Deck 6: Surveys and Sampling

Question 1

A university needs to create a sample of students to interview about their perceptions of the campus climate. They find a computerized list of all of the currently registered students and choose every fiftieth name on the list. What sampling method has been used?

A) Stratified sampling
B) Simple random sampling
C) Convenience sampling
D) Systematic random sampling

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Sampling bias occurs when

A) not enough participants are used.
B) the sample is taken out of context.
C) the sample is representative of the population.
D) the probability with which the members of the population have been selected is not known.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which of the following best describes snowball sampling?

A) A probability sampling technique in which names are drawn randomly from a sampling frame
B) A technique in which some participants are found in the population and they then lead the researcher to other participants in the population.
C) A convenience sample of individuals who are grouped together in one place.
D) A probability sampling technique in which the researcher first picks two members of the population, then four members of the population, then eight members of the population, and so on.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

A sampling technique in which a population for which there is no sampling frame and is divided into a set of smaller groups for which there are known sampling frames is known as

A) stratified sampling.
B) snowball sampling.
C) cluster sampling.
D) convenience sampling.

Question 5

A limitation of using questionnaires in survey research is that

A) they are usually more expensive than interviews.
B) they are less objective than interviews.
C) they cannot be used to collect probability samples.
D) the questions may not be answered in the expected order.

Question 6

Strata refer to

A) subgroups of a larger population.
B) descriptive statistics describing a sample.
C) the population used to draw a snowball sample.
D) the raw data from any survey study.

Question 7

Which of the following is not true about descriptive research?

A) It provides a snapshot of the current state of affairs.
B) It measures relationships between variables.
C) It can be conducted using a survey.
D) It may use probability sampling.

Question 8

An employer is interested in learning about the employees in his company. He interviews each of his employees, one at a time, using a short interview. He has conducted which of the following?

A) A stratified sample
B) A cluster sample
C) A census
D) A focus group

Question 9

A researcher selects a sample by taking every sixtieth name on the list beginning with the number 3 . What type of sampling is this?

A) Simple random sampling
B) Systematic random sampling
C) Stratified sampling
D) Cluster sampling

Question 10

A face-to-face unstructured interview in which a number of people are interviewed at the same time is known as a

A) focus group.
B) small group interview.
C) case study.
D) group questionnaire.

Question 11

When the response rate on a questionnaire is low,

A) the conclusions drawn about the population may be incorrect.
B) the data are easier to analyze.
C) fewer questions should be placed on the questionnaire.
D) more questions should be placed on the questionnaire.

Question 12

The U.S. Census is known as a census because

A) it provides a visual display of the U.S. population.
B) it includes the entire U.S. population.
C) it is a representative survey.
D) it is highly accurate.

Question 13

Which of the following is a type of nonprobability sampling?

A) Stratified sampling
B) Snowball sampling
C) Cluster sampling
D) Simple random sampling

Question 14

A telephone book from a large city could be considered

A) a sampling frame.
B) a simple random sample.
C) a systematic random sample.
D) a stratified random sample.

Question 15

In scientific research, sampling refers to which of the following?

A) Selecting which people to study
B) Choosing which of the raw data to analyze
C) Drawing inferences about the population from the sample
D) Choosing which population to sample

Question 16

Oversampling refers to

A) choosing individuals from strata in order to provide large enough samples for analysis.
B) choosing more individuals to be in the sample than is statistically necessary.
C) overestimating the weight of one sample on the population.
D) a technique used to control for nonprobability sampling.

Question 17

One potential difficulty of systematic random sampling is that

A) the procedure is more time consuming than simple random sampling.
B) the names on the sampling frame might not be in a random order.
C) the likelihood that a person is included in the sample is not known.
D) even if done properly, the sample will not be representative.

Question 18

Which of the following is a primary goal of descriptive research?

A) Testing a research hypothesis
B) Providing a snapshot of the current state of affairs
C) Collecting information about changes in individuals over time
D) Measuring relationships between variables

Question 19

In comparison to interviews, questionnaires are

A) less likely to be influenced by the presence of the researcher.
B) less likely to produce valid results.
C) more likely to result in complete raw data.
D) more time consuming.

Question 20

A town in West Virginia needs to choose a jury for a trial. They create slips of paper with the names of each of the adults in the county and place the slips in a large box. They then draw twelve names from the box. What sampling method has been used?

A) Stratified sampling
B) Simple random sampling
C) Convenience sampling
D) Cluster sampling

Question 21

Which of the following is true about using a mean drawn from a simple random sample to estimate a population mean?

A) The size of the sample has a bigger influence than the size of the population on how accurately the sample describes the population.
B) The size of the population has a bigger influence than the size of the sample on how accurately the sample describes the population.
C) The results will usually be accurate if the population is large.
D) The results will usually be accurate even if the population is small.

Question 22

Which of the following descriptive statistics is most influenced by outliers?

A) The median
B) The mode
C) The frequency distribution
D) The mean

Question 23

Which of the following is NOT a measure of dispersion?

A) The median
B) The range
C) The standard deviation
D) The variance

Question 24

An instructor has collected data about the majors of each of the students in her class. Which of the following will be the best method of presenting these data?

