Social Statistics
Practice Exam
Course Introduction
Social Statistics is an introductory course designed to equip students with the fundamental concepts and techniques used to collect, analyze, and interpret quantitative data in the social sciences. Through a combination of lectures, hands-on exercises, and real-world examples, students will learn about descriptive statistics, probability theory, hypothesis testing, correlation, and regression analysis. The course emphasizes the application of statistical methods to research questions in fields such as sociology, psychology, political science, and economics, fostering the ability to critically evaluate statistical information encountered in academic studies and everyday life.
Recommended Textbook
Social Statistics for a Diverse Society 8th Edition by Chava Frankfort Nachmias
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614 Verified Questions
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Chapter 1: The What and the Why of Statistics
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Sample Questions
Q1) Suppose that a researcher is interested in knowing whether there is a difference in the age at first marriage between women and men.The researcher hypothesizes that women tend to marry earlier than men.Which variable would be the independent variable?
Answer: Gender
Q2) Identify the independent variable,the dependent variable,and the unit of analysis in the following hypothesis: On average,the annual household income of female-headed households is about 25% less than the annual household income of married couple households.
Answer: Independent variable = household type;dependent variable = annual income;and unit of analysis = households
Q3) A research study examining gender composition in the work place is likely using ______ as the unit of analysis.
A)gender
B)male or female
C)employment status
D)the organization
Answer: D
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3
Chapter 2: The Organization and Graphic Presentation of Data
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Sample Questions
Q1) 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
Q2) A cumulative percentage distribution shows the
A)percentage at or above each category of the variable.
B)total number of cases in a population.
C)percentage at or below each category of the variable.
D)total frequency of all variables.
Answer: C
Q3) Which of the following is not a proportion?
A)0.0
B)0.5
C)1.0
D)1.5
Answer: D
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Chapter 3: Measures of Central Tendency
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following columns is most useful when using a frequency distribution to identify the interval containing the median?
A)Percentages
B)Cumulative percentages
C)Frequencies
D)Cumulative frequencies
Answer: B
Q2) Distributions that have few extreme low values are described as A)symmetrical.
B)negatively skewed.
C)positively skewed.
D)bimodal.
Answer: B
Q3) The ______ is the appropriate measure of central tendency for nominal variables.
A)mode
B)median
C)mean
D)percentile
Answer: A
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Chapter 4: Measures of Variability
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which measure of variability is used for nominal variables such as race and ethnicity?
A)Mode
B)Index of qualitative variation
C)Standard deviation
D)Stratified variance
Q2) 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
Q3) Calculate the value of the interquartile range for the following sub-sample: 2,7,4,4,1,2,2,3,1,2,4,5.
Q4) Consider the variable,type of birth control practiced (e.g.,an IUD,condoms,none,etc).Which measure of variability is best suited to describe variation in the distribution of this variable?
A)IQV
B)Range
C)Variance
D)Standard deviation
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Chapter 5: The Normal Distribution
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Sample Questions
Q1) In a normal distribution,there is a constant proportion of the area under the curve lying between the mean and any given distance from the mean and is measured in A)variance units.
B)Z score units.
C)raw score units.
D)standard deviation units.
Q2) Probability can be calculated as: Number of times an event will occur/Total number of events.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What percentage of the area under the normal curve falls between ±1 standard deviations?
A)99.72
B)95.46
C)68.26
D)20.00
Q4) 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%?
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Chapter 6: Sampling and Sampling Distributions
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Sample Questions
Q1) A theoretical probability distribution of all possible sample values for the statistics in which we are interested in is referred to as a A)sample.
B)sampling distribution.
C)population.
D)sampling frequency.
Q2) When the size of the sample selected from a subgroup is proportional to the size of the that subgroup in the entire population,we refer to this as A)systematic random sampling.
B)proportionate stratified sampling.
C)stratified cluster sampling.
D)disproportionate stratified sampling.
Q3) Define systematic random sampling approach.
Q4) According to the central limit theorem what happens to the sampling distribution of sample means as N becomes larger?
Q5) What is the difference between a parameter and a statistic?
Q6) Will the standard error always be lower than the standard deviation? Why or why not?
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Chapter 7: Estimation
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Q1) In a survey sample of 83 respondents,about 30.1 percent of the sample work less than 40 hours per week.What is the estimated standard error of the proportion for this group?
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) The formula \( \bar{Y} \pm Z\left(\sigma_{Y}\right) \) is used to estimate the A)mean.
B)standard error.
C)Z score.
D)confidence interval for mean.
