Deck 9: Survey Research

Question 1

Working with a very limited budget, Professor Jenner undertook a national survey of 3,000 households. Jenner felt that the topic under investigation would produce a low response rate. What advice would you give Jenner?

A)Use postage stamps for both the outgoing and the return mail.
B)Use postage stamps for the outgoing mail and business reply permits for the return mail.
C)Use bulk rate for the outgoing mail and business reply for the return mail.
D)Use bulk rate for the outgoing mail and postage stamps for the return mail.
E)Use bulk rate for both the outgoing and the return mail.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of the telephone interview as compared to the face-to-face interview?

A)Saves time
B)Less expensive
C)Safer
D)No interviewer bias
E)Less interviewer impact

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The interviewer should be a neutral medium through which questions and answers are transmitted.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

A well-designed training session for new interviewers should include all but which of the following?

A)A review of the survey instrument to build familiarization
B)Strategies on how to probe for additional information when appropriate
C)A description of what the study is about
D)Practice interviewing on actual participants in the research
E)Prepared specifications for explaining and clarifying the survey instrument

Question 5

In general, survey research is:

A)strong on reliability and strong on validity.
B)strong on reliability and weak on validity.
C)weak on reliability and strong on validity.
D)weak on reliability and weak on validity.
E)not concerned by reliability and validity.

Question 6

Professor Donnelly wants to conduct a training session for new interviewers working on his project. Donnelly asks you to review his plan for the training session. After reviewing the plan you should tell Donnelly to exclude _______ from the session.

A)a discussion of specifications
B)practice interviews where the interviewers interview each other
C)a description of what the study is about
D)practice interviews on people that Donnelly has selected for the sample
E)reviewing the questionnaire as a group

Question 7

Bias in a questionnaire item:

A)encourages respondents to answer questions in a particular way.
B)helps reveal the respondents' true feelings about a topic.
C)is usually obvious to both the respondents and the researcher.
D)occurs only when questions are negatively worded.
E)helps develop rapport between the researcher and the subject.

Question 8

Which of the following is a benefit of mail surveys over interview surveys?

A)Higher response rates
B)There is generally a smaller number of "don't knows" and "no answers"
C)Questions can be clarified rather than skipped by the participant
D)Observations can be made
E)They allow more honest responses from participants

Question 9

Professor Smidlapp mailed a questionnaire to students on the issue of academic dishonesty. Smidlapp planned to use inferential statistics in the analyses and was concerned about the response rate. You tell Smidlapp that technically the use of inferential statistics assumes that:

A)all members of the population complete and return the questionnaire.
B)all members of the initial sample complete and return the questionnaire.
C)at least 50% of the members of the initial sample complete and return the questionnaire.
D)at least 50% of the population complete and return the questionnaire.
E)the overall response rate exceeds 75%.

Question 10

When follow-ups are planned with mail surveys:

A)the anonymity of respondents can no longer be guaranteed.
B)more thoughtful answers are usually provided by those who wait until the follow-up to respond.
C)response rates typically increase.
D)response bias can no longer be estimated.
E)sampling bias increases.

Question 11

Questionnaires can be both those that are mailed to the respondents and those administered on-site by a researcher.

Question 12

Probes are used more frequently in open-ended questions than in closed-ended ones.

Question 13

Which of the following is NOT recommended for conducting online surveys?

A)Change terminology to keep the respondent interested.
B)Use plain, simple language.
C)Offer to share selected results from the study with everyone who completes the survey.
D)Plan the time of day and day of week to send the e-mail.
E)Adapt the survey for a range of devices.

Question 14

Interview surveys have a number of advantages over mail surveys; which of the following is NOT one of those advantages?

A)Higher response rates
B)There is generally a smaller number of "don't knows" and "no answers"
C)There is a smaller number of relevant responses given
D)Observations can be made
E)They take less time

Question 15

Which of the following lists the three main methods of administering survey questionnaires?

A)Self-administered questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, and mail surveys
B)Face-to-face interviews, mail surveys, and electronic surveys
C)Face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, and electronic surveys
D)Telephone interviews, electronic surveys, and self-administered questionnaires
E)Face-to-face interviews, self-administered questionnaires, and telephone surveys

Question 16

Asking subjects "Did your children go to high school?" after they told you that they have no children violates which of the following criteria in question construction?

