NJIT CIS475: Lesson 2

Each question has only one best answer. Circle clearly the letter of the best answer. If you make a mistake, cross out the circle, and write the letter in capitals next to the question. If a question has both a capital letter and is circled, the letter will be considered to be the answer.

 

1.     Which of the items below is not a variable.

a.     People.

b.     Number of years of formal education.

c.      Agreeing or not agreeing that abortion is legal.

d.     The religion to which a person claims to belong.

e.     Town of residence.

 

2.     Something that can take on more than one value and whose values can be words or numbers is a(n):

a.     Multidimensional concept.

b.     Operational definition.

c.      Unidimensional abstraction.

d.     Complex construct.

e.     Variable.

 

3.     Which of the following variables is unidimensional?

a.     Religious faith.

b.     Number of siblings.

c.      Depression.

d.     Severity of illness.

e.     Intelligence.

 

4.     Dichotomous variables:

a.     Have two or more values.

b.     Have two values only.

c.      Have two aspects, theoretical and practical.

d.     Are rarely used in social science.

e.     Have two dimensional values.

 

5.     Independent variables are those that researchers:

a.     Assume are logically prior to dependent variables.

b.     Know are related to the dependent variable.

c.      Assume are independent of other variables.

d.     Assume are caused by dependent variables.

e.     See as the primary focus of their studies.

 

6.     Which statement below is not true?

a.     Variables are measured by indicators.

b.     Indicators are measured by variables.

c.      A variable has more than one value.

d.     Indicators are defined by their values.

e.     Values can be words or numbers.

 

7.     The main reason scientists use operational definitions because they:

a.     Allow scientists to make comparisons.

b.     Allow scientists to replicate each other’s research.

c.      Allow scientists to establish what is true from what is not.

d.     Are ethically neutral.

e.     Are more accurate than conceptual definitions.

 

8.     Which is not a level of measurement?

a.     Ratio

b.     Interval

c.      Ordinal

d.     Qualitative

e.     Nominal

 

9.     Measuring the concept of gender as male/female is an example of:

a.     Measuring a potentially interval or ordinal variable as a nominal variable.

b.     Measuring a nominal variable as an interval variable.

c.      Giving priority to psychological over social variables.

d.     The ecological fallacy.

e.     Giving priority to conceptual over operational variables.

 

10.            Nominal measures are:

a.     Exhaustive.

b.     Mutually exclusive.

c.      Mutually exclusive and exhaustive.

d.     Typically used in 1-5 opinion scales.

e.     Typically used in the study of quantitative variables like age and income.

 

11.             If you wanted to know whether person A was twice as intelligent as person B, you would need to develop what kind of intelligence measurement?

a.     Nominal

b.     Ratio

c.      Interval

d.     Ordinal

e.     Quantitative

 

12.            The fundamental rule of measurement is:

a.     Always use the simplest, least noncontroversial measures.

b.     Only use measures already well established in your field.

c.      Always measure things at the highest level of measurement possible.

d.     Don’t measure things at the ratio level if you can measure them at the ordinal level.

e.     Don’t measure things quantitatively when an appropriate qualitative measure is available.

 

13.            An investigator collects data on the computers in 125 households. He finds 612 computers, with 321 desktops and 291 laptops. To describe the number of computers per household, how many units of analysis does he have?

a.     291

b.     321

c.      612

d.     125

e.     none of the above.

 

14.            You are doing a study of nurses in six hospitals. Nurses in each hospital work in different wards and work on different shifts. What are the units of analysis on which you should be collecting data?

a.     Hospitals

b.     Wards

c.      Shifts

d.     Nurses

e.     None of the above.

 

15.            If an instrument is reliable, then it:

a.     Gives the same value you measure something more than once

b.     Is precise

c.      Is valid

d.     Is accurate

e.     Is both accurate and valid.

 

16.            Which is not a test of instrument reliability?

a.     Creating two parallel forms of a survey and seeing how well the answers match when applied to the same person.

b.     Administering the same survey to a respondent at two different times and seeing how well the results match.

c.      Using a split-half test.

d.     Making two different forms of a survey and administering them to two respondents to see the degree to which the two respondents agree with each other.

e.     Looking to see if multiple coders agree with each other.

 

17.            John is trying to develop a new measure of computer use. He tests his new measure against other measures that his research colleagues agree are valid. John is trying to achieve what kind of validity?

a.     Construct validity

b.     Face validity

c.      Criterion validity

d.     Concept validity

e.     Known group comparison technique.

 

18.            Parsimony (or Ockham’s razor) is the idea in science that:

a.     More complex, detailed studies are better than simple, little studies.

b.     Simpler explanations and measures are preferred over complicated ones.

c.      Simple studies are better than complex, detailed studies.

d.     All things can be made simple.

e.     Only simple measurements are valid.

 

19.            T F A nominal measurement is a qualitative measurement.

a.     True

b.     False

 

20.            T F Nominal measurements can be rank ordered.

a.     True

b.     False

 

21.            T F Units of analysis refer to the number of people in a study.

a.     True

b.     False

 

22.            The covariation among age, education, and income is called:

a.     bivariate correlation

b.     multiple regression

c.      univariate correlation

d.     multivariate correlation

e.     multiple causation.

 

23.            Lauren decided she wanted to examine the effects of education on age of marriage. She used ERIC to identify all the studies where these two variables had been measured quantitatively. She then conducted a quantitative analysis to examine the size of education’s effect on age of marriage. What kind of analysis was Lauren conducting?

a.     bivariate analysis

b.     multiple regression

c.      meta-analysis

d.     literature review

e.     qualitative analysis.

 

24.            T F Theory is about explaining and predicting things.

a.     True

b.     False