Social Science Research Methods
Practice Exam
Course Introduction
Social Science Research Methods introduces students to the fundamental principles and techniques used to systematically investigate social phenomena. The course covers both qualitative and quantitative research methods, including designing research questions, sampling strategies, data collection techniques such as surveys and interviews, and methods of data analysis. Emphasis is placed on understanding ethical considerations, interpreting empirical findings, and critically evaluating research studies. By the end of the course, students will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to design and conduct basic social science research and to assess the validity and reliability of published studies.
Recommended Textbook Methods in Behavioral Research 12th Edition by Paul Coz
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Scientific Understanding of Behavior
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Q1) Which of the following is an important consideration that people in all organizations too often fail to remember when new ideas are implemented?
A)Social scientists should evaluate each program to determine if it is having its intended effect and if it is not, alternative programs should be tried.
B)Scientists should have strong ethical principles and be committed to treating those who participate in research investigations with respect and dignity.
C)Legislators who control the budgets of research-granting agencies of the government have demanded that research be directly relevant to specific social issues.
D)Both basic and applied research are important, and neither can be considered superior to the other.
Answer: A
Q2) The four goals of scientific research on behavior are to:
A)describe, prescribe, eliminate, and undermine behavior.
B)describe, predict, explain, and determine the causes of behavior.
C)describe, analyze, eliminate, and determine the effects of behavior.
D)describe, understand, explain, and modify behavior.
Answer: B
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Where to Start
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Q1) As Joan becomes familiar with the literature examining the influence of physical attractiveness on judgments of criminal behavior, she notes inconsistencies in the results. She concludes that this area of study needs to be further investigated. This scenario best represents _____ as a source of ideas for research.
A)observation of the world around us
B)theories
C)practical problems
D)past research
Answer: D
Q2) In which section of a research article would a reader find a description of what was done in the past and why the present study is being conducted?
A)The abstract
B)The introduction
C)The method section
D)The results section
Answer: B
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Chapter 3: Ethics in Behavioral Research
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Q1) A researcher's results should be considered fraudulent if:
A)animals were used while conducting experiments for the research.
B)participants were not debriefed after the completion of the study.
C)the data has been changed in order to support the hypotheses.
D)the researcher has used any form of survey to collect the data.
Answer: C
Q2) Loss of expected privacy and confidentiality are ethical issues that researchers must address when _____.
A)studying participants in public settings
B)conducting group discussions
C)collecting data from websites
D)involving children in a study
Answer: C
Q3) Which of the following behaviors does NOT represent plagiarism?
A)Including a sentence that is copied without using quotation marks and a reference citation
B)Representing another's work as one's own
C)Paraphrasing the actual words of another source without citation
D)Including a personal idea or finding into one's own research
Answer: D
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Chapter 4: Fundamental Research Issues
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Q1) To study the effect of workplace lighting on employee productivity, a researcher first manipulates the amount of lighting in a workspace and then observes its effect on a group's productivity. In this case, the researcher is focusing on which element of inferences of cause and effect?
A)Temporal precedence
B)Covariation between variables
C)Elimination of possible causes
D)Environmental stability
Q2) When the relationship between an independent and a dependent variable is plotted in a graph, the independent variable is always placed on the _____ axis.
A)horizontal
B)central
C)neutral
D)vertical
Q3) Random variability exists because relationships between variables:
A)can only be positive or negative.
B)are curvilinear.
C)are rarely perfect.
D)can only be monotonic.
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Page 6
Chapter 5: Measurement Concepts
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Q1) Which of the following statements is true of face validity?
A)It is based on future behavior or outcomes.
B)It is not very sophisticated.
C)It is sufficient to conclude that a measure is valid.
D)It is also known as content validity.
Q2) If a measure is reliable, then a researcher must find a:
A)high positive correlation coefficient between scores on the measure.
B)negative linear relationship between the two variables being studied.
C)correlation coefficient of zero.
D)low amount of true score.
Q3) Henry, a teacher, is constructing a test of knowledge of research methods. In doing so, Henry uses the prescribed textbook for his class to devise 100 true-false questions on various aspects of research methods. Without conducting any research, Henry can be most certain of the _____ validity of this test.
A)construct
B)face
C)criterion
D)divergent
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Chapter 6: Observational Methods
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Q1) The observational method that provides a description of an individual is called
A)systematic observation
B)concealed observation
C)a field experiment
D)a case study
Q2) Betsy wants to determine if the types of products advertised on television vary depending on the time of day. Which type of archival research approach should she employ in this scenario?
A)Survey archive
B)Content analysis
C)Statistical records
D)Written records
Q3) If you ask teenagers to describe the behaviors of their parents that most upsets them, you would be using a(n) _____ approach of data collection.
A)archival
B)experimental
C)qualitative
D)quantitative
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Page 8
Chapter 7: Asking People About Themselves: Survey Research
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Q1) In the context of question wording, the question "Proposition Q proposes an increase in property tax to fund road improvement; do you agree with this proposition?" illustrates
A)negative wording
B)simplicity
C)yea-saying and nay-saying
D)probability
Q2) When Edgar responds to the questions in a survey, he answers in a way that would reflect most favorably on him. In this scenario, Edgar's behavior best illustrates social
A)loafing
B)acquiescence
C)desirability
D)competence
Q3) _____ indicates the amount of deviation in results obtained from a sample compared to the true population value.