A)Avoid double-barreled questions
B)Questions should be relevant
C)Avoid biased items
D)Avoid negative items
E)Questions should be open-ended

Question 17

During an interviewer training session, Jones, a trainee, asks you, "What should I do if …?" You tell Jones:

A)check the specifications.
B)do whatever you think is most appropriate in that situation.
C)it will not happen.
D)call me, if it happens.
E)jot down problems and skip that part of the interview.

Question 18

Which of the following techniques tends to have the highest response rate?

A)Mail surveys
B)Fax surveys
C)Telephone surveys
D)Face-to-face interviews
E)Online surveys

Question 19

Interactive Voice Recognition is a developing technology in what current method of conducting survey research?

A)Online interviews
B)Telephone interviews
C)Robopolling
D)Push polling
E)Face-to-face interviewing

Question 20

The number of potential respondents that a researcher encounters, whether they participate or not, is labeled by the American Association for Public Opinion Research as:

A)contact rate.
B)response rate.
C)cooperation rate.
D)refusal rate.
E)rejection rate.

Question 21

The questionnaire item, "Did you file federal and state income tax reports last year?" with a response set of yes, no, can't remember, other, is an example of a(n):

A)open-ended question.
B)ordinal question.
C)double-barreled question.
D)negative item.
E)ratio variable.

Question 22

Secondary analysis refers to the analysis of data collected earlier by another researcher for some purpose other than the topic of the current study.

Question 23

A return-rate graph:

A)begins on the day the questionnaires were mailed.
B)begins on the day the first response is received.
C)begins on the day when at least ten responses are received.
D)begins on the day the second mailing is planned.
E)varies as to when it should begin depending on the nature of the project.

Question 24

Explain the advantages and disadvantages associated with the different survey methods.

Question 25

The best survey design involves fitting as many questions as possible on a single page in order to save time and cost.

Question 26

Which of the following statements about contingency questions is FALSE? Contingency questions are designed to:

A)increase the likelihood of responses from those for whom the questions are relevant.
B)spare respondents the frustration of reading and puzzling over questions that are irrelevant to them.
C)enable the researcher to ask several questions that have the same answer set.
D)facilitate the respondent's task in completing the questionnaire.
E)decrease potential bias in the question set.

Question 27

Please provide an example of a mixed-mode survey. Why is this approach becoming increasingly popular among researchers?

Question 28

A key problem of secondary analysis is:

A)cost.
B)validity.
C)sample selection.
D)data collection strategies.
E)questionnaire construction.

Question 29

What are suggestions made in terms of including compensation with surveys? Which is the most effective way of doing so?

Question 30

Surveys are excellent devices for studying the context of social life.

Question 31

Describe the strengths and weaknesses of survey research.

Question 32

A questionnaire item, distributed to a random sample of adults, reading "Are you not in support of nationalized health care," with a yes or no possible response, would violate which concept?

A)Avoid double-barreled questions
B)Avoid leading the respondent
C)Avoid meaningful questions
D)Avoid negative items
E)Respondents should be competent to answer

Question 33

One of the most important abilities that good interviewers have is the ability to:

A)dress in expensive, well-tailored clothes.
B)determine very quickly the kind of person with whom the respondent feels most comfortable.
C)rephrase questions in their own words.
D)probe for responses.
E)pry into the respondent's personal life.

Question 34

Dr. Mulligan wants to conduct a study on how attitudes about the use of birth control have changed in the United States. She intends to conduct a secondary data analysis using material from the General Social Survey (GSS). What are the advantages of using this approach to answer her question? What are the disadvantages?

Question 35

The biasing effect of a particular question's wording is easily anticipated.

Question 36

A variety of methods are available for the presentation of response categories. Which of the following methods does Babbie prefer?

A)Parentheses
B)Numbers
C)Boxes
D)Brackets
E)Italics

Question 37

Interview surveys are recommended to open with:

A)demographic questions.
B)questions regarding specific content.
C)the preferred questions of the interviewer.
D)a brief conversation.
E)the most innocent questions.

Question 38

A demonstrated lack of bias is more important than a high response rate.

Question 39

"Push polls" are useful for predicting what voters really think about candidates.

Question 40

Babbie's recommendation is to place the demographic questions first in a printed questionnaire because they are the most inviting to a respondent.