Q4) Which two quantities are needed to estimate the standard error of the proportions toward the further estimation of confidence intervals for proportions?
A)Sample mean and sample standard deviation
B)Population mean and population standard deviation
C)Sample proportion and sample size
D)Population proportion and population size
Q5) What is the effect on a confidence interval if one decreases both sample size and the level of confidence?
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Chapter 8: Testing Hypotheses
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Sample Questions
Q1) The degrees of freedom will increase as the sample size increases.
A)True
B)False
Q2) A research hypothesis (H )is said to be a
A)one-tailed test if the research hypothesis is non-directional.
B)right-tailed test if the research hypothesis is directed at the right tail of the sampling distribution.
C)left-tailed test if the research hypothesis is directed at the left tail of the sampling distribution.
D)two-tailed test if the research hypothesis is directional.
Q3) If the sample variances of two sets of people are 2.15 and 2.04 with sample sizes 50 each,then the t statistic for a difference between means 43.10 AND 40.26 is .29.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Suppose you are interested in comparing the mean number of hours worked by sex.State the null and the research hypotheses.
Q5) Calculate the degrees of freedom for a one-sample t test with 2,822 U.S.adults between the ages of 15 and 64 in the sample.
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Chapter 9: Bivariate Tables
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Sample Questions
Q1) By using the example of family support for the transition from high school,the authors illustrate how elaboration is helpful in examining
A)the lack of health insurance among ethnoracial minorities.
B)how middle class boys are vulnerable to violence.
C)how race,class,and gender are linked with social behavior.
D)the low graduation rates among inner city youth.
Q2) A relationship in which both the independent and dependent variables are influenced by a causally prior control variable such that the original relationship is "explained away" by the control variable,is referred to as
A)spuriousness.
B)statistical significance.
C)percentage difference.
D)dependence.
Q3) When it is not apparent which variable is the independent variable or dependent variable,it is common for researchers to
A)take the average percentage across the rows.
B)average the percentages across the columns.
C)rely exclusively on the column percentages.
D)calculate both the row and column percentages.
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Chapter 10: The Chi-Square Test and Measures of Association
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Sample Questions
Q1) In chi-square test,
A)reducing the observed frequencies by half will cut down the calculated chi-square by exactly half.
B)doubling the observed frequencies will cut down the calculated chi-square by exactly half.
C)a relatively strong association between the variables may significant when the sample size is small.
D)the sample size is inversely proportional to the size of the calculated chi-square.
Q2) A measure of association whose value may vary depending on which variable is considered the independent variable and which the dependent variable is called a(n)
A)symmetrical measure.
B)asymmetrical measure.
C)interdependent associate.
D)dependent associate.
Q3) What interpretation do we get if Kendall's Tau-b reaches a value of 1?
Q4) Briefly describe the primary difference between symmetrical and asymmetrical measures of association.
Q5) Why is it sometimes important to condition one's result by another variable?
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Analysis of Variance
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Sample Questions
Q1) As eta square approaches zero,the relationship between the variables is weaker.
A)True
B)False
Q2) If the F critical is 4.94 while the F obtained is 3.97,when \( d f_{w} \) = 3, \( d f_{w} \) = 20 and alpha level = .01,do we accept or reject the null hypothesis?
Q3) What is the F critical?
Q4) In order to determine whether the differences between group means are statistically significant,ANOVA examines the differences
A)between groups.
B)within groups.
C)between and within groups.
D)neither between nor within groups.
Q5) A researcher is interested in comparing the mean education levels of recent immigrant groups by origin country.She is particularly interested in comparing the mean education levels of immigrants from China,Ecuador,Mexico,and Vietnam.The researcher uses an ANOVA design and calculates an F statistic of 29.275.What two statistical quantities comprise the numerator and denominator of this statistic?
Q6) List the four assumptions of ANOVA.
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Chapter 12: Regression and Correlation
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the slope of the linear regression prediction equation if a person with 12 years of schooling earns $31,000 per year and a person with 13 years of schooling earns $32,500 per year?
A)1
B)12
C)13
D)1,500
Q2) Regression
A)examines relationship between ordinal variables.
B)is a linear prediction model.
C)is bivariate if it involves one independent and one dependent variable.
D)is multiple if it involves two or more independent and one dependent variable.
Q3) Covariance
A)measures the linear relationship between two variables.
B)reflects both strength and direction of the relationship.
C)will be close to zero if the variables are closely related.
D)will be negative if the relationship is unrelated.
Q4) Consider the following linear regression prediction equation: Y = 12 + -1x.If x = 7.What is the predicted value of Y for this observation?
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