Deck 3: How Do Researchers Identify and Evaluate Social Concepts Measurement

Question 1

The process of defining, observing, and recording ideas, experiences, and outcomes of interest is known as what

A) Concepts
B) Operationalization
C) Measurement
D) Research

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following is not a task of measurement?

A) To be as accurate as possible
B) To prove a hypothesis
C) To recognize potential ambiguities
D) To understand how mismeasurement impacts results

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The ______________ of a study's findings rests on how appropriately indicators are measured.

A) Popularity
B) Credibility
C) Applicability
D) Readability

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following is not a reason to pay careful attention to measurement?

A) To describe and determine the relationship between concepts
B) To ensure that we find support for our hypothesis
C) To delineate meaningful differences between people or groups
D) To provide evidence for any differences between people or groups that is discovered

Question 5

A term that describes the ideas, phenomenon, people, and patterns that researchers are interested in are known as

A) Hypothesis
B) Independent Variable
C) Concept
D) Indicator

Question 6

How many concepts were identified in Wingfield's research?

A) Nine
B) Five
C) Ten
D) None of these

Question 7

The concepts in Wingfield's study about the racialized aspects of the glass escalator effect fell all the following categories EXCEPT

A) Time
B) Locations
C) Processes
D) People

Question 8

In Wingfield's research, which category of concepts was the most abstract?

A) Locations
B) Processes
C) People
D) All of these

Question 9

Clarifying or describing a concept meaning is called

A) Operationalization
B) Validity
C) Conceptualization
D) Measurement

Question 10

Researchers have to specify the process through which they will observe the presence, absence, or degree of a concept's existence. This is known as

A) Operationalization
B) Validity
C) Conceptualization
D) Measurement

Question 11

When concepts are more abstract or less understood in a straightforward way, what can researchers turn to when conceptualizing?

A) Most concepts are easy to broadly understand, so they can rely on common sense.
B) The dictionary is the best resource.
C) Researchers can rely on other social scientists for clarity.
D) Researchers can turn to social theory.

Question 12

Kanter (1977) theorized about the experiences of what she termed "tokens," who are highly visible workers in a field where they are in the numeric minority. What did Williams find when applying this theory in her research about the glass escalator effect?

A) Both men and women avoided feminized work.
B) In feminized professions, women advanced in their careers more quickly than men.
C) Men in careers traditionally viewed as a women's profession were more likely to be promoted.
D) Women in men's professions were able to maneuver their tokenized status into advantages.

Question 13

Wingfield's research added complexity to the concept of the glass escalator with the concept _____________.

A) Gendered racism
B) Racial stereotypes
C) Glass ceiling
D) Gendered advantage

Question 14

As a concept is operationalized, it moves from the ____________ to the _______.

A) Specific; abstract
B) Dependent variable; independent variable
C) Abstract; specific
D) Actual; theoretical

Question 15

Something that points to, provides evidence of, or otherwise measures a concept is called a

A) Indicator
B) Concept
C) Variable
D) Measure

Question 16

Which of the following would be the best direct indicator of poverty?

A) Declared income below the official poverty line
B) Buying second-hand clothes
C) Renting rather than owning a house
D) Car ownership

Question 17

Which of the following would be the best indirect indicator of academic success?

A) Grade point average
B) ACT test score
C) Attitude towards studying
D) Degree earned

Question 18

California's Proposition 45 was criticized by the American Sociological Association primarily because it _____________________.

A) It would make it more difficult to study how race impacts outcomes, for example in education or employment.
B) Was attempting to amend the state's constitution.
C) It was a step towards a "colorblind society"
D) It supported the notion that race is not a biological fact.

Question 19

When a single indicator does not capture the complexity of a concept, the researcher might have to

A) Reframe their research question
B) Revisit the literature on the topic
C) Simplify the concept
D) Include multiple indicators in the study

Question 20

Which of the following would not be an indicator of student satisfaction with school?

A) Answers to a question about their level of satisfaction with school.
B) The name of their school
C) Asking their satisfaction with their grades
D) Answers to a question about the connections they have to faculty and staff at the school

Question 21

How did Martinez, Lorvick, and Kral (2014) conceptualize the term "activity space" in their research of injection drug users' (IDUs') access to overdose prevention services?

A) Areas where IDUs' used drugs
B) Local areas where treatment facilities were located
C) Local areas within which people move or travel in the course of their daily activities
D) Space where transportation to treatment facilities could be located

Question 22

How did Martinez, Lorvick, and Kral (2014) operationalize the concept "activity space"?

A) Local areas within which people move or travel in the course of their daily activities
B) Using GIS data to determine where participants spent their time over a 6 month period.
C) Asking IDUs to log where they spent their time in a 24 hour period.
D) Checking reception logs at treatment centers to see how often IDUs entered these facilities.

