Deck 12: Quantitative Data Analysis: Using Statistics for Description and Inference

Question 1

Which of the following most accurately describes Singleton's study of alcohol consumption and academic performance?

A) It involved the secondary analysis of a national survey.
B) It was based on a telephone interview survey.
C) It measured academic performance in terms of self-reported GPA.
D) It combined data from four campus surveys.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

What is the order of steps in the quantitative analysis of survey data?

A) Inspect/modify data $\rightarrow$ data processing $\rightarrow$ bivariate analysis $\rightarrow$ multivariate testing
B) Inspect/modify data $\rightarrow$ data processing $\rightarrow$ multivariate testing $\rightarrow$ bivariate analysis
C) Data processing $\rightarrow$ inspect/modify data $\rightarrow$ bivariate analysis $\rightarrow$ multivariate testing
D) Data processing $\rightarrow$ inspect/modify data $\rightarrow$ multivariate testing $\rightarrow$ bivariate analysis

Answer 2

Data processing $\rightarrow$ inspect/modify data $\rightarrow$ bivariate analysis $\rightarrow$ multivariate testing

Question 3

What is the usual order of steps in processing completed survey interviews or questionnaires?

A) Data entry $\rightarrow$ coding $\rightarrow$ editing $\rightarrow$ cleaning
B) Editing $\rightarrow$ coding $\rightarrow$ data entry $\rightarrow$ cleaning
C) Cleaning $\rightarrow$ coding $\rightarrow$ data entry $\rightarrow$ editing
D) Coding $\rightarrow$ data entry $\rightarrow$ cleaning $\rightarrow$ editing

Answer 3

Editing $\rightarrow$ coding $\rightarrow$ data entry $\rightarrow$ cleaning

Question 4

In a campus survey, what was the shape of the distribution of reported number of drinks consumed on a typical weekend night?

A) Normal
B) Abnormal
C) Positively skewed
D) Negatively skewed

Question 5

Consider the following table from the 2018 GSS, which shows the relationship between race and whether someone favors or opposes "a law which would require a person to obtain a police permit before he or she could buy a gun."
The data in this table suggest that (the answer may require some calculation)

A) there is a near-zero association between race and support for gun control.
B) whites are more likely to favor gun control than Blacks.
C) Blacks are more likely to favor gun control than whites.
D) neither whites or Blacks are likely to favor gun control.

Question 6

Suppose a researcher finds a statistically significant relationship between salary and job satisfaction among a random sample of employees. From this information, she can

A) reject the null hypothesis that there is no relationship between job satisfaction and salary.
B) conclude that differences in salary cause differences in job satisfaction.
C) conclude that the relationship between salary and job satisfaction probably occurred at random.
D) infer that salary is the most important factor in job satisfaction.

Question 7

For the 2018 GSS, you regress number of hours of television watched on the average day (Y) on number of years of education completed (X) and obtain the following result:
Y = 4.78 - .15X. How much change in hours of television watched is associated with a change of one year in a respondent's education?

A) 1
B) 4.78 - .15
C) 4.78
D) -.15

Question 8

Suppose two variables are negatively related. Which of the following regression equations might describe this relationship?

A) Y = 3.21 + 2.41X
B) Y = −.45 + 4.12X
C) Y = 18.62 - 1.21X
D) None of the above

Question 9

Refer to the figure.
According to the theoretical model,

A) the inferred causal relationship between Y and Z is weak.
B) X is an intervening variable.
C) X affects Y and Z, but there is no causal relationship between Y and Z.
D) Y and Z are independent of X.

Question 10

Refer to the following table.
Table 1. Percentage of Respondents Expressing High Tolerance of Civil Liberties for Political
Dissidents, by Gender and Religiosity
Which variable(s) is (are) controlled, or held constant, in each partial table of Table 1?

A) Gender
B) Religiosity
C) Gender and religiosity
D) Tolerance of civil liberties for political dissidents

Question 11

Using the 2018 GSS, we regressed the number of hours of television watched on the average day on three variables: years of education, age, and marital status. Marital status is a dummy variables with 1 = married. We get the following results for the unstandardized regression coefficients: TVhours = 3.38 - .13Educ + .03Age - .52Married. According to this equation,

A) there is no association between age and television viewing.
B) younger people watch more hours of television, on average, than older people.
C) married people watch fewer hours of television, on average, than unmarried people.
D) age is more strongly associated with hours of television viewing than marital status.

Question 12

Using the 2018 GSS, we regressed the number of hours of television watched on the average day on three variables: years of education, age, and marital status. Marital status is a dummy variables with 1 = married. We get the following results for the unstandardized regression coefficients: TVhours = 3.38 - .13Educ + .03Age - .52Married. What is the predicted number of hours of television viewing for a 20-year old, unmarried person with 14 years of education?

A) 1.64
B) 2.16
C) 2.76
D) 3.38

Question 13

Using the 2018 GSS, we regressed the number of hours of television watched on the average day on three variables: years of education, age, and marital status. Marital status is a dummy variables with 1 = married. We get the following results for the standardized regression coefficients: TVhours = - .16Educ + .20Age - .10Married. According to this equation,

A) none of the variables is significantly related to television viewing.
B) all three variables are significantly related to television viewing.
C) age has the strongest association with television viewing.
D) one year of education has a greater impact on viewing than one year of age.

Question 14

Some data-processing activities can be programmed into computer-assisted interviewing.

Question 15

Univariate analysis can determine whether to recode variable categories for further analysis.

Question 16

Examining a scatterplot can reveal whether a linear regression analysis is appropriate.

Question 17

In the model X $\rightarrow$ T $\rightarrow$ Y, the relationship between X and Y is spurious.

Question 18

According to Box 12.3, leaving out important variables from a model is called a "specification error."

Question 19

According to Box 12.3, "collinearity" refers to a perfect linear fit between the independent and dependent variables.

Question 20

The quality of data is affected at several stages of social research, including data processing. What techniques do survey researchers apply to avoid errors and enhance data quality during data processing? Are data processing errors unavoidable, like random sampling error? Explain.

Question 21

Describe the differences in the univariate analysis of nominal/ordinal variables and interval/ratio variables. What descriptive statistics are used to describe each type of variable?

Question 22

Describe the differences in the bivariate analysis of nominal/ordinal variables and interval/ratio variables. What descriptive and inferential statistics are used to describe each type of variable?

Question 23

Someone at your college conducts a survey on helping and voluntarism. Suppose you are consulted about how to analyze the data to test the hypothesis that students majoring in the arts are more likely to do volunteer work than students majoring in the sciences. (a) What questions would you ask about the data before you make your recommendations? (b) As you might point out, why is a bivariate analysis seldom, if ever, sufficient to test a hypothesis that one variable causes another? (c) As you might explain, how is multiple regression superior to elaboration?