PRACTICE TEST

THE MID TERM EXAMINATION IS ON OCTOBER 24TH, 2005

1. Which of the following accurately describes social research?

1. It is a collection of methods and a process for creating knowledge
2. It is a process, which relies on the scientific approach
3. It combines assumptions about the nature of the world and knowledge
4. All of the above are accurate descriptions of social research
5. A and B are accurate but C is not

2. Which of the following common errors related to personal experience refers to having some evidence concerning a social phenomenon and then assuming that it applies to many other situations as well:

1. Halo Effect
2. Selective Observation
3. Premature Closure
4. Overgeneralization

3. Which if the following is not a component of the quantitative approach to social research?

1. Measure objective facts
2. Focus on variables
3. Researcher is involved with the research subjects
4. Reliability is stressed
5. Statistical analysis of a large number of cases

4. This type of research advances fundamental knowledge about the social world:

1. Basic research
2. Applied research
3. Evaluative research
4. Cost-analysis

5. Applied research that treats knowledge as a form of power and focuses on social justice:

1. Impact assessment
2. Evaluation research
3. Needs assessment
4. Cost-benefit analysis
5. Action research

6. A special type of study in which the same information is collected and analyzed on different subjects who share similar characteristics. For example, an analysis of the academic success of first-year students at Edinboro covering a period of eight years.

1. Longitudinal research
2. Panel study
3. Cross-sectional
4. Cohort analysis

7. As a researcher you are interested in the “experience” of divorce, and less interested in the rates or trends associates with divorce. To understand how people define and experience divorce you’d use:

1. Experiment
2. Case Study
3. Content Analysis
4. Survey

8. A large number of people answer questions on a written questionnaire and you, the researcher, make a number of generalizations about the:

1. Control group
2. Experimental group
3. Respondents
4. Population

9. When you were thinking about the dimensions along which one could think about divorce and writing survey questions which reflect those dimensions, such as that different respondents would receive different scores on each question, depending upon how often and how intensely they thought about divorce you were:

1. Hypothesizing about divorce
2. Conceptualizing about divorce
3. Operationalizing concepts
4. Making empirical generalizations

10. The idea or construct sociologists call “social class,” is a/an:

1. Variable
2. Concept
3. Hypothesis
4. Operationalization

11. In the example from lecture, concerning televised violence and aggressive behavior, the hypothesis that a televised prizefight caused the homicide rate to increase was:

1. Spurious
2. Empirically sound
3. Valid
4. None of the above

12. You are taking a research methods class in which the professor is conducting an experiment. You begin to think, incorrectly as it turns out, that you know what hypothesis is being tested and what the independent and dependent variables are. You want to get a good grade in the class and begin to change your behavior in order to help your professor reach the desired results. This is an example of:

1. Guinea Pig Effect
2. Researcher bias
3. Double blind
4. Random bias

13. To study how a great number of variables are correlated with a dependant variable you would use:

1. Participant observation
2. Survey
3. Experiment
4. Case Study

14. To actually measure the independent and dependant variables, as opposed to some other variable:

1. Validity
2. Construct validity
3. Reliability
4. Spuriousness

15. Consider the following example and select the incorrect answer. Working from a cross-sectional survey you develop the hypothesis that consuming more alcohol leads to higher levels of abuse. Your independent variable is consumption of alcohol and the dependant variable is level of abuse. After careful analysis you do indeed discover a significant relationship between alcohol consumption and abuse. However, because your survey is cross-sectional:

1. You have a problem with reverse causality
2. Because you have two points in time you’re sure about the temporal order
3. With survey data you can only demonstrate a correlation between alcohol consumption and abuse
4. Since you have a random, representative sample, you’re certain a correlation exists

16. You are interested in small slices of social reality, in which people interact “face-to-face” on a daily basis. You are oriented to:

1. Macro level theory
2. Meso level theory
3. Micro level theory
4. All of the above

17. Which of the following does not fit with applied research?

1. The primary concern is with the internal logic and rigor of research design
2. Research is part of a job and is judged by sponsors who may be outside of the discipline of social work
3. The primary concern is with findings that have practical use
4. The findings are used in decision and policy-making

18. During lecture you viewed a slide show of advertisements gleaned from women’s magazines. Dr. Taylor discussed several disturbing patterns which emerged from the analysis of the pictures, not the lest of which was the objectification of women as sex objects. This type of research is called:

1. Action research
2. Experiment
3. Survey
4. Content Analysis

19. Which of the following does not fit with ideological explanations of social reality?

1. Offers absolute certainty
2. Considers opposing or disconfirming evidence
3. Has contradictions and inconsistencies
4. Highly partial

20. Two white male authors working in elite universities (Harvard and Yale) were paid by a private, very conservative, think tank to write a book “proving” that Blacks had lower intelligence than Whites. They published a book called “The Bell Curve.” This book has very serious methodical flaws and was roundly rejected by the scientific community. Nevertheless, the elite white male power structure adopted most of their recommendations (which boils down to this: spending money on educational programs specifically for Black children is a waste if they are genetically inferior). This is an example of:

1. Applied research
2. Pseudoscience
3. Basic research
4. Empowerment research