Social Science Research Methods
Exam Preparation Guide
Course Introduction
Social Science Research Methods introduces students to the fundamental principles and practices of conducting research in the social sciences. The course covers a range of qualitative and quantitative research designs, data collection techniques, and analytical frameworks. Students learn how to formulate research questions, design surveys and interviews, apply sampling strategies, and use statistical tools to analyze data. Ethical considerations and the critical evaluation of sources are emphasized throughout. By the end of the course, students will develop the skills needed to design robust research projects, interpret findings, and communicate results effectively within the context of social science disciplines.
Recommended Textbook
The Practice of Social Research 14th Edition by Earl R. Babbie
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Chapter 1: Human Inquiry and Science
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is NOT a component of the traditional research proposal?
A)review of the literature
B)introduction
C)data analysis
D)researcher's opinion
E)bibliography
Answer: D
Q2) Van wants to use social science to help him decide if Protestantism is a better religion than Catholicism.As a methodologist,your best response would be:
A)depends on what you mean by "Protestantism"
B)sorry, science cannot settle debates about values
C)depends on what you mean by "better"
D)the best thing to do would be to interview a Protestant and a Catholic
E)complete a survey
Answer: B
Q3) Agreement reality hinders our attempts to find out for ourselves.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 2: Paradigms,theory,and Social Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements is(are)TRUE?
A)Laws are universal generalizations.
B)Laws are created by scientists.
C)Laws explain the phenomena under study.
D)Laws are concerned with accidental patterns.
E)Laws are objective and agreed upon by all.
Answer: A
Q2) Beginning a research study after developing a theory and learning all that is known about it prior to observation is following what logical system?
A)deductive theory
B)inductive theory
C)structural functionalism
D)grounded theory
E)ethnomethodology
Answer: A
Q3) The variable age at last birthday is empirical.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 3: The Ethics and Politics of Social Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) A researcher is interested on the effects of race on educational attainment.The researcher hopes to find that race has no effect.What professional norm is this researcher violating?
A)confidentiality
B)objectivity
C)no harm to subjects
D)voluntary participation
E)no harm to subjects.
Answer: B
Q2) Harm to participants can include all but which of the following?
A)revealing details of previous sexual behavior
B)psychological distress from recalling traumatic memories
C)physical injury as part of an experiment
D)revealing unpopular opinions to others
E)not compensating them adequately
Answer: E
Q3) Debriefing is useful for all social research.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 4: Research Design
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Sample Questions
Q1) Arianna is planning to study the future criminal behavior of individuals currently enrolled in a diversionary juvenile program.What type of research method may she use?
A)cross-sectional
B)trend
C)cohort
D)panel
E)experimental
Q2) William Robinson,a sociologist,found that during the 1930s there was a positive relationship between the literacy rate and percentage of the population that was foreign born.If you concluded on this basis that your neighbor,Yasmine,who is a foreign-born resident,has a higher literacy rate than other native-born residents,you would be committing the
A)individualistic fallacy.
B)ex post facto fallacy.
C)ecological fallacy.
D)part-whole fallacy.
E)ecological reductionism.
Q3) List and explain the three specific criteria of causality suggested by Babbie.Give an example of a causal statement.
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Chapter 5: Conceptualization, operationalization, and Measurement
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Q1) In order to determine if his uncle is a psychopath,Jerry interviews his uncle,who has a long criminal record.He compares the interview with other corroborating information (e.g.police reports,interviews with other family members and friends,etc),and applies the information to the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (a well-known 20-item scale for measuring psychopathy developed by a criminologist).In using a scale to determine whether his uncle is a psychopath,Jerry is studying ____________.
A)direct observables
B)indirect observables
C)constructs
D)concepts
E)conceptualization
Q2) A measurement that does not reflect the logical relationship between the variables lacks what kind of validity?
A)construct validity
B)face validity
C)criterion-related validity
D)content validity
E)split-half validity
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Chapter 6: Indexes, scales, and Typologies
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Sample Questions
Q1) Likert scales are designed to be ______ in measurement.
