Social Statistics
Practice Questions
Course Introduction
Social Statistics introduces students to statistical methods and their application within the social sciences. The course covers fundamental concepts such as descriptive statistics, probability, sampling techniques, hypothesis testing, and inference, with a focus on interpreting real-world social data. Students learn how to analyze and present quantitative information, utilize statistical software, and critically evaluate statistical results in sociological, political, and economic contexts. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to conduct basic statistical analyses and understand the role of statistics in social research and policy-making.
Recommended Textbook
Statistics A Tool for Social Research 8th Edition by Joseph F. Healey
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction
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Sample Questions
Q1) When using interval-ratio data,the distance between the scores is
A)always two units.
B)unequal.
C)exactly defined.
D)not always clear.
Answer: C
Q2) A researcher has calculated the mean for a variable that is ordinal in level of measurement.
A)This operation is a violation of level of measurement criterion and the results should be disregarded.
B)This violation of level of measurement criterion is common and results should be treated with caution.
C)No violation has occurred,this is a perfectly acceptable application of statistics.
D)This is a mistake: means should never be calculated for ordinal variables because they are always continuous.
Answer: B
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3
Chapter 2: Basic Descriptive Statistics: Percentages, Ratios
and Rates, Tables, Charts and Graphs
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Sample Questions
Q1) A class has 20 men and 10 women.The ratio of women to men is
A)2 to 1.
B)1 to 2.
C)20%.
D).2.
Answer: B
Q2) Frequency distributions may be compiled for variables measured at which level?
A)nominal
B)ordinal
C)interval-ratio
D)all of the above
Answer: D
Q3) A police department reports that the number of reported rapes in their jurisdiction increased by 100% over the past decade.This means that the number of reported rapes today is
A)double the number 10 years ago.
B)actually about the same as 10 years ago.
C)equal to the number 10 years ago plus 50%.
D)triple the number 10 years ago.
Answer: A
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Chapter 3: Measures of Central Tendency
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Sample Questions
Q1) An instructor is preparing a report showing mid-semester grades and notes that the mean,median,and mode are all exactly 76.00.What can she conclude?
A)The distribution of grades is unskewed.
B)There is a negative skew in the distribution (a few students have very low grades. )
C)There is a positive skew in the distribution (a few students have very high grades).
D)all of the above
Answer: A
Q2) The median represents the score that is A)half of the sum of the other scores.
B)the most common or frequent.
C)in the middle.
D)midway between the highest and lowest scores.
Answer: C
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5
Chapter 4: Measures of Dispersion
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Sample Questions
Q1) The second quartile (Q<sub>2</sub>)is equal in value to
A)the mode.
B)the median.
C)the mean.
D)the range.
Q2) Since computation of the standard deviation requires addition,division,and other mathematical operations,it should be used for
A)interval-ratio level variables.
B)non-continuous variables at any level of measurement.
C)nominal level variables.
D)discrete variables only.
Q3) If a test score lies at the first quartile,it is
A)higher than 25% of the scores.
B)the same as the median.
C)the same as the mode.
D)higher than 75% of the scores.
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6
Chapter 5: The Normal Curve
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Sample Questions
Q1) On all normal curves the area between the mean and\(\pm\)2 standard deviations will be
A)about 34% of the total areA.
B)about 95% of the total area.
C)less than 50% of the total area.
D)about 68% of the total area.
Q2) When an empirical normal distribution of scores is standardized, A)the mean will become 0.
B)the standard deviation will become 1.
C)each score will be converted to a Z score.
D)all of the above
Q3) If a Z score is +1.00,then the value of the corresponding raw score would be A)0.
B)the same as the mean of the empirical distribution.
C)equal to the mean of the empirical distribution plus one standard deviation. D)probably a negative number.
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Chapter 6: Introduction to Inferential Statistics: Sampling and
the Sampling Distribution
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Sample Questions
Q1) Using the General Social Survey as an example,the concept of the sampling distribution allows us to link the sample of about ____ respondents to the population of about ____ adult Americans
A)10,000,200 million
B)225 million,3000
C)1 million,300 million
D)3,000 or 4,000,225 million
Q2) Both the sample and the population distributions are empirical,which means that they are
A)theoretical.
B)real.
C)ordinal.
D)stratifieD.
