FINAL EXAM QUESTIONS

FINAL EXAM QUESTIONS:

 

1. Define reliability and validity to include the ways of reporting each of them.  State how an instrument may be reliable and not valid.  Give examples.

2. Almost daily, we hear about research that seems to contradict earlier findings.  One day, for example, a particular food is good for you and the next it is not.  What does this reflect about the scientific method?  What are the advantages and disadvantages of the scientific method?

3. Suppose you wish to measure the effect of physical exercise on self-esteem.  What type of experimental design would be most appropriate?  Describe the types of groups necessary for this design.  How would you measure your variables?  Which threats to internal validity would you need to consider?

4. Identify the independent and dependent variables in each of the following hypotheses.

Hypothesis 1:  It is hypothesized that soccer coaches of younger, coed teams, treat males and females on their teams differently.  More specifically it is hypothesized that on coed teams the boys are kept in the game longer periods of time and are more likely to play offensive positions while girls are more likely to be on the sidelines and to play defensive positions.

Hypothesis 2:  It is hypothesized that age is related to attitude toward violence on television.  More specifically, it is hypothesized that people in their 40s and 50s are more critical of TV violence than are people in their 20s and 30s.

Hypothesis 3:  It is hypothesized that residential mobility affects academic achievement.  Specifically, it is hypothesized that children from families that have lived in no more than two different communities during their elementary school years tend to have higher academic achievement than do children from families that have lived in three or more communities ( 1999).

5. A researcher designs a project to discover if women who are very career-oriented are less likely to have children than are women who are less career-oriented.  He/she selects a random sample of women who are corporate employees and hold jobs at the vice-presidential or director level.  Interviewing women he/she finds that their mean age is 45 and 35 percent are mothers, 55 percent are childless by choice, and 10 percent are childless involuntarily.  She concludes that strong career orientations lead women to choose childlessness.  Discuss some of the challenges to the validity of these conclusions.  Think of a way this study could have been done.  Specifically describe a sample and a study design that you think could be useful in doing research to answer this question.

6. What is the role of statistics in social science research?    In describing a population, why is it advantageous to not only report measures of central tendency, but also to calculate measures of dispersion?

Be sure to distinguish between descriptive and inferential statistics.

7. What are the key differences between probability and non-probability sampling designs?    Identify and briefly discuss the major types of probability sampling.

8. Professor Hawkins receives funding from both a state agency and a national feminist organization to study the connection between marital power, spouses’ financial resources, and marital violence.  Deciding to interview both spouses from at least 100 married couples, she contacts potential participants by mail.  Writing on university letterhead stationery, she tells each couple she would like to talk to them about their marriage, but does not specify the topics the interview will cover.

   1. What ethical principle(s) do you think was (were) violated in this research?

   2. Describe the probable reason(s) Hawkins violated the principle(s) you noted in your answer in Question 8a above.

   3. Describe your reactions to the way this study was done. (2003)

 

 Questions 5 and 8 are worth 20 points each; the remaining questions, 10 points each.