Social Science Research Methods
Practice Exam
Course Introduction
Social Science Research Methods provides students with a comprehensive foundation in the principles and techniques essential for conducting research within the social sciences. The course covers both qualitative and quantitative approaches, emphasizing research design, data collection, sampling, and analysis methods. Students learn to formulate research questions, develop hypotheses, utilize various data-gathering tools such as surveys and interviews, and interpret findings within ethical and theoretical frameworks. This course equips students with the skills necessary to critically evaluate existing research and to carry out their own studies, preparing them for advanced academic work or professional practice in social science fields.
Recommended Textbook Research Methods 8th Edition by Donald H. McBurney
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Chapter 1: Psychology and Science
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Sample Questions
Q1) A statement describing the relationship between two or more events is called a A) theory
B) principle
C) concept
D) law
Answer: D
Q2) Which of the following are empirical ways of knowing?
A) Authority and logic
B) Intuition and Science
C) Authority and Science
D) Logic and intuition
Answer: B
Q3) The statement,"A pleasant fragrance increases ratings of job applicants because the scent creates a positive emotional state in the interviewer" is an example of a:
A) Law
B) Description of behavior.
C) Prediction of behavior.
D) Theory of behavior.
Answer: D
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Developing a Research Question
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Q1) In the event that you cannot find a book that you need through your library,you should:
A) Order the book through InfoTrac
B) Order the book through Inter-Library Loan
C) Call all of the libraries in a 100 mile radius looking for the book
D) Call your instructor
Answer: B
Q2) A proprietary web site is one that
A) is limited to subscribers
B) carries information on pharmaceuticals
C) is not available to minors
D) None of these is true.
Answer: A
Q3) PsycINFO does not contain
A) popular magazines
B) journal references
C) references to dissertations
D) references to technical reports
Answer: A
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Ethics in Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) All experiments conducted on human participants at an institution
A) require a full review by the IRB
B) require an expedited review by the IRB
C) require that the IRB is informed of the experiment
D) require that the departmental chair is informed of the experiment
Answer: C
Q2) When considering research that presents a risk to participants
A) never put a participant at any risk whatever
B) put most weight on the potential benefit to society
C) consider whether a person would willingly accept this risk in everyday life
D) consider the most vulnerable possible participant
Answer: C
Q3) One of the safeguards against the fabrication of data is
A) the APA's mandate that data be shared
B) the fact that all department chairs check experimental work
C) the coding of participant sheets
D) data recording
Answer: A
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5
Chapter 4: Writing in Psychology
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Q1) The goal of scientific writing is to
A) let the data speak for themselves
B) inform
C) persuade
D) Both b and c are true.
Q2) The introduction section of a research paper contains
A) the research design, procedures, and description of subjects and measures
B) the literature review and hypotheses
C) the statisitics and data analysis procedures
D) the research design, tables and figures, and literature review
Q3) When you write a paper in APA style,you should report your methods in A) the past tense
B) the present tense
C) the past perfect tense
D) any of the above
Q4) Write down the parts of a research proposal.You would like to know whether playing violent video games as a child is related to the amount of jail time served as an adult.How would each step relate to your research question?
Q5) List the parts of a scientific article in APA style,and describe the contents of each.
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Chapter 5: Variables
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Q1) What variable (or variables)might you use as a basis for your observations if you are interested in studying:
a.The relationship between the crime rate and unemployment in a certain city
b.Overcrowding in mental institutions
c.The relationship between smoking and health
d.Attitudes of U.S.citizens toward government-supported loans for higher education
e.The effect of rehearsal on memorization of foreign language words
Q2) Which one of the following is an example of a ratio level of measurement?
A) the number of times a laboratory monkey presses a bar in its experimental chamber during a one-hour period
B) the temperature in Celsius of a hospital patient
C) a racing-car driver's position at the end of a race
D) a patient' rating of his own anxiety level on a scale where l0 represents "low anxiety" and l00 represents "extreme anxiety"
Q3) You are interested in researching the effects of rewards on exercise.Determine how you would measure your dependent variable using at least 4 of the ways of measuring behavior.
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Page 7
Chapter 6: Tabular and Graphical Description of Data
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Q1) A bell-shaped curve that happens to describe many frequency distributions that occur in nature is called a:
A) scattergram
B) bar graph
C) skewed distribution
D) normal curve
Q2) Which one of the following terms least belongs with the others?
A) dependent variable
B) Y-axis
C) vertical
D) X-axis
Q3) Which of the following is a display of numerical data in rows and columns of a matrix?
A) graph
B) figure
C) histogram
D) table
Q4) Discuss the normal distribution in relation to measures of central tendency (mean,median,and mode).How does it differ from a skewed distribution?
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Chapter 7: Validity
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Q1) External validity refers to the extent to which
A) research results can be generalized to other situations
B) the experimenter unintentionally communicates his or her expectations to the participants
C) historical events occurred that accompanied one or more of the experimental treatments
D) the observed relationship is a true cause-effect relationship
Q2) Define the concepts internal and external validity.Discuss why we say that for some experiments an attempt at increasing one type tends to jeopardize the other type.
Q3) A loose connection between theory and method threatens ____ validity.
A) internal
B) external
C) construct
D) statistical
Q4) Role demands are a source of
A) selection bias
B) experimenter bias
C) subject bias
D) evaluation bias
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Chapter 8: Control
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Q1) If the independent variable is magnitude of reward,then subjects who experience a large reward (say,$200)first may respond less to a small reward (say,$20).This is a(n)
A) Situation in which to use a within-subjects experiment
B) Example of a contrast effect
C) Example of a concurrent effect
D) Situation in which an experiment cannot be performed
Q2) Which of the following is the best means of randomly assigning subjects to conditions?
A) Place students into groups in the order they sign up for the experiment.
