Deck 10: Constructing Measurement Instruments

Question 1

Which of the following statements is/are true about questionnaires?​

A) ​Researchers can avoid the need for pretesting if they are very careful in the way they word questions.
B) ​Because it is virtually impossible to avoid some mistakes in wording, questionnaires should be pretested in a dry run.
C) ​When pretesting, the pretest sample should be very large.
D) ​When pretesting your questionnaire, it's better to ask people to read through it looking for errors rather than to complete the questionnaire.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

If person A received a score of 15 on a Likert scale of happiness and person C received a score of 12, person A is 3 units happier than person C.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

In constructing a questionnaire it is better to squeeze questions and response categories close together and have a shorter, cluttered questionnaire than it is to have a longer, uncluttered questionnaire.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The following items and Scoring scheme were taken from the Minnesota Survey of Opinions. The four items were part of an index designed to assess attitudes toward education. In the index

A) ​Likert scale.
B) ​Thurstone scale.
C) ​Guttman scale.
D) ​semantic differential scale.
E) ​Bogardus social distance scale.

Question 5

Which of the following statements is/are INCORRECT?​

A) ​Closed-ended questions should limit respondents to three or four choices.
B) ​Closed-ended questions should have response categories that are mutually exclusive and exhaustive.
C) ​Closed-ended questions should provide uniformity of response.
D) ​Closed-ended questions should cover the range of likely responses.

Question 6

In looking over the responses given to the items in question 7, you notice that a respondent checked "strongly agree" to all four items. As a methodologist, which of the following statements BEST describes your ideas about the respondent?​

A) ​The respondent is a scale type 12.
B) ​The respondent probably fell into a response set.
C) ​The respondent is probably unsure about his or her feelings toward education.
D) ​The respondent must strongly agree with all the items.
E) The respondent has a high opinion of education.​

Question 7

Qualitative measures often rely on interviews that are usually open-ended with in-depth probes.

Question 8

The result of combining several indicators of a variable is a composite measurement of the variable.

Question 9

Asking respondents if they have any children before asking them about the ages of their children is an example of:​

A) ​a contingency question.
B) ​a double-barreled question.
C) ​a biased question.
D) ​a negative item.

Question 10

Qualitative interviews must be completely unstructured in order to gain valid information.

Question 11

The length of a question can influence how effectively the respondent will answer.

Question 12

When a respondent is asked to select an answer from a list provided by the researcher, this is an example of :​

A) ​open-ended questions.
B) ​closed-ended questions.
C) ​double-barreled questions.
D) ​an invalid study.

Question 13

The following answer categories about ethnicity are exhaustive: Caucasian ________ African American ________ Hispanic ________

Question 14

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) ​an open-ended question.
B) ​an ordinal variable.
C) ​a double-barreled question.
D) ​a negative item.

Question 15

In looking over the responses given to the items in question 7, you notice that only one of your 2000 respondents had missing data on any of the items. That respondent scored 3 on the first 3 items but left item 4 blank. You should:​

A) ​give the respondent a total score of 9.
B) ​assign the middle value or the respondent's average value to item 4, giving that respondents a total score of 12.
C) ​exclude that respondent from your data analysis.
D) ​either exclude that respondent from your analysis or assign the middle or average value to item 4

Question 16

The questionnaire item "Which is not a serious problem in the U.S. today, anomie or the socialization of the young?" violates which of the following guidelines?​

A) Avoid double-barreled questions.​
B) ​Avoid short items.
C) ​Avoid leading the respondent.
D) ​Avoid meaningful questions.
E) ​Avoid negative items.

Question 17

When the variable "marital status" is classified as never married, currently married, or currently married but separated, this variable has the important quality/ qualities of being

A) ​mutually exclusive.
B) ​exhaustive.
C) ​interchangeable.
D) ​ratio scale.

Question 18

A scale that is reliable and valid in one culture might not be reliable and valid in another culture.

Question 19

The following exemplifies a proper way to ask a question: "Are you satisfied with this textbook and with your research instructor's teaching style?"

Question 20

The phrasing used in closed-ended questions should allow respondents to attach their own meanings and interpretations to the question.

Question 21

There are several formats for contingency questions. Give illustrations of three different formats, using examples not presented in the text. How does the format for contingency questions differ from the format used for matrix questions? Give an illustration of the latter to differentiate it from the former.

Question 22

Identify measurement principles that always apply to quantitative and qualitative approaches to asking people questions. Then identify differences between the two approaches in the style of asking questions.

Question 23

Identify acceptable options for handling missing data in an index or scale.

Question 24

Choose a topic not discussed in the book or in class and devise a scale using one of the following methods:?a. Likert-type scale?b. Semantic differential scale??Be sure to discuss all the steps you would go through in constructing your scale.

Question 25

​Which of the following statements is/are true about constructing qualitative measures?

A) ​You should rely primarily on close-ended questions.
B) ​Highly structured self-administered questionnaires are more desirable than interview guides.
C) ​Interviews can range from completely unstructured, informal conversational interviews that use no measurement instruments to highly structured, standardized interviews in which interviewers must ask questions in the exact order and with the exact wording in which they are written out in advance.
D) ​None of these answers are true.