Deck 4: Measurement

Question 1

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

A) measuring a concept
B) conducting a survey
C) defining a concept
D) planning the research

Answer 1

A

Question 2

A property and casualty insurance company wanted to categorize its policyholders into five risk categories. Which of the following steps taken by the company would constitute operationalizing the concept of risk classification?

A) creating a team for the research
B) writing a plan to conduct research
C) creating a process to quantify risk
D) conducting a survey on risk measurement

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The data science team of a market research company is developing a statistical model to identify potential customers for a client. The model and its results will need to be explained to the marketing team of the client. Which factor influencing the operationalizing of a concept is of primary importance in this case?

A) expected audience
B) usage of the data
C) ease of measurement
D) availability of analysts

Answer 3

A

Question 4

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) expected audience
B) usage of the data
C) ease of measurement
D) ease of comparison

Question 5

What do qualitative variables capture?

A) attribute differences in nature
B) extent of attribute differences
C) the order of attribute differences
D) the value of attribute differences

Question 6

Which of the following gives the correct ascending precision order of measurement levels?

A) interval, ordinal, ratio, nominal
B) nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio
C) nominal, interval, ordinal, ratio
D) interval, ratio, ordinal, nominal

Question 7

Which of the following variable types are termed as categorical variables?

A) interval and ratio
B) ordinal and interval
C) ratio and nominal
D) nominal and ordinal

Question 8

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?

A) ratio
B) nominal
C) ordinal
D) interval

Question 9

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?

A) ordinal
B) discrete
C) ratio
D) continuous

Question 10

What is a unit of observation?

A) a defined measurement scale
B) a measurement variable
C) a level of aggregation
D) a row in a data table

Question 11

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?

A) open-ended question and discrete variable
B) closed-ended question and ordinal variable
C) closed-ended question and interval variable
D) open-ended question and continuous variable

Question 12

What are the two primary characteristics of a closed-ended question in a data collection form?

A) exhaustive and mutually exclusive options
B) nominal and exhaustive classes
C) mutually exclusive and nominal classes
D) one correct choice and quantitative options

Question 13

In quantitative research, what does the term "reliability" refer to?

A) measurement that produces consistent values
B) measured data with a normal distribution
C) measurement that produces valid values
D) measured data that change with time

Question 14

Three random samples of height measures (in inches) of 10 students each were taken from height measures of a class of 30 students. The height measure of the 30 students were found to follow a normal distribution. The mean of each sample was calculated and the values were found to be very close to each other. What type of reliability does this test refer to?

A) test-etest reliability
B) interitem reliability
C) interrater reliability
D) alternate forms reliability

Question 15

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

A) face validity
B) criterion validity
C) content validity
D) construct validity

Question 16

The results of the last two annual compulsory health tests of an office were used to assess the health status of employees. What type of measurement validity does this indicate?

A) construct validity
B) nominal validity
C) face validity
D) content validity

Question 17

Measures that capture each dimension of the concept under research fall under what type of validity?

A) content validity
B) face validity
C) predictive validity
D) construct validity

Question 18

The monetary currency of Japan and its exchange rate to other currencies is an example of which generic term or expression?

A) measurement unit
B) system of measurement
C) monetary system
D) measurement scale

Question 19

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?

A) number of observations
B) unit of analysis
C) scale of measurement
D) system of measurement

Question 20

What are units of observation also known as?

A) units of data
B) number of units
C) scale of units
D) levels of aggregation

Question 21

A Telecom company developed a model to predict customer churn. One of the variables used in the model was an internal risk score. The model development and results were published in a scholarly journal without divulging the methodology for calculating the risk score variable. Which factor influencing operationalizing of a concept needs to be taken into account by users of the model not affiliated to the Telecom company?

A) expected audience
B) ease of comparison
C) usage of the data
D) ease of measurement

Question 22

A statistical model developed by a company predicts customer churn per month. What type of variable is customer churn?

A) interval
B) continuous
C) ordinal
D) ratio

Question 23

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

A) remove all missing values
B) identify units with missing values
C) differentiate missing by reason
D) ignore missing when modelling

Question 24

The dimensions of rooms in a residential building are measured in feet. For one room in the building, the length of the room has a value of 180. Which of the following should be considered when using this data?

A) accuracy
B) plausibility
C) reliability
D) validity

Question 25

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

A) validity
B) plausibility
C) reliability
D) accuracy

Question 26

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

Question 27

The FICO credit score, with a range from 300 to 850, operationalizes the concept of credit risk or credit worthiness of a person.

Question 28

The ease or difficulty in collecting data should be taken into account when operationalizing a research concept.

Question 29

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

Question 30

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

Question 31

Bank savings account balance of customers, rounded to the nearest integer, is a nominal variable.

Question 32

Credit risk of customers, classified as low, medium, and high, is an ordinal variable.

Question 33

A qualitative variable may not have a measurement unit associated with the variable.

Question 34

The number of sick days taken by employees and grouped into five ranges is a continuous variable.

Question 35

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

Question 36

A variable contains the number of traffic violations of a vehicle for the last 3 years. What type of variable is this? How would you convert it to an ordinal variable?

Question 37

What is the difference between conceptualization of a research question and its measurement?

Question 38

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?

Question 39

What are the primary factors that affect operationalization of a research concept?

Question 40

An insurance company published their methodology for assessing customer risk based on several variables. One of these variables was a Tier category developed internally by the company. The classification method for Tier was not included in the article published. What factor would be critical if a researcher were to attempt replicating the risk assessment with data from a different insurance company?

Question 41

Enumerate three distinctions you would make between qualitative and quantitative data. Illustrate these differences with an example.

Question 42

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

Question 43

In your own words, describe the difference between a unit of measurement and a system of measurement. Illustrate with an example.

Question 44

Explain how data collection instruments, such as forms or survey questionnaires, affect the level of measurement in research. Associate the type of instrument with variable type, where possible.

Question 45

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

Question 46

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.

Question 47

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.

Question 48

Conceptualize a research question of your choice. The concept could be in any domain of your choice. Discuss the levels of measurement needed for the research question, and, the plausibility and optimum values of those levels you have chosen.