Exam 4 Study Guide

The test questions will come directly from this study guide. The exam will include:

11 multiple choice (3 points each), 9 fill-in-the blank (3 points each), 10  matching (2 points each), 1 essay (20 points)

 

Terms: Know the definitions of the following terms. 

 

Nonreactive Research and Secondary Analysis

Nonreactive Research

Unobtrusive Measures

Content Analysis

General Social Survey

Statistical Abstract of the United States

ICPSR

Measurement

Conceptualization

Operationalization

Validity

Reliability

Index

Multiple Indicators

Scale

Likert Scale

Mutually Exclusive

Nominal

Ordinal

Interval

Ratio

Levels of Measurement

 

Sampling

Sampling

Nonrandom sample

Random sample

Probability Sampling

Non-Probability Sampling

Population

Sampling Frame

Convenience Sampling

Quota Sampling

Purposive Sampling

Snowball Sampling

Theoretical Sampling

Simple Random Sampling

Systematic Sampling

Stratified Sampling

Cluster Sampling

Random Digit Dialing

Inferential Statistics

Central Limit Theorem

 

 

Essay Questions: Prepare a thorough answer to each of the questions below. 

 

·         What types of research questions is content analysis appropriate for answering?

·         What reliability problems are associated with using existing data/existing statistics be aware?

·         What are the advantages and disadvantages of secondary data analysis?

·         What are the limitations of using existing data/existing statistics?

·         Explain the role of conceptualization and operationalization.

·         What is the difference between reliability and validity?

·         How do the levels of measurement differ from each other?

·         Why are multiple indicators usually better than one indicator?

·         Describe the different types of nonprobability samples and identify when each is appropriate to use.

·         Describe the different types of probability samples and identify when each is appropriate to use.

·         Which sampling method is best when the population has several groups and a researcher wants to ensure that each group is in the sample?

·         Why are random samples usually more representative than non-random samples?

·         What are the advantages and disadvantages of using random-digit-dialing? 

·         Are sampling frame problems avoided using random-digit-dialing? Explain? What is the population in a study using random-digit-dialing?

 

 

Below are some topics in the last three chapters that we can skip.

 

Chapter 11: 

Measurement and Coding

Variables and Coding Categories

Both of the above sections go into detail into how to do content analysis, which is too advanced for the purposes of our course.

 

Chapter 7:

Types of Validity

Weighting Indeces

Thurstone Scales

Bogardus Social Distance Scales

Semantic Scales

Guttman Scales

**Basically, you only need to know about Likert scales.

 

Chapter 8:

Deviant Case Sampling

Sequential Sampling

Sampling Distributions

Within-Household Sampling to Probability Proportion to Size