research report.
D)not numbered.
Q3) Each subsection of the method sections of an APA-style research report begins with a heading (such as Subjects or Participants)
A)centered and typed in boldface type.
B)at the left margin and typed in boldface type.
C)centered and typed in italics.
D)at the left margin and typed in italics.
Q4) When reporting statistical significance of inferential statistics,what items should be included?
Q5) What is the purpose of a research proposal?
Page 18
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