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SO202 MOCK EXAM

Types of Research

1. MTV hires you to study how young people responded to their

"Rock the Vote campaign. What typeof research are you

conducting

a. Descriptive

b.

Exploratory

c. Evaluative

d. Explanatory

2. Rank (1989) has reports that the birth rate of women who are

on welfare is similar among women who are not on welfare.

What type of research is this?

a.

Descriptive

b. Exploratory

c. Evaluative

d. Explanatory

3.

Most social science research reports that growth in the

opportunity to earn decent wages has led to the increase of in

employment of married American women. What type ofresearch is this?

a. Descriptive

b. Exploratory

c.

Evaluative

d. Explanatory

4. To begin his research on homelessness, a research starts

spending evenings talking with homeless individuals and

asking them about their lives. He is interested in answering thequestion what are the issues that concern homeless people?

What type of research is this?

a. Descriptive

b. Exploratory

c. Evaluative

d.

Explanatory

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Levels of Measurement: Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, Ratio, Dichotomous

Race (Latino, Asian, Caucasian etc.) - Nominal

Poverty Status (Either above or below the poverty line) -

Dichotomous

Educational Level (Primary school, secondary school, BA) -

Ordinal

Education Level (Measured in Years) - Ratio

Annual Earnings (in Euro) - Ratio

Satisfaction with Government (Very, somewhat, not at all) -

Ordinal

Percentage of Female Politicians. - Ratio

Political Parties (Labour, Fine Gael, Greens etc.) - Nominal

Types of Sampling of SO202 Class

I put everyones name into a hat, and pick out the sample

participants at random? Simple Random (Prob)

I ask the first 10 people who enter the room? Availability

(Non-Prob)

I divide the class into two categories; male and female, and

randomly select the participants? Stratified (Prob)

I divide the class into two categories; male and female, and

select the first ten participants that I come across. Quota

(Non-Prob)

I select a tutor, then a tutorial group, and then randomly select

students within that group. Cluster (Prob)

I select students based on their grades. Purposive (Non-Prob) I ask participants to ask their friends to take part. Snowball

(Non-Prob)

I organise the names alphabetically and picked every 10thname

of the list. Systematic (Prob)

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Short Answer Questions

1. Discuss the difference between conceptualisation and

operationalization. Give and example.

Conceptualisation is the process of describing, or defining what we

mean by a topic e.g. What is poverty? What do we mean by elderly?

In deductive research (theory testing), conceptualisation helps us

translate theory into a testable hypothesis. In inductive research,

conceptualisation helps us to make sense of related observations.

Operationalisation is the process of specifying, or deciding how we can

measure the variable, or the concept we are interested in e.g. We might

measure income when discussing poverty, we might consider everyoneover 75 to be elderly etc.

Other examples include: strength, intelligence, masculinity/femininity,

health etc.

2. How should a qualitative researcher select key informants for

intensive interviews? What ethical considerations need to be

taken into account?

Qualitative researchers often use a process of non-probability sampling

(availability, purposive, quota, snowball) to select their participants. As

qualitative researchers are usually concerned with finding out in-

depth, experiential knowledge, they are not concerned with

generalizability, they are more interested in contextual knowledge.

Using non-probability sampling allows qualitative researchers to select

participants who will provide rich information, and to include those

who have a particular interest, or knowledge of the topic.

The ethical considerations that would need to be taken in to

consideration are (you should be able to expand on these):

Obtaining informed consent

Ensuring no harm comes to your participants

Disclosure

Ensuring confidentiality

Benefits need to outweight the risks

Be conscious of power imbalances between yourself and theparticipants

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It is a histogram

The mean is 2.3 (Closest is 2)

What is the median?

3

What is the mode?

3

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If you have 30 staff and you want to select 10 of them for a simple

random sample, the probability of selection is?

a.

.05b. .13

c. .33

d.

.67

e. 1.33

Deductive theory begins with which elements?

a. Social Theory

b. Hypothesis Testing

c.

Descriptive Researchd. Empirical Generalizations

Which of the following is an example of a negative association

between variables?

a. The more study you do, the higher your grades.

b. The more money you spend, the more clothes you have.

c. As the quality of sex education increases, the amount of

unwanted pregnancies decreases.d. As years of education increase, standards of living improve.

The belief that reality is made up of multiple layers, and is socially

constructed, is known as:

a. Positivism

b. Feminism

c. Interpretivism

d.

Postpositivism

The EU SILC is administered to a sample of European residents, but it

hopes to identify the features of the European population as a whole.

The EU SILC hopes for:

a. Validity

b. Generalizability

c. Reflexivity

d. Reliability