A)Syntax error
B)Halo effect
C)Sample variance
D)Sampling error
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Experimental Design
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Q1) When testing the effect of noise on the performance of a task, Marco tests half the participants in a cool, quiet room and the other half in a hot, noisy room. In this case, what confounding variable has Marco failed to eliminate?
A)Task performance
B)Noise level
C)Gender of participants
D)Room temperature
Q2) If the two groups involved in an experiment are not equivalent, _____.
A)the experimental result is likely to be affected by ethnocentrism
B)the experiment is said to have high internal validity
C)it is impossible to conduct a replication
D)it cannot be ascertained that the independent variable caused the results
Q3) Which of the following statements is least likely to be true of Latin squares?
A)It controls for order effects.
B)It results in complete counterbalancing.
C)Each condition appears at each ordinal position.
D)Each condition precedes and follows each condition one time.
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Chapter 9: Conducting Experiments
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Q1) Mr. Louise, a psychologist, is interested in the effect of physical attractiveness on ratings of punishment assigned to a driver in an automobile accident. Participants read an account of the accident and received a written description of a physically attractive or unattractive defendant. The manipulation of attractiveness would be an example of a _____ manipulation.
A)staged
B)straightforward
C)conjunctive
D)dependent
Q2) In the early stages of a research project, the researcher would want as _____ as possible in order to demonstrate that a relationship between variables exists.
A)many manipulations
B)weak a manipulation
C)strong a manipulation
D)costly a manipulation
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Chapter 10: Complex Experimental Designs
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Q1) A researcher finds that for male applicants, the likelihood of being hired for a job increases as their work experience increases. However, for female applicants, the likelihood of being hired is not influenced by the amount of work experience. In this scenario, which of the following is true?
A)There is an effect of gender on work experience.
B)There is no interaction between gender and work experience for female applicants.
C)There is an interaction between gender and work experience.
D)There is an effect of work experience on the likelihood of females being hired.
Q2) A researcher states that "anxiety decreases performance irrespective of the participants' motivation levels." This means that there is a(n)_____.
A)main effect of anxiety
B)interaction between anxiety and motivation
C)main effect of motivation
D)error in the study
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Chapter 11: Single-Case, Quasi-Experimental, and Developmental Research
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Q1) Which of the following is a variation of the multiple baseline design?
A)Across subjects
B)Across treatments
C)Across effects
D)Across experiments
Q2) In the context of one-group pretest-posttest design, maturation effects occur when:
A)taking a pretest changes the participant's behavior.
B)participants change over time and become bored or fatigued.
C)a confounding event occurs at the same time as the experimental manipulation.
D)the basic characteristics of the measuring instrument change over time.
Q3) A researcher administers a reading test to a group of fourth graders at the beginning of the school year. During the year, the students receive an intensive program designed to improve reading skills. At the end of the year, the reading test is given again and a large improvement in test scores is discovered. Identify the type of study.
A)One-shot case study
B)One-group pretest-posttest design
C)Nonequivalent control group design
D)Interrupted time series design
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Chapter 12: Understanding Research Results: Description and
Correlation
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Q1) Latifah measures the height of four- and five-year-olds. To her surprise, she finds no correlation between height and age. What is most likely responsible for this result?
A)Correlational methods cannot be used to calculate age and height.
B)A curvilinear relationship exists between the variables.
C)The range of the variables has been restricted.
D)The variability in the sample will not allow the accurate calculation of a correlation coefficient.
Q2) How does restricting the range of a variable affect the correlation coefficient?
A)It improves the correlation coefficient.
B)It reduces the magnitude of the correlation coefficient.
C)It has no effect on the correlation coefficient.
D)It changes the direction of the correlation coefficient.
Q3) A measure of _____ is a number that characterizes the amount of spread in a distribution of scores.
A)central tendency
B)effect size
C)correlation
D)variability
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Chapter 13: Understanding Research Results: Statistical Inference
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Q1) Reida has developed a program that is designed to increase the reading comprehension scores of sixth graders. She randomly selects three students to participate in her program. When she compares the mean score of the students who completed her program to that of three students who did not participate in the program, she finds no significant difference between the mean scores. What is most likely the reason for the nonsignificant finding?
A)Too strong a manipulation
B)The participation of sixth graders
C)A small sample size
D)A true research hypothesis
Q2) Inferential statistics _____.
A)are used to generally describe the data
B)are used to make conclusions about the data
C)focus mainly on scales of measurement
D)focus mainly on standard deviations
Q3) A manipulation check is especially important when:
A)significant results are obtained.
B)nonsignificant results are obtained.
C)one-tailed tests are used.
D)two-tailed tests are used.
Page 15
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Chapter 14: Generalization
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Q1) In the original Mozart effect study, researchers examined the effect of exposure to classical music on spatial reasoning. In this case, exposure to classical music and spatial reasoning are examples of _____ variables.
A)concrete
B)conceptual
C)confounded
D)concurrent
Q2) Which of the following best represents a meta-analysis?
A)Miller and Downey's (1999) work analyzing the results of 71 studies that examined the relationship between weight and self-esteem
B)The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
C)A study on the impact of conversation on driving by Drews and his colleagues (2008)
D)Smart's (1966) research that found that college students were studied in over 70 percent of the articles published between 1962 and 1964
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