A)nominal
B)ratio
C)internal
D)ordinal
E)It varies; they can be designed to be any level of measurement.
Q2) Scales take into consideration the intensity with which different items reflect the variable being measured.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Nick wanted to develop a scale to determine how willing people are to connect at various levels with people with disabilities.Nick should use the
A)Bogardus social distance scale.
B)Thurstone scale.
C)Likert scale.
D)semantic differential.
E)Guttman scale
Q4) Discuss how you would use a Bogardus Social distance scale to measure attitudes of prejudice and racism among college students.
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Chapter 7: The Logic of Sampling
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Sample Questions
Q1) In general,as sample size increases
A)the standard error increases in size.
B)the standard error decreases in size.
C)the standard error will remain the same regardless of changes in sample size.
D)the standard error is a constant.
E)the standard error fluctuates in size.
Q2) I would like to survey 50 people on their attitudes regarding premarital sex.Knowing that approximately 52% of the population is female and 48% is male,I choose to stand on the corner of High St.and Hague Ave.,and give my short survey to the first 26 women and the first 24 men who pass by the corner.I have engaged in _____________.
A)snowball sampling
B)quota sampling
C)reliance on available subjects or convenient sampling
D)purposive sampling
E)simple random sampling
Q3) What is the basic logic of probability sampling? How do such concepts as homogeneity,heterogeneity,sampling bias,representativeness,and probability of selection fit into this logic?
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Chapter 8: Experiments
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Sample Questions
Q1) Lee selected people with only the highest self-esteem scores for her experiment on the effects of divorce on self-esteem.She should be particularly alert to which potential source of internal invalidity?
A)history
B)maturation
C)testing
D)statistical regression
E)mortality
Q2) Sharon wanted to determine if the juvenile boot camp program her county had initiated had a noticeable impact on recidivism.She compared similar juveniles who had taken part in the boot camp and those who received a more traditional sentence.Twelve months after their release,she compared their re-arrest rates.In this experiment,the boot camp was the:
A)the pretest.
B)the posttest.
C)the independent variable.
D)the dependent variable.
E)the control group.
Q3) Explain what is meant by internal and external validity.
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Chapter 9: Survey Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Describe three research questions for which survey research is an appropriate technique of observation.Describe whether and why these three topics are better suited to an interview or a mailed questionnaire.
Q2) Ying is conducting research on the elderly to determine what their fear of crime is,as well as what affects this fear.In general,which of the following modalities would be the LEAST appropriate to use?
A)interview survey.
B)online survey.
C)mail survey.
D)telephone survey.
E)self-report survey.
Q3) Which of the following is NOT an advantage of interviews as compared to self-administered questionnaires?
A)Interviews are more effective in dealing with complicated issues.
B)Interviews produce fewer incomplete questions.
C)Interviews have higher response rates.
D)Interviews handle sensitive issues more effectively.
E)Interviews allow the researcher to probe for additional information.
Q4) Give a comparative analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of survey research.
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Chapter 10: Qualitative Field Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Specific methods do not link to specific paradigms.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Zeke studied friendship patterns among pairs of women and pairs of men.Which one of the following did he study?
A)relationships
B)social worlds
C)organizations
D)lifestyles or subcultures
E)encounters
Q3) Field research is advantageous in comparison to other methods because it:
A)yields precise descriptive statements about a large population.
B)involves the uniform application of precise operational definitions.
C)allows for the modification of research design.
D)produces definitive conclusions.
E)is an extremely reliable technique.
Q4) In most interviewing protocols,it is usually better to establish rapport before proceeding with difficult or sensitive topics.
A)True
B)False
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Unobtrusive Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Logical reasoning and replication are used to handle the problem of validity in the analysis of existing statistics.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Sample selection depends on what the unit of analysis is.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The categories used in content analysis codes should be
A)mutually exclusive.
B)exhaustive.
C)nominal.
D)mutually exclusive and exhaustive.
