Deck 2: Measuring and Describing Variables

Question 1

Which of the following is an example of a measure of central tendency?

A) median
B) standard deviation
C) dispersion
D) distribution

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Education coded as "high school diploma," "some college," "college graduate," and "advanced degree" is an example of a(n) ______-level variable.

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

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which of the following variables has a median value?

A) marital status
B) gender
C) percentage of eligible voters casting ballots in the United States
D) ethnicity of eligible voters in the United States

Answer 3

C

Question 4

A researcher studies presidential approval polls and finds the following values: 46, 46, 48, 49, 51, and 52. What is the median approval rating?

A) 48
B) 48.5
C) 49
D) 49.5

Question 5

A key feature of an ordinal-level variable is that the values are ______.

A) solely categorical
B) able to be ranked
C) continuous
D) anonymous

Question 6

A description of the amount of variation in a variable is called ______.

A) average
B) dispersion
C) diffusion
D) differentiation

Question 7

______ variables are measured with more precision than ______ variables.

A) Ordinal; nominal
B) Nominal; ordinal
C) Interval; ratio
D) Ratio; interval

Question 8

The median value of a variable is ______.

A) the most commonly occurring value
B) the average value
C) the upper limit value
D) the middle value

Question 9

A researcher who wants to learn the precise differences between his or her units of analysis will likely use a(n) ______-level variable to code the characteristics.

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

Question 10

A table listing how many respondents to a survey reside in each state is called a ______.

A) bar graph
B) pie chart
C) region table
D) frequency distribution

Question 11

Age, measured in years, is an example of a(n) ______-level variable.

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

Question 12

Suppose a researcher studying attitudes on gun control finds 40 percent of respondents in favor and 40 percent of respondents opposed and the remaining 20 percent uncertain. The distribution of responses would be referred to as ______.

A) multimodal
B) bimodal
C) unimodal
D) modal

Question 13

Every variable has one name and at least ______ value(s).

A) one
B) two
C) three
D) four

Question 14

A researcher studies presidential approval polls and finds the following values: 46, 46, 48, 49, 51, and 52. What is the mean approval rating?

A) 46
B) 48
C) 48.67
D) 50

Question 15

In a study of the number of cups of coffee students drink while preparing for an exam a researcher learns that the median number of cups is 2, but the mean number of cups is 2.9. This indicates the mean is ______.

A) positively skewed
B) negatively skewed
C) perfectly symmetric
D) not skewed

Question 16

Suppose you knew the day of the month on which each of your classmates was born. The most frequently occurring day of birth is called the ______.

A) average
B) mode
C) mean
D) median

Question 17

Which of the following is the most resistant measure of central tendency to skew?

A) median
B) mode
C) mean
D) dispersion

Question 18

Which of the following is an example of a nominal-level variable?

A) age
B) ideology on a scale from extremely liberal to extremely conservative
C) family income (in dollars)
D) gender

Question 19

The cumulative percentage records the percentage of cases ______.

A) below a given level
B) above a given level
C) at or below a given level
D) at or above a given level

Question 20

A percentile reports the percentage of cases in a distribution ______.

A) above a given value
B) at a given value
C) at or below a given value
D) below a given value

Question 21

A distribution with a skinnier left-hand tail is said to have a negative skew.

Question 22

A Likert-type scale is an additive index of five- or seven-point value ordinal variables.

Question 23

A researcher wants to measure individual support of internationalism so she creates an additive index or index consisting of multiple ordinal-level variables measuring attitudes on the U.N., foreign policy, foreign aid, and foreign intervention.

Question 24

A variable is an empirical measurement of a characteristic.

Question 25

Mean, median, and mode are all measures of dispersion.

Question 26

The percentage of voters who report voting twice a year or less is known as the cumulative percentage.

Question 27

Nominal-level variables are the most precise.

Question 28

The ranking in ordinal-level variables is reflected in the variable's numeric codes.

Question 29

A histogram shows the percentage or frequency of cases falling into intervals of the variable.

Question 30

Many nominal and ordinal variables have a singular central tendency that is captured clearly by the mode.

Question 31

Age, measured in years, is an example of a nominal-level variable.

Question 32

Dispersion describes the number of categories in a variable.

Question 33

A variable that codes each state by the region of the country it is located in is called a nominal-level variable.

Question 34

A method of describing the dispersion of a variable that includes the minimum value, lower quartile, median, upper quartile, and maximum value is called the interquartile range.

Question 35

A variable that measures per capita income by state as "low," "medium," or "high" is an interval-level variable.