Research Methods in Sociology Test
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Course Introduction
Research Methods in Sociology introduces students to the fundamental tools and techniques used to conduct empirical research in the field of sociology. This course covers both qualitative and quantitative research methods, including survey design, interviews, participant observation, and content analysis. Emphasis is placed on the development of research questions, sampling strategies, data collection, and ethical considerations in sociological research. Students will gain practical experience in designing studies, analyzing data, and interpreting findings, preparing them for independent research projects and a deeper understanding of how sociological knowledge is constructed.
Recommended Textbook
An Invitation to Social Research How Its Done 5th Edition by Emily Stier Adler
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Chapter 1: The Uses of Social Research
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Q1) An early step involved in doing science is to specify the goals of inquiry.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) The scientific method benefits from the pursuit of counterexamples.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Let's say that there is a well known theory that we can call "The General Attraction Theory" and that it suggests that people who are physically attractive get more of society's rewards than less attractive people.If we have a hypothesis that people who are physically attractive are more likely to be hired for certain jobs than their less attractive peers and wanted to test this theory in a specific industry,we would be conducting
A) descriptive research.
B) applied research.
C) explanatory research.
D) critical research.
E) evaluation research.
Answer: C
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Chapter 2: Theory and Research
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Q1) "In our research,we are looking at how gender (male or female)affects the amount of money individuals leave for tips at restaurants." In the previous statement,is the variable,andis/are the categories of the variable.
A) gender; male or female
B) gender amount of money
C) male or female; gender
D) male or female; amount of money
E) none of these
Answer: A
Q2) "In our research,we are looking at how gender (male or female)affects the amount of money individuals leave for tips at restaurants." A possible hypothesis based on this research question is
A) men are more likely to be large tippers than women.
B) women are more likely to be large tippers than men.
C) large tippers are more likely to be physically attracted to restaurant workers of the opposite sex.
D) all of these are plausible hypotheses.
E) none of these are plausible hypotheses.
Answer: D
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Chapter 3: Ethics and Social Research
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Q1) In The Tea Room Trade,Humphreys may have violated the ethical principle of
A) confidentiality.
B) informed consent.
C) anonymity.
D) confidentiality and informed consent
E) anonymity, confidentiality, and informed consent
Answer: D
Q2) Anonymity is when the identities and information disclosed by all research participants is kept private from all other parties.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) Ethical questions do not arise in which of the following situations?
A) choosing subjects
B) recruiting participants
C) publishing the results of research
D) conducting the actual research interview
E) dilemmas occur in all of the above
Answer: E
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Planning a Research Project
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Q1) Until recently,all research was considered to be value free.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following is not a common source for finding academic materials for a literature review?
A) internet search
B) books
C) articles
D) government documents
E) all of these are common sources for finding materials for a literature review
Q3) We can expect that the interest in certain topics will change over time.This is due to A) different sources of funding.
B) changing political, social, and economic elements.
C) changing personal factors.
D) all of these.
E) none of these.
Q4) What are the purposes of conducting a literature review?
Q5) Describe how the social,political,and economic world influences research.
Q6) What conditions determine whether a study is feasible?
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Sampling
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Q1) A biased sample means
A) it is a prejudiced sample.
B) it is a sample that is not representative of the population from which it is drawn.
C) that there is limited generalizability of results.
D) that it is both a prejudiced sample and there is limited generalizability of results.
E) none of these
Q2) When two samples are drawn from the same population,there may occur,when the sample statistics differ.
A) coverage error
B) statistical bias
C) dual error
D) sampling variability
E) generalizability
Q3) What is the difference between probability and nonprobability sampling,in terms of the appropriateness of each to research designs?
Q4) Identify and describe the four types of nonprobability sampling.
Q5) What lessons were learned in the presidential sampling examples?
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Chapter 6: Measurement
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Q1) A nominal measure can only have five categories.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The practical reason for paying attention to levels of measurement is related to A) conceptualization.
B) summarizing information.
C) operationalizing.
D) creating indexes.
E) none of the above
Q3) What is the process called when a researcher takes an abstract idea and develops a clear,conceptual definition for it?
A) creating indicators
B) conceptualization
C) replication
D) composite measure
E) measurement
Q4) Content validity is a test for validity which involves utilizing the judgment of experts in the field.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 7: Cross-Sectional, Longitudinal, and Case Study Designs
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Q1) What is one way to combat issues of internal validity?
A) Do not ask people about things that occurred in the past.
B) Conduct longitudinal studies versus cross-sectional studies.
C) Never conduct a cross-sectional design.
D) Conduct longitudinal studies versus cross-sectional studies AND do not ask people about things that occurred in the past.
E) Issues of internal validity cannot be avoided.
Q2) A real advantage of case study designs is the fact that we can generalize from these findings to other settings.
A)True
B)False
Q3) As we administer the same survey to panel members on several occasions,there is a chance they will be affected by the questions.This is known as
A) panel fatigue.
B) panel learning.
C) panel conditioning.
D) panel attrition.
E) questionnaire familiarity.
Q4) What are some good reasons to conduct a case study?
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Experimental Research
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Q1) In posttest only quasi-experimental designs,the major threat to internal validity is that it is virtually impossible to conclude that changes are the result of the manipulation of the independent variable alone.