E)mutually exclusive, exhaustive, and nominal.
Q4) To conduct his research on suicide,Emile Durkheim employed which of the following research methodologies?
A)experimental research
B)survey research
C)content analysis
D)existing statistics
E)interviews
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Chapter 12: Evaluation Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Stakeholders are
A)persons who control the finances of projects.
B)found in Institutional Review Board panels
C)people or groups affected by a program.
D)applied researchers
E)another name for research assistants
Q2) Social indicators research combines
A)evaluation research with interviewing.
B)evaluation research with the analysis of existing data.
C)the analysis of existing data with questionnaires.
D)the analysis of existing data with the historical/comparative approach.
E)evaluation research with the historical/comparative approach.
Q3) Which of the following would NOT be appropriate for measurement in evaluation research?
A)the dependent variable(s)
B)the experimental context
C)the outcome(s) of the experiment
D)the independent variable(s)
E)the sample size.
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Chapter 13: Qualitative Data Analysis
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Sample Questions
Q1) Case-oriented analysis is more valuable in qualitative research than variable-oriented research.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Grounded theory method must begin with a well developed,calculated hypothesis.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Semiotics is a social science because
A)meanings are inherent in signs.
B)meanings reside in people's minds.
C)a particular sign may have a particular meaning to a particular person.
D)we have agreements about the meanings associated with particular signs.
E)meanings have an absolute, objective meaning.
Q4) Open coding refers to the initial classification and labeling of concepts.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The utility of case-oriented analysis is the fact that one case can make theory. A)True B)False
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Chapter 14: Quantitative Data Analysis
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which one of the following is NOT a basic guideline for presenting tabular data?
A)A table should have a heading.
B)The original content of the variables should be clearly presented.
C)The attributes of each variable should be clearly indicated.
D)Present all the raw numbers of cases in the cells of the table.
E)Variables should be clearly presented on the rows and columns.
Q2) The process of comparing your assistants' coding with each others' and with your own coding of the responses of sample responses helps to improve A)validity.
B)reliability.
C)generalizability.
D)internal credibility.
E)content generalizability
Q3) If the table is percentaged down,you will need to read results across the table. A)True
B)False
Q4) The "don't know" category should always be excluded from analysis.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 15: The Logic of Multivariate Analysis
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Sample Questions
Q1) An antecedent control variable is one that occurs between the independent and the dependent variable in time.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The elaboration model is NOT a simple set of procedures for analyzing data.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Having observed an empirical relationship between two variables,we seek to understand the nature of that relationship through the effects produced by introducing other variables.In view of this,what is the basic form of the elaboration model?
Q4) The test variable is also known as the
A)the Lazarsfeld variable.
B)the control variable.
C)the specification variable.
D)the replication variable.
E)the independent variable
Q5) The origins of the Elaboration Model dates back to World War II.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 16: Statistical Analyses
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the linear equation,Y = a + bX,a denotes the slope of the line.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Jeff thinks that market sales are influenced by the preceding year's unemployment rate.Jeff should use a ____ for his analysis.
A)discriminant analysis
B)path analysis
C)factor analysis
D)time-lagged regression analysis
E)regression analysis
Q3) Two-way ANOVA is a multivariate technique.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Chi square compares
A)percentages and ratios.
B)expected and observed frequencies.
C)percentages down with percentages across.
D)observed frequencies and population frequencies.
E)frequencies and ratios.
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Chapter 17: Reading and Writing Social Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) A good research report should read like a good novel.
A)True
B)False
Q2) A typical report begins with a(n)
A)literature review.
B)purpose and overview statement.
C)analysis and description statement.
D)summary statement.
E)conclusions statement.
Q3) A downloadable electronic copy of a journal article that is paginated exactly the same as a printed copy is usually in which format?
A)JPEG
B)MPEG
C)PDF
D)PPT
E)TXT
Q4) Students should be prevented from using Wikipedia in writing research reports.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What are search engines? Why and how do we use them in our research?
Page 19
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