Social Science Research Methods
Exam Solutions
Course Introduction
Social Science Research Methods introduces students to the foundational concepts, techniques, and ethical considerations necessary for conducting systematic research within the social sciences. The course covers both quantitative and qualitative approaches, examining methods such as surveys, experiments, interviews, case studies, and content analysis. Students will learn how to formulate research questions, design appropriate studies, collect and analyze data, and interpret findings. The course emphasizes critical thinking and practical application, preparing students to evaluate existing research and design their own projects to address social phenomena.
Recommended Textbook
Social Statistics for a Diverse Society 8th Edition by Chava Frankfort Nachmias
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12 Chapters
614 Verified Questions
614 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: The What and the Why of Statistics
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50 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Nominal variables must include categories that are ______ and ______.
A)dependent;independent
B)common;empirically rational
C)actual;theoretical
D)exhaustive;mutually exclusive
Answer: D
Q2) Which of the following terms is considered a level of measurement?
A)Ordinal
B)Interview
C)Questionnaire
D)Population
Answer: A
Q3) The total set of cases,objects,groups,or events in which the researcher is interested is called the
A)population.
B)sample.
C)entity.
D)variable.
Answer: A
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Page 3
Chapter 2: The Organization and Graphic Presentation of Data
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Sample Questions
Q1) Explain how cumulative frequency distributions are obtained.What do they allow us to do?
Answer: They are obtained by adding to the frequency in each category the frequencies of all the categories below it.They allow us to locate the relative position of a given score in a distribution.
Q2) Which of the following statements is true about time-series charts?
A)Time,usually measured in months or years,is placed on the vertical axis.
B)The height of the bars is proportional to the frequency or percentage of observations. C)Frequencies or percentages are usually placed along the vertical axis.
D)The changes in the variable must always increase over time.
Answer: C
Q3) In a sample of 500 respondents,men account for 20% of all observations in the sample.What is the total number of females in the sample?
A)100
B)200
C)300
D)400
Answer: D
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Chapter 3: Measures of Central Tendency
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Sample Questions
Q1) A score below which a specific percentage of a distribution falls is referred to as the A)mode.
B)median.
C)mean.
D)percentile.
Answer: D
Q2) The ______ is the appropriate measure of central tendency for nominal variables.
A)mode
B)median
C)mean
D)percentile
Answer: A
Q3) Which of the following statements are true with respect to the data: 71,73,71,65,70?
A)The mode,median,and mean are the same.
B)The median and mean are both 70.
C)The mode and mean are both 71.
D)The mode is 71.
Answer: B,D
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Chapter 4: Measures of Variability
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Sample Questions
Q1) IQV is based on the ratio of the total number of differences in the distribution to the maximum number of possible differences within the same distribution.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Calculate the value of variance for the following sub-sample: 24,27,35,31,21,22,28,18,25,24,36,20.
Q3) Consider the following hypothetical scores: 21,25,37,38,39,42,44,45.What is the closest value of the mean?
A)1
B)5
C)36
D)24
Q4) The variance is a measure of variation applicable only to ordinal variable. A)True
B)False
Q5) What is the most basic consideration in choosing a measure of variability?
Q6) Calculate the value of the variance for the following sub-sample: 3,13,-4,10,0,12,-1,-2,6,9,5,11
Q7) Calculate the range for the following sub-sample: 2,7,4,4,1,2,2,3,1,2,4,5.
Page 6
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Chapter 5: The Normal Distribution
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following coincide in a normal distribution?
A)mean
B)median
C)variance
D)mode
Q2) The area under the normal curve is
A)68.28% between the mean and ±2 standard deviation.
B)equal to 1.00 or 100% of the total observations.
C)divided into two equal parts by a vertical line through the mean.
D)a proportion or percentage of the number of observations.
Q3) Scores for an exam are normally distributed with a mean of 235 and a standard deviation of 52.How high must an individual score to be in the highest 10%?
Q4) The annual salaries of employees in a large company are normally distributed with a mean of $50,000 and a standard deviation of $20,000.What percent of people earn between $45,000 and $65,000?
Q5) The mean number of siblings for respondents in a survey is 3.76 with a standard deviation of 3.18.Calculate the Z score associated with three siblings.
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Page 7
Chapter 6: Sampling and Sampling Distributions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Disproportionate stratified sampling is especially useful when the size of some of the subgroups in the population is relatively equal.
A)True
B)False
Q2) ______ is necessary because researchers in the social sciences almost never have enough resources to collect information about the entire set of subjects of interest to them.
