Deck 11: Unobtrusive Research

Question 1

A friend of yours is doing a term paper to compare the infant mortality rates in the United States,Japan,Bolivia,and Pakistan.You tell your friend that a good source to check is

A)Common Cause
B)the Demographic Yearbook
C)the Statistical Abstract of the United States
D)the Gallup poll
E)the Almanac

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Logical reasoning and replication are used to handle the problem of validity in the analysis of existing statistics.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Unobtrusive measures reduce the impact of the researcher on the phenomena being studied.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

An example of unobtrusive data collection is(are)

A)an interview with college freshmen to determine why they selected a particular school
B)a laboratory experiment designed to learn whether people really prefer Pepsi or Coke
C)a mailed survey designed to discern students' attitudes toward a planned change in the school's calendar
D)a researcher who joins a fraternity to understand its rituals
E)none of these choices are unobtrusive

Question 5

Coding in content analysis involves

A)conceptualization and operationalization
B)inductive methods
C)selecting a level of measurement
D)deductive methods
E)all of these choices are involved in coding in content analysis

Question 6

Professor Perlman was interested in comparing two textbooks to determine whether one used more sexist language than the other.Perlman counted the number of times a gender reference (ex: "he," "she," "chairman," etc. )appeared in each book.Perlman was doing

A)latent content coding
B)manifest content coding
C)quota sampling
D)the ecological fallacy
E)base counting

Question 7

Which of the following levels of measurement(s)may be employed in content analysis?

A)nominal
B)ratio
C)interval
D)ordinal
E)all of these choices are correct

Question 8

Unobtrusive measures can reduce the problem(s)of

A)the researcher's impact on the phenomenon being studied
B)invalid operationalization of concepts
C)unreliable measurements
D)corroboration
E)the ecological fallacy

Question 9

In a study of two magazines,Marie found that the first magazine had 150 uses of male pronouns (he,him,etc),but only 75 uses of female pronouns (she,her,etc).The second magazine had 200 uses of male pronouns,and 205 uses of female ones.What can be concluded from her work?

A)magazine 1 was twice as sexist as magazine 2
B)magazine 2 was not sexist
C)magazine 2 was half as sexist as magazine 1
D)magazine 2 had 130 more female pronouns
E)magazine 1 was sexist

Question 10

A friend of yours was interested in determining whether the news media picked up on campus events.Your friend decided to do a content analysis of the local paper.Your friend counted each story that mentioned his university's name.At the end of two months,136 events had been counted.Your friend asked for your comments on his research.You told your friend

A)he did manifest coding
B)he did latent coding
C)he should have recorded the base
D)he did manifest coding and he should have recorded the base
E)he did latent coding and he should have recorded the base

Question 11

The adage that you must walk a mile in another person's shoes before you can understand the views and feelings of that person is similar to the sociological concept(s)of

A)verstehen
B)historical/comparative analysis
C)ideal types
D)the ecological fallacy
E)content analysis

Question 12

Content analysis can be used on any product of human communication

Question 13

After examining the FBI Crime Reports for a 30-year period,Professor Hall claimed that the incidence of rape has increased.After examining the same reports,Professor Shine claimed that the reporting of rape,not the incidence of rape,has increased.This illustrates

A)the problem of reliability in using existing statistics
B)the problem of validity in using existing statistics
C)the need to replicate existing statistics
D)the ecological fallacy
E)pretesting

Question 14

Professor Jenner was interested in using Census Bureau data to examine the trend in unemployment rates in the United States.However,Jenner's definition of unemployment did not match the one used by the Census Bureau.Jenner was dealing with the issue of

A)reliability
B)validity
C)the ecological fallacy
D)ideal types
E)verstehen

Question 15

Using existing statistics,Professor Ford finds that areas with low median incomes tend to have higher crime rates than areas with high median incomes.Ford concludes that poor people are more likely to commit crimes than high income people.Ford is

A)Committing the ecological fallacy
B)Using verstehen
C)Doing content analysis
D)Developing ideal types
E)Doing replication

Question 16

In which of the following analyses is content analysis LEAST likely to be useful?

A)themes in newspaper editorials
B)the wording of this exam
C)topics covered in class lectures
D)the theme of love as discussed in song
E)dating patterns among high school seniors

Question 17

If we wanted to determine whether states that pass clean air legislation (no smoking in public areas)are more likely to enact laws requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets than are states that had not passed clean air legislation,the unit of analysis would be

A)the individual states
B)the individual act of legislation
C)passage or nonpassage of the clean air legislation
D)the clean air legislation
E)states that passed clean air legislation

Question 18

In comparison to coding the manifest content of communication,coding the latent content

A)has a disadvantage in terms of validity
B)has an advantage in terms of reliability
C)is better designed for tapping the underlying meaning of communication
D)has an advantage in terms of specificity
E)all of these choices are true

Question 19

Which of the following modes of observation does NOT require the researcher to intrude to some degree on whatever he or she is studying?

A)Experiments
B)Survey research
C)Complete participant observation
D)Content analysis
E)All of these choices require the researcher to intrude

Question 20

Which of the following is(are)illustrative of unobtrusive observations?

A)Examining the floor tiles at a museum to determine which exhibits are the most popular
B)Examining the number of beer cans in the university garbage collections to determine beer consumption patterns
C)Examining the wear on the tires of squad cars to determine the extent of police patrols
D)Examining the radio dial settings of cars brought in for oil changes to determine the popularity of radio stations
E)All of these choices illustrate unobtrusive observations

Question 21

An ideal type is a conceptual model composed of the essential characteristics of social phenomena.

Question 22

Many existing statistics can be found on the internet.

Question 23

In content analysis the units of observation must be the same as the unit of analysis.

Question 24

As a mode of observation,content analysis is essentially a coding operation.

Question 25

In data collection and analysis,the determination of the unit of analysis occurs after sampling.

Question 26

Standard probability sampling techniques should NOT be used in content analysis.

Question 27

All content analysis results in counting.

Question 28

A researcher using official government documents need not be concerned about the reliability of those records.