Exam 4: Measurement

To operationalize a research concept is to create a new variable for that concept.

A closed-ended question in a survey form provides respondents with a list of possible answers that are exhaustive.

The height of patients in one branch of a medical clinic are recorded in meters, whereas it is recorded in centimeters in another branch of the same clinic. Data for both branches are collated into one database at the end of each month. Which of the following need to be considered when collating the data?

Which of the following is important when data used in social research contains missing values?

If a concept changes over time, which of the following is critical for the measure defined for the concept?

A property and casualty insurance company would like to classify its policyholders into three categories: low, medium, and high. Which measurement level does this risk variable fall into?

The U.S. Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) has developed a comprehensive training manual on how to collect, report, assess, and classify information related to hate crimes. This manual is distributed to law enforcement officers at regular time intervals with updates. Which factor is addressed by this manual in operationalizing the classification of hate crimes?

A marketing company conducted a self-reported survey, on behalf of a client, of household income and other demographics in Middlesex county, New Jersey. For the income question, the survey form had the following options to choose from: $0-$10,000, 10,001-50,000, 50,001-75,000, and, 75,000+. Those surveyed were required to choose one of the four options for income. Which of these statements is true of the survey question for household income?

Which of the following ways to assess measurement validity needs to be performed first?

A research concept can only be measured by one of the four levels of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.

A retail bank wanted to analyze the average length of time in a year that customers had a checking balance below $500. What type of variable is a customer's bank balance?

What do qualitative variables capture?

What are units of observation also known as?

A group of researchers asked a random sample of election voters in a particular county about their political affiliations. A second group of researchers obtained the latest election data of the same county from a public data source. What is the difference between these two methods of measurement?

Under the class of categorical variables, distinguish between nominal and ordinal variables. Illustrate with an example.

In conducting research, for what procedure does operationalizing a concept refer to?

A pest control company has contracted with you to advise them on which potential customers to target in a marketing campaign to be held in a particular county. The pest control company will provide incentives and discounts on their pest control services during this campaign. Discuss how you would choose the levels of measurement required in predicting the best target customers.

As a researcher in an auto insurance company, you have been asked to develop a model to predict probability of an auto incident of a customer during a 6-month period. An auto incident could include accidents and traffic violations. Discuss how you would operationalize the research question. Provide the steps needed in the process.

Distinguish between reliability and validity of numeric measures used in a research study. Illustrate with an example.

Secondary data from published research journals could be used with primary data collected by a researcher to answer a research question.