A)Central tendency
B)Variability
C)Sampling
D)Statistical analysis
Q3) Provide the appropriate symbols for the following parameters: mean,proportion,standard deviation,and variance.
Q4) A relatively small subset from a group that includes all of the cases that a researcher is interested is referred to as a
A)sample.
B)population.
C)case.
D)dataset.
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Chapter 7: Estimation
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Sample Questions
Q1) For which of the following statistic the confidence intervals are usually constructed?
A)N
B)Mode
C)Mean
D)Variance
Q2) In a survey sample of 83 respondents,the mean number of hours worked per week is 39.04,with a standard deviation of 11.51.Calculate a 95% confidence interval for these data.
Q3) Typically,both the mean and the standard deviation of the population are unknown.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Information on the population can be drawn from A)sample mean.
B)sample size.
C)sample standard deviation.
D)number of subgroups in the population.
Q5) Briefly describe how you would establish a confidence interval for a mean or proportion.
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Chapter 8: Testing Hypotheses
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Sample Questions
Q1) In a simple random sample of 120 women and 150 men from a population of 150,000,25% of the women and 37% of the men are smokers.Suppose you are interested in comparing the proportion of smokers by sex,compute the estimated standard error.
Q2) When a one-tailed test specifies that the population mean is greater than some specified value,we call it a ______ test.
A)right-tailed
B)left-tailed
C)binominal
D)distributive
Q3) When conducting a statistical hypothesis test,what is it that we are actually doing?
A)Determining whether the research hypothesis is true
B)Evaluating the direction of the research hypothesis
C)Falsifying the null hypothesis
D)Specifying a probability that H is equal to zero
Q4) List the four quantities needed to conduct a single-sample t test.
Q5) Alpha is the level of probability at which the null hypothesis is accepted.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: Bivariate Tables
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Sample Questions
Q1) In summarizing the relationship between two variables arranged in a bivariate table,explain how one goes about comparing the percentages in bivariate table if the independent variable has more than two categories.
Q2) In a bivariate table,
A)it displays the distribution of one variable across the categories of another.
B)it identifies its content in terms of the two variables.
C)the intersection of a row and a column is called a marginal.
D)it has two dimensions,one for the dependent and the other for the independent variable.
Q3) Elaboration
A)involves the removal of control variables.
B)involves the introduction of control variables.
C)establishes the cause-and-effect relations between the variables.
D)specifies the different conditions under which the original bivariate relationship might hold.
Q4) Cross-tabulation is a technique for analyzing the relationship between two variables that have been organized in a table.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: The Chi-Square Test and Measures of Association
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Sample Questions
Q1) What interpretation do we get if Kendall's Tau-b reaches a value of 1?
Q2) The obtained chi-square statistic summarizes the difference between ______ and ______ in a bivariate table.
A)f ;f
B)y;Y
C)µ ;µ
D)t;Z
Q3) A PRE of ______ indicates that the two variables are not associated.
A)0
B)-.5
C).5
D)±1
Q4) When two variables are not associated,they are said to be statistically dependent.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Lambda is an appropriate measure of association if the percentage difference is very small (usually less than 5%).
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 11: Analysis of Variance
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Sample Questions
Q1) The between-group sum of squares and the within-group sum of squares compose the
a.aggregate group sum of squares.
b.ratio sum of squares.
c.total sum of squares.
d.mean level of variance.
Q2) What does the within-group sum of squares measure?
A)The sum of the squared deviations between each group mean and every other group mean
B)The sum of the squared deviations between each group mean and the mean across all groups
C)The sum of the squared deviations between each individual observation and its group mean
D)The sum of the squared deviations between each individual observation and the mean across all groups
Q3) Differences between samples,or within a single sample,are referred to as the A)variance.
B)mean.
C)parameter. D)deviation.
Q4) List the four assumptions of ANOVA.
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Regression and Correlation
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Sample
Questions
Q1) How many independent variables are involved in a multiple regression equation?
A)One
B)Zero
C)Two or more
D)At least three
Q2) Consider the following linear regression prediction equation: Y = 12 + -1x.What is the direction of the relationship between these two variables?
A)Positive relationship
B)Negative relationship
C)No relationship
D)Neutral relationship
Q3) What is the difference between slope and partial slopes?
Q4) What is the residual sum of squares?
A)The sum of the squared deviations from the mean
B)The sum of the squared deviations from the regression line
C)The difference between the sum of the squared deviations from the mean and the sum of the squared deviations from the regression line
D)The effect of two or more variables on the independent variable
Q5) Define Covariance (X,Y).
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