A) A mean
B) A stem and leaf plot
C) A variance
D) A standard deviation

Question 25

Which descriptive statistic would best portray the central tendency of the following distribution (1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 1000)?

A) The median
B) The mode
C) The variance
D) The mean

Question 26

In terms of age, a twelve-year-old college student can probably be considered to be which of the following?

A) A skewed value
B) A modal value
C) An outlier
D) Close to the median

Question 27

The pattern of scores observed on a measured variable is known as the

A) distribution.
B) normal probability plot.
C) mean.
D) central tendency.

Question 28

Which of the following represents the major disadvantage of snowball sampling?

A) The standard deviation is not known.
B) There is a likelihood of sampling bias.
C) Questionnaires have to be returned at a higher rate.
D) The respondents may not complete the questionnaires.

Question 29

Which of the following types of samples is most likely to result in sampling bias?

A) Stratified random sampling
B) Systematic random sampling
C) Cluster sampling
D) Convenience sampling

Question 30

A report indicates that a survey is accurate within "plus or minus 1 percent." This statement refers to which of the following?

A) The margin of error
B) The standard deviation
C) The response rate
D) The sampling plan

Question 31

Which of the following is an advantage of using an unstructured interview?

A) All of the questions have a similar response format.
B) All of the questions are administered in the same time frame.
C) The respondent is able to express his or her true feelings.
D) It is easy to compare the responses of different participants.

Question 32

A statistical table that indicates how many individuals in the sample fall into each set of categories on a quantitative variable is a

A) frequency distribution.
B) bar chart.
C) normal distribution.
D) grouped frequency distribution.

Question 33

Imagine a visual chart that uses bars to represent the frequency of occurrence of individuals in the following categories of height: under 60 inches; 60 to 66 inches; 66 to 72 inches; over 72 inches. This chart would represent a(n)

A) grouped frequency distribution.
B) histogram.
C) bar chart.
D) ungrouped frequency distribution.

Question 34

Range, mean deviation, sum of squares, variance-which of the following statistics also belongs in this group?

A) Standard deviation
B) Outlier
C) Median
D) Confidence interval

Question 35

The margin of error is most closely related to which of the following statistics?

A) The range
B) The population probability of error
C) The confidence interval
D) The standard deviation

Question 36

The raw data refer to

A) the original unanalyzed data.
B) the results of final statistical analyses.
C) the deleted outliers from a sample.
D) the descriptive statistics.

Question 37

The entire group of people the researcher is interested in learning about is known as the __________, whereas the group of people that actually participate in the research is known as the __________.

A) population; sample
B) sample; population
C) sampling frame; population
D) population; sampling frame

Question 38

A graphic display of a frequency distribution that uses a line rather than bars is called a

A) histogram.
B) bar chart.
C) frequency curve.
D) grouped frequency distribution.

Question 39

Which of the following is a graphic display of the frequency distribution of a nominal variable?

A) A histogram
B) A bar chart
C) A frequency curve
D) An outlier plot

Question 40

Which of the following refers to numbers that summarize the pattern of scores observed on a measured variable?

A) Central tendencies
B) Normal distributions
C) Descriptive statistics
D) Frequency distributions

Question 41

Sampling bias is most likely to occur when

A) the representativeness of the sample is high.
B) there is no sampling frame available.
C) participants guess the research hypothesis.
D) the researcher is a member of the population.

Question 42

The measure of central tendency that is most effected by outliers is the

A) mean.
B) median.
C) mode.
D) variance.

Question 43

In a study investigating alcohol use and mood disorders on college campuses, Pam separates the population into different ethnic groups and then uses a computer program to pick ten names at random for each ethnic group. Which sampling technique is Pam using?

A) Response sampling
B) Simple random sampling
C) Snowball sampling
D) Stratified random sampling

Question 44

Which of the following might be best used to illustrate the gender composition (number of men versus women) at a university?

A) A normal curve
B) A chi-square statistic
C) A frequency distribution
D) A stem and leaf plot

Question 45

Randomly-dialed telephone interviews such as the poll conducted by CBS news regarding healthcare issues reported in Chapter 6 can be best described as of which of the following?

A) A census research design.
B) A sampling research design.
C) A probability research design.
D) A descriptive research design.

Question 46

Samples that have a large standard deviation will also have which of the following?

A) A positive skew
B) A negative skew
C) A large variance
D) A small margin of error

Question 47

In a positively skewed sample,

A) the mean is greater than the median.
B) the mode is greater than the median.
C) the mode and the median are equal.
D) the mode and the mean are equal.

Question 48

Here is a distribution of scores from a measure of depression: 3, 7, 9, 9, 9, 11, 13, 20, 27, 30. In this sample the range is _________ and the mode is____________.

A) 27; 11
B) 30; 3
C) 27; 9
D) 3; 30

Question 49

Which of the following is a potential limitation of using probability sampling to predict a population attitude?

A) People may change their attitudes on important topics after the sample is collected.
B) Random samples are generally poor predictors of population characteristics.
C) The population has greater variability than does the sample.
D) Probability samples tend to have extremely high standard deviations.