B) Placing every other student into one of the two groups.
C) Give each student a number and compare them to a random number table.
D) Give each student a number, write them on slips of paper and shake them in a hat.
Q3) Control may be defined as
A) the ability to guide sources of variability in an experiment
B) providing standards for comparing the effect of a particular variable
C) providing techniques to reduce the effects of extraneous variables on the results
D) all of these
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Chapter
Case-Study
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Q1) Participant-Observer research is most appropriate when:
A) little is known about the group
B) studying a group that is isolated from the population
C) the group's behavior is generally not accessible to public scrutiny
D) all of these
Q2) What is the difference between manifest and latent content analysis? When is it appropriate to use these different methods?
Q3) In a comparison of the social interaction patterns of gorillas,a scientist spends several months observing and recording behavior of gorillas in each group of her samples.This is an example of ____ research.
A) participant observation
B) naturalistic observation
C) survey
D) case study
Q4) A major limitation of archival research is that
A) most archival data are nonscientific
B) archival data are not always factual
C) records and data are often difficult to obtain
D) biases may be present in the records or data
11
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Chapter 10: Nonexperimental Research, part 2: Survey Research
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Q1) The randomized response technique permits the investigator to
A) randomly select subjects
B) code the data in such a way as to recover the true response of each participant
C) estimate the rate of a behavior in the population without knowing an individual's true response
D) identify participants who are lying
Q2) A verification key checks for
A) recording errors
B) careless responses
C) influence of social desirability
D) poor command of language
Q3) Which of the following is advisable in conducting an open ended interview?
A) Putting the questions in your own words
B) Using probe questions to encourage the respondent to give a more complete answer
C) Suggesting alternatives to a respondent who draws a blank
D) Giving your own opinion
Q4) Define random sample,stratified random sample,cluster sample,and describe situations in which each is preferred.
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Chapter 11: True Experiments, part 1: Single-Factor Designs
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Q1) The Latin-square design controls for A) order but not sequence
B) sequence but not order
C) both order and sequence
D) neither order nor sequence
Q2) Exhibit 11-1 A drug and a placebo are compared for treating diabetes.A random half of the subjects receive the drug,while the other half receives the placebo.Blood glucose level is tested in all of the subjects several times a day.
Refer to Exhibit 11-1.The control condition in the experiment described is A) the drug
B) the placebo
C) blood glucose level
D) not present
Q3) An independent variable is also referred to as a A) level
B) condition
C) factor
D) treatment
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Chapter 12: True Experiments, part 2: Factorial Designs
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Q1) Exhibit 12-1 Suppose a researcher investigated the judgments of guilt made by jurors in response to attractiveness (attractive vs unattractive)and facial expression (neutral vs smiling).
Refer to Exhibit 12-1.If a two-factorial design were used,what are the two independent variables?
A) Guilty verdicts and attractiveness
B) Guilty verdicts and facial expression
C) Attractiveness and facial expression
D) Attractiveness and attitude
Q2) If neither Variable A nor Variable B has a main effect you can have
A) no interaction
B) a ceiling effect interaction
C) an antagonistic interaction
D) a synergistic interaction
Q3) Is it possible to have an interaction when there are no main effects in a factorial design?
A) Yes
B) No
C) Can't tell
D) Only if the factorial design does not contain a quasi-experimental variable.
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Chapter 13: Single-Subject Experiments
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Q1) A single-subject research design that manipulates treatments one at a time to determine their effect is the:
A) multiple-baseline design
B) changing criterion design
C) alternating treatments design
D) A-B-A-B design
Q2) The term power refers to:
A) the probability of committing a Type I error
B) the probability of committing a Type II error
C) the probability that a statistical test will find a significant difference when a true difference exists in the population
D) the probability that a statistical test will account for the unexplained variability
Q3) According to the text,the founder of experimental psychology was A)B. Titchener
B) Hermann Ebbinghaus
C) Gustav Fechner
D) Wilhelm Wundt
Q4) Define and/or describe the term "statistical power".
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Chapter 14: Quasi Experiments
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Q1) A cohort is a(n)
A) control group
B) experimental group
C) nonequivalent control group
D) group of subjects that has something in common, such as year of birth
Q2) Combining the results of many studies as if they were one large study is called
A) program evaluation
B) quasi experimentation
C) meta analysis
D) factor analysis
Q3) Professor Hyde studies the effects that two drugs have on human personality.She suspects that one of the two drugs produces interesting changes in men's personalities,while women's personalities will be unchanged by either of the drugs.She designs a study to test this hypothesis and recruits a number of men and women to participate.Prof.Hyde plans to test personality by administering the NEO-PI test before and after administration of the drug.Is the experimental design within-subjects,between-subjects,or mixed? What is (are)the independent variable(s)? The dependant variable(s)? Is the design a true experiment,single-subject experiment,or a quasi experiment? What are the conditions of the experiment?
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Chapter 15: Biases and Limitations of Experimental Psychology
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Q1) Which one of the following statements best explains the meaning of "science as liberal"?
A) Scientific results often challenge political and religious orthodoxy.
B) The majority of scientists are liberal in political outlook.
C) Scientists are attracted to research on liberal topics.
D) Scientific research is often supported by liberal groups.
Q2) All of the following may be considered essential limitations of science except:
A) Science must remain agnostic about some questions concerning religious values.
B) All science is tentative.
C) Science is incomplete.
D) Science is necessarily an esoteric discipline.
Q3) All of the following may be considered responsibilities of the scientist except: Scientists are obligated to
A) study only those problems that have practical significance.
B) inform and educate the public about their research findings.
C) respond to the public's concerns about research.
D) critically examine the ideas of other scientists.
Q4) Identify and describe the essential and practical limitations of science.
Page 17
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