Question 23

What are concepts typically referred by in quantitative research?

A) Concepts
B) Definitions
C) Indicators
D) Variables

Question 24

The variable that a researcher considers likely to affect another variable is the __________.

A) Dependent Variable
B) Independent Variable
C) Indicator
D) Concept

Question 25

The variable that a researcher considers likely to be affected by other aspects of the social world is the __________________.

A) Dependent Variable
B) Independent Variable
C) Indicator
D) Concept

Question 26

In the following hypothesis, ____________ is the dependent variable and ____________is the independent variable. Hypothesis: As the number of years of education a woman has increases, the fewer children they are likely to have.

A) Number of children; gender
B) Years of education; number of children
C) Gender; years of education
D) Number of children; years of education

Question 27

In the following hypothesis, what is the independent variable and which is the dependent variable? Hypothesis: States with high crime rates also have high poverty rates.

A) Crime rates are the independent variable and poverty is the dependent variable.
B) Poverty is the independent variable and crime rates are the dependent variable.
C) States are the independent variable and poverty is the dependent variable.
D) It's too difficult to tell.

Question 28

How did Taylor (2010) operationalize the concept "occupational sex segregation" in her research?

A) She analyzed the proportion of women in various individual workplaces compared to men.
B) She linked occupations of survey respondents to the number of women who reported being in that occupation in the Current Population survey.
C) She asked a survey question asking how many women worked directly with the respondent in their job.
D) She analyzed national data on gender segregation from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Question 29

When a researcher codes survey data using a numeric scheme, what helps us make sense of what those numbers mean?

A) Validity
B) Reliability
C) Levels of measurement
D) Operationalization

Question 30

When the categories of a measure do not overlap so that each case fits into only one category, it is called

A) Mutually exclusive
B) Exhaustive
C) Conceptual
D) Nominal

Question 31

A measure is __________________ when the categories represent all the possible responses and allow every case to be categorized.

A) Mutually exclusive
B) Exhaustive
C) Conceptual
D) Nominal

Question 32

You are responding to a survey and see the following question. What is problematic about the categories of the question?
How many years have you worked in a full-time positiona.
(a) 0
(b) 2-4
(c) 4-6
(d) 6-8
(e) 8-10
(f) Over 10

A) The categories are neither mutually exclusive nor exhaustive.
B) The categories are not mutually exclusive.
C) The categories are not exhaustive
D) There is no issue with the categories of this variable.

Question 33

The level of measurement in which the categories are only names without any rank ordering or numerical value is called _____________.

A) Nominal
B) Ordinal
C) Interval
D) Ratio

Question 34

The level of measurement in which named categories can be rank ordered is known as

A) Nominal
B) Ordinal
C) Interval
D) Ratio

Question 35

With a(n) _________________ level of measurement, the distance between categories is meaningful and consistent, zero categories are arbitrary and it is possible to have a negative value.

A) Nominal
B) Ordinal
C) Interval
D) Ratio

Question 36

___________ is the measurement level in which the distance between categories is meaning and consistent, there is an absolute zero, and it is not possible to have negative values.

A) Nominal
B) Ordinal
C) Interval
D) Ratio

Question 37

What is the level of measurement for the following variable: Education level measured as years of school completed.

A) Nominal
B) Ordinal
C) Interval
D) Ratio

Question 38

What is the level of measurement for the following variable: Education level measured degree earned with the categories: less than high school, high school diploma/GED, some college, associate's degree, bachelor's degree, graduate degree.

A) Nominal
B) Ordinal
C) Interval
D) Ratio

Question 39

What is the level of measurement for the following variable: Educational aptitude measured with a respondent's IQ score

A) Nominal
B) Ordinal
C) Interval
D) Ratio

Question 40

Dr. Scott is interested in studying people's level of agreement with same sex marriage. He writes a series of statements related to same sex marriage and relationships followed by the categories: strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree. What type of indicator is Dr. Scott using?

A) Ratio
B) Nominal
C) Ordinal
D) Likert scale

Question 41

Which of the following is not a principle to remember when creating a Likert scale?

A) Phrase items as statements, not questions.
B) Be sure that all the items relate to the same topic.
C) Phrase items as questions.
D) The items in the scale should be interrelated and use varied phrasing.

Question 42

If the same measure is repeated applied and yields the same results, it is said to be

A) Valid
B) Nominal
C) Stable
D) Reliable

Question 43

One way to test if a measure's stability is to use the ____________ method.

A) Cohort
B) Inter-observer consistency
C) Cronbach's alpha
D) Test-retest method

Question 44

Cronbach's alpha and the split-half method are common tests of what?