A)True
B)False
Q2) One advantage of experimental designs in laboratory settings is that you know with some confidence that only one group has been exposed to the treatment introduced by the researcher.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The double-blind experiment is useful because
A) both the subjects and researchers know the experimental and control groups. B) neither the subjects nor the researchers know the experimental and control groups. C) only the researcher knows the experimental and control groups.
D) there are no control groups in double-blind experiments.
E) there are no experimental groups in double-blind experiments.
Q4) Discuss the issue of internal validity and experiments.Which types of experimental designs are best suited to address the issue of internal validity? How so?
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Chapter 9: Questionnaires and Structured Interviews
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Q1) Response rates among cell phone surveys are higher than among landline surveys.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Provide an example of a closed-ended and an open-ended question that seeks information about racial and ethnic tolerance.
Q3) Phone interviews are appropriate for
A) in-depth exploration of complex matters.
B) interviews that will be longer than 40 minutes.
C) standardized, closed-ended surveys.
D) investigating issues that are personal and sensitive.
E) open-ended surveys.
Q4) The anonymity of respondents of mailed questionnaires cannot be guaranteed.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Question wording is important to the success of a questionnaire. A)True
B)False
Q6) A pilot test is useful to pretest a questionnaire.
A)True
B)False
Page 11
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Chapter 10: Qualitative Interviewing
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Q1) Which of the following is not a benefit to group interviewing?
A) Group sessions are less time consuming.
B) Group sessions are cost effective.
C) Members in group can help other respondents recall information.
D) Group sessions can be stimulating to respondents.
E) All of these are benefits of group interviews.
Q2) Semi-structured interviews are prepared ahead of time,and are infrequently modified.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Qualitative interviews are very appropriate when the purpose of the research is A) investigatory.
B) explanatory.
C) critique.
D) exploratory.
E) causal.
Q4) Describe what happens after the interviews have been completed.
Q5) Describe the issues of validity for qualitative interviews.
Q6) Compare and contrast any two types of qualitative interviews.
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Observational Techniques
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Q1) Gaining access to,and then getting along in,a site is much more a matter of social skill or________when the observer intends to announce her observer role.
A) degree
B) resources
C) income
D) degree and income
E) none of these
Q2) Collingham's focal research used
A) nonparticipant observation.
B) controlled experiments.
C) thick descriptions.
D) complete observation.
E) participant observation.
Q3) Which of the following is not a technique used by visual sociologists?
A) analyzing visual documents
B) subject image-making
C) practicing photography
D) photo ethnography
E) none of these
Q4) Give two advantages and two disadvantages of using observational methods.
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Chapter 12: Using Available Data
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Q1) Although using available data may provide researchers with highly reliable information,it is usually too costly for an individual researcher to afford.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Emile Durkheim's classic study on suicide is based on
A) qualitative interviews.
B) secondary data analysis.
C) field research.
D) qualitative interviews and field research.
E) none of these
Q3) There are few sources of available data that allow researchers to examine changes over time.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Personal records tend to have easier access than physical traces.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What are the key differences between primary and secondary data? When using secondary data,what are the main issues researchers need to be aware of?
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Chapter 13: Content Analysis
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Q1) Content analysis is a technique that depends on the researcher's capacity to create and record meaningful variables for classifying units of analysis.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The earliest sociological research based on visual analysis was
A) Goffman's Gender Advertisements
B) Marx's The Communist Manifesto
C) Durkheim's Suicide
D) Weber's The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism
E) Mills' The Sociological Imagination
Q3) What type of sampling is used in content analysis?
A) simple
B) random
C) stratified
D) all of these
E) none of these; sampling does not occur
Q4) In content analysis,you can choose any conventional sampling technique. A)True
B)False
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Chapter 14: Applied Social Research
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Q1) What was the program used for evaluation in the focal research by Harrison and Norton-Hawk?
A) a women's shelter in Ecuador
B) a children's shelter in Ecuador
C) a men's prison in Ecuador
D) a women's prison in Ecuador
E) none of these.
Q2) Which type of evaluation research is best used in the early implantation stages of the program or policy?
A) needs assessment
B) formative
C) cost benefit
D) process
E) none of these
Q3) Ethical concerns in applied research
A) are probably less important than in basic research.
B) are equally important as in basic research.
C) are only significant to the community members.
D) are only significant to the researchers.
E) none of these.
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Chapter 15: Quantitative and Qualitative Data Analysis
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Q1) After completing five student interviews,Professor Stewart has found that it is hard to assess "motivation" other than by simply asking students about their motivation.He has decided to use markers for motivation,such as involvement in school clubs and activities,attendance at extra-curricular events and time devoted to studies.In his reading,he had labeled those students who are involved in student organizations,attend activities and devote twenty hours a week to studying as "super students" and the complete absence of these or low scores as on these measures as "minimally involved students".This is an example of
A) arbitrary coding.
B) analytical coding.
C) anticipatory coding.
D) a data display.
E) conceptualization
Q2) Measures of association help to determine if one variable caused another.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Measures of dispersion indicate how varied the population is with respect to certain values.
A)True
B)False
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