Q3) Unless a sample is ____,it cannot be used to make accurate generalizations to a population.
A)very large
B)non-probability
C)representative
D)stratified
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Estimation Procedures
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Sample Questions
Q1) Polls tracking the popularity of President Bush show
A)dramatic increases in support following both the terrorist attacks of 9-11 and the invasion of Iraq.
B)a dramatic increase in support following 9-11 but no particular change after the invasion of Iraq.
C)a remarkable consistency in popularity that never exceeded 55% and never fell below 50%.
D)low levels of support that have often fallen below 25% approval.
Q2) A random sample of 200 includes 100 Protestants.The researcher estimates,at the 95% confidence level,that between 43% and 57% of the population is Protestant.In this research situation,
A)the parameter is 200.
B)P<sub>u</sub> is .43 or .57.
C)N is 100.
D)alpha is 0.05.
Q3) An estimator is unbiased if the mean of its sampling distribution is equal to A)the midpoint of the distribution.
B)the sample mean.
C)the population value.
D)the population median.
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Chapter 8: Hypothesis Testing I: the One-Sample Case
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Sample Questions
Q1) The critical region is
A)the area under the curve that contains "non-rare" events.
B)the area under the curve that includes those values of a sample statistic that will lead to rejection of the null.
C)a confidence interval.
D)a law that states that the shape of the sampling distribution is normal.
Q2) A one-tailed test of significance could be used whenever
A)the researcher can predict a direction for the difference.
B)the researcher feels like it.
C)the null hypothesis is thought to be true.
D)the alpha level exceeds 0.10.
Q3) Cite an example of a research situation in which a one-tailed test of significance would be appropriate.
Q4) The probability of Type I error is
A).01.
B).05.
C)the alpha level.
D)beta.
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Chapter 9: Hypothesis Testing II: the Two-Sample Case
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Sample Questions
Q1) From a university population,random samples of 145 men and 237 women have been asked if they have ever cheated in a college class.8% of the men and 6% of the women said that they have.What is the appropriate test to assess the significance of this difference?
A)test for the significance of the difference between two sample proportions,large samples
B)test for the significance of the difference between two sample proportions,small samples
C)test for the significance of the difference between two sample proportions,matched samples
D)test for the significance of the difference between two sample means,large samples
Q2) To maximize the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis,use
A)low alphas and two-tailed tests.
B)low alphas and high Z scores.
C)high alphas but low degrees of freedom.
D)high alphas,large samples,and one- tailed tests.
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11
Chapter 10: Hypothesis Testing III: the Analysis of Variance
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Sample Questions
Q1) A null hypothesis that states "the population means are equal" would be appropriate for which of the following tests of significance?
A)chi square
B)tests of proportions
C)ANOVA
D)Fisher's Exact test
Q2) If we fail to reject the null hypothesis in a test using analysis of variance,we are concluding that
A)the populations from which our samples come are the same.
B)the samples are dependent.
C)the population variances are the different.
D)the sample means are different.
Q3) For ANOVA,we construct two estimates of the population variance.These are called
A)the average estimates.
B)the standard estimates.
C)the within and total estimates.
D)the mean square estimates.
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12
Chapter 11: Hypothesis Testing Iv: Chi Square
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Sample Questions
Q1) If two variables are independent,the cell frequencies will be
A)exactly the same.
B)concentrated in only two of the cells.
C)less than the expected frequencies.
D)determined by random chance.
Q2) The chi square goodness-of-fit test can be used when
A)degrees of freedom are less than one.
B)column percentages are equal.
C)sample size is very large.
D)the distribution of a single variable must be tested for significance.
Q3) For Chi square,a small sample is one in which
A)many expected frequencies are less than 5.
B)many observed frequencies are less than 5.
C)N is less than 100.
D)N is less than 50.
Q4) Unlike other tests of significance,Chi square easily handles situations in which
A)the variables of interest have more than two categories or scores.
B)the variables of interest have less than two categories or scores.
C)variables are all ordinal in level of measurement.
D)degrees of freedom exceed 100.
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Bivariate Association: Introduction and Basic Concepts
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Sample Questions
Q1) When variables vary in opposite directions,the association between variables is said to be
A)positive.
B)neutral.
C)contradictory.
D)negative.