A) Internal reliability
B) Face validity
C) External validity
D) Internal validity

Question 45

Zambrana and her team used this technique to ensure reliable coding of their interview data about Mexican American faculty.

A) Cronbach's alpha
B) Inter-observer consistency
C) Split-half method
D) Test-retest method

Question 46

________ validity relates to causality, while _______ validity involves whether a study's findings are applicable to settings outside the research environment.

A) Internal; external
B) External; internal
C) Face; concurrent
D) Concurrent; construct

Question 47

Dr. McIntosh develops a new measure to study discrimination in the COVID-19 era. To ensure that the measure is an effective indicator, he asks several colleagues with expertise to review the measure. What sort of validity has he established?

A) Concurrent
B) Construct
C) Convergent
D) Face

Question 48

A researcher asks a respondent how many hours they spend attending church on a survey question. The researcher also directly observes participants to see how much time they spend at church. This is an example of __________ validity.

A) Concurrent
B) Construct
C) Convergent
D) Face

Question 49

Which of the following is not a reason that there is convergent invalidity when it comes to crime statistics?

A) Some crimes are omitted from surveys used to gather crime statistics.
B) Police officers have discretion about which crimes they will document.
C) Not all crimes are reported to an officer.
D) The FBI and Bureau of Justice Statistics survey the same households but use different questions.

Question 50

Dr. Merchant wants to know if college students who are more connected to peers are more likely to stay at the institution. He believes that students who are more connected to their peers will stay on campus more often on weekends than those who are less connected. If he finds that students who stay on campus on weekends have more friends and stay in college, it is likely that his measure has _____________ validity.

A) Concurrent
B) Construct
C) Convergent
D) Face

Question 51

Measurement reflects a commitment to defining complex and ambiguous phenomenon

Question 52

The credibility of the study's findings rests on the appropriateness of its measurement strategies.

Question 53

Social researchers cannot clearly measure abstract concepts.

Question 54

Measurement allows researchers to describe the relationship between concepts.

Question 55

A general or abstract idea that describes observations and ideas about some aspect of the social world is known as a concept.

Question 56

Winfield's conceptualization of the glass escalator focused on the categories of people (men and minority men) and locations.

Question 57

Conceptualization and operationalization are basically the same thing.

Question 58

Referring to theory is a way to conceptualize abstract terms.

Question 59

If you were operationalizing political attitude, a person's political affiliation could be used as an indicator.

Question 60

As a researcher operationalizes a concept, it moves from the specific to the abstract.

Question 61

The Proposition 54 ballot initiative in California was problematic because it favored explicitly asking about race in matters related to education and employment.

Question 62

Generally, it is the case that one indicator is sufficient when conceptualizing and operationalizing variables

Question 63

An operationalized definition of advancement and upward mobility in career could be "entry into better-paying, higher status positions."

Question 64

Martinez, Lorvick, and Kral (2014) conceptualized the term "activity spaces" in order to understand how much access intravenous drug users have to health care.

Question 65

An independent variable is a behaviour, characteristic, or condition that is affected by other aspects of the social world.

Question 66

Measurements should be mutually exclusive and exhaustive in quantitative research.

Question 67

If a measure is exhaustive, that means that the measurement categories do not overlap, such that each case fits into only one response category.

Question 68

Gender identity, measured as woman, man, and nonbinary, is an example of an ordinal level variable.

Question 69

When a measure is reliable, that means that accurately measures the concept being measured.

Question 70

When concepts are related to each other empirically in a way predicted by theory, this is known as construct validity.

Question 71

The test-retest method is a common test for internal validity.

Question 72

An example of concurrent validity is comparing the results of crime surveys over the same period of time to see if they find the same trends.

Question 73

If a measure appears to reasonably reflect the content of the concept, it would have face validity.

Question 74

The more artificial and controlled the research setting is, the more likely the research will have external validity.

Question 75

The findings in Zambrana et al.'s 2017 study of Mexican American faculty had issues with reliability because there was disagreement about how to code the interview data.

Question 76

How do researchers contend with ambiguity and complexity in the social world? Why is this important?

Question 77

In what ways are multiple indicators of a concept preferable to a single indicator? Provide an example of a concept that would benefit from multiple indicators and brainstorm different indicators that could be used to measure it.

Question 78

What are the three main reasons that measurement is needed and important?

Question 79

Choose an abstract social variable that is interesting to you (for example, life satisfaction.) Then conceptualize and operationalize the variable using the steps in Figure 3.1. Be specific about how you would measure the absence or presence of the variable in a research study.

Question 80

In your own words, explain the difference between mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories. Create an example of a variable and its categories that meet both of these criteria.