Q2) A researcher has found a strong relationship between level of education and income and concludes that "higher levels of education cause higher income." What error has been made?
A)None,the argument is sound.
B)Income is only nominal in level of measurement and education is ordinal so they cannot be causally related.
C)Since these variables are continuous and interval ratio,they cannot have a causal relationship.
D)By itself,association does not prove causation.
Q3) If there is an association between two variables,
A)the scores of the cases are approximately equal.
B)the distributions of the scores approach normality.
C)all of the scores are in the same row in the bivariate table.
D)the conditional distributions of Y change.
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Association Between Variables Measured at the
Nominal Level
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Sample Questions
Q1) Unlike lambda,phi
A)is computed from percentages. B)ranges from -1.00 to +1.00.
C)is the square root of Cramer's V. D)is based on chi square.
Q2) TABLE 13.1
\(\begin{array}{l|l|l|l|}
\hline &\text { GENDER }\\
\hline\text { CHURCH ATTENDANCE } & \text { Male } & \text { Female } & \\
\hline \text { Attend } & 200 & 350 & 550 \\
\hline \text { Don't attend } & 300 & 150 & 450 \\
\hline & 500 & 500 & 1000 \\
\hline
\end{array}\)
Lambda for Table 13.1 is
A)1.00.
B).87.
C).50. D).22.
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Chapter 14: Association Between Variables Measured at the
Ordinal Level
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Sample Questions
Q1) The square of Spearman's rho is the proportional reduction in error when predicting A)rank on one variable from rank on the other variable compared to predicting rank while ignoring the other variable.
B)the rank of a case from its score.
C)rank on gamma vs.rank on phi.
D)score on X while ignoring Y.
Q2) Gamma is a symmetrical measure of association.This means that A)values of gamma cluster around the center of the range of scores.
B)gamma is just as likely to be negative as positive.
C)gamma cannot exceed the value of the highest score.
D)the value of gamma will be the same regardless of which variable is assumed to be independent.
Q3) Gamma provides a summary measure of the A)existence of a bivariate relationship.
B)strength of a relationship.
C)direction of a relationship.
D)all of the above
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Page 16
Chapter 15: Association Between Variables Measured at the
Interval-Ratio Level
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Sample Questions
Q1) In regression analysis,the symbol a stands for A)the scores on the Y variable.
B)the slope.
C)the Y intercept.
D)the X intercept.
Q2) If we calculate an r of .60,the proportion of the variation of Y that is explained by X is
A).36.
B).40.
C).60.
D).64.
Q3) If a = 5 and b = 10,what would the value of Y be when X = 100?
A)unknown,more information is needed
B)1000
C)1005
D)5001
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Page 17
Chapter 16: Elaborating Bivariate Tables
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Sample Questions
Q1) The technique of elaboration is appropriate for ____ variables which have been organized into ____.
A)interval-ratio level,bivariate tables
B)interval-ratio level,scattergrams
C)nominal or ordinal level,scattergrams
D)nominal or ordinal level,bivariate tables
Q2) A measure of association for X and Y shows that the two variables are associated at -.63.After controlling for Z,the measures for the partial tables are -.33 and -.78.This pattern of outcomes would be consistent with
A)a direct relationship between X and Y.
B)a spurious relationship between X and Y and a direct relationship between X and Z.
C)interaction between X,Y,and Z.
D)an intervening relationship between X,Y,and Z.
Q3) Another term used to describe intervening relations is A)specification.
B)interpretation.
C)direct.
D)unusual.
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Chapter 17: Partial Correlation and Multiple Regression and Correlation
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Q1) While unstandardized partial slopes permit predictions of Y in the original units of the variable,standardized partial slopes permit an assessment of
A)the combined effects of the independents.
B)the partial effects of the independents.
C)the independent effects of the partials.
D)the relative importance of the independents.
Q2) Which of the following would be consistent with a spurious relationship between X and Y?
A)Pearson's r is .37,partial correlation coefficient is .36
B)Pearson's r is .78,partial correlation coefficient is .30
C)Pearson's r is -.10,partial correlation coefficient is -.15
D)Pearson's r is .00,partial correlation coefficient is .00
Q3) Standardized partial slopes are also called
A)alpha levels.
B)gammas.
C)Z scores.
D)beta weights.
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