Exam Questions Chapter 6 Causation And Experimental Design - Comprehensive Test Bank | Understanding the Social World 2e by Schutt by Russel K. Schutt. DOCX document preview.
Test Bank
Chapter 6: Causation and Experimental Design
Multiple Choice
1. Which group receives the most treatment in an experiment?
a. experimental
b. control
c. comparaison
d. selection
Learning Objective: 6.3: List the essential components of a true experimental design.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Easy
2. A true experiment allows the establishment of non-spuriousness by ______.
a. using two comparison groups
b. controlling when treatment occurs
c. random assignment into two or more comparison groups
d. documenting the conditions under which change occurs
Learning Objective: 6.3: List the essential components of a true experimental design.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Medium
3. A researcher randomly assigns people into two groups: one that will receive the experimental treatment and one that will not. The group that receives the treatment is called the ______ group.
a. spurious
b. association
c. comparison
d. experimental
Learning Objective: 6.3: List the essential components of a true experimental design.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Easy
4. A researcher is concerned that gender may affect how subjects respond to an experimental stimulus. So, subjects are paired with another subject who is of the same gender, and one member from each pair is assigned by a flip of a coin to the experimental group and one to the control group. This method of assigning subjects to groups is called ______.
a. matching
b. distribution
c. stratified randomization
d. random assignment
Learning Objective: 6.3: List the essential components of a true experimental design.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Quasi-Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Medium
5. Field experiments have particular difficulty controlling for ______.
a. time order
b. association
c. context
d. non-spuriousness
Learning Objective: 6.5: Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using quasi-experimental and experimental designs.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Limitations of True Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Medium
6. What is a common feature of all before-and-after designs?
a. Deliberate assignment is used to determine control and experimental groups.
b. All cases receive the experimental treatment.
c. Pretests are given to only half of the subjects.
d. Group assignment occurs through matching.
Learning Objective: 6.5: Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using quasi-experimental and experimental designs.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Quasi-Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Medium
7. What are two types of before-and-after experimental designs in which multiple pretest and posttest observations are made of the same group?
a. Solomon four group designs and panel designs
b. panel designs and repeated measures panel designs
c. repeated measures panel designs and time series designs
d. time series designs and nonequivalent control group designs
Learning Objective: 6.5: Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using quasi-experimental and experimental designs.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Quasi-Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Medium
8. A study of a policy change that affects all members of your organization is best done using what technique?
a. quasi-experimental
b. cross-sectional
c. nonequivalent control groups
d. before-and-after
Learning Objective: 6.5: Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using quasi-experimental and experimental designs.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Quasi-Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Medium
9. True experiments are designed to maximize ______.
a. internal validity
b. external validity
c. sample generalizability
d. cross-population generalizability
Learning Objective: 6.3: List the essential components of a true experimental design.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Causal (Internal) Validity
Difficulty Level: Medium
10. In a true experiment, how is association established?
a. randomization
b. comparison groups
c. statistical controls
d. quantitative measurement
Learning Objective: 6.3: List the essential components of a true experimental design.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Easy
11. Differential attrition in comparison and experimental groups creates what type of internal invalidity?
a. selection bias
b. endogenous change
c. history effects
d. contamination
Learning Objective: 6.6: Define five threats to validity in research.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Causal (Internal) Validity
Difficulty Level: Medium
12. Researcher B collects the number of new building permits issued in Sunny City every month for five years prior to the establishment of Sunny City’s new development controls, and for five years after the development controls were in place. B wants to know if the development controls changed the number of new building permits. What is B’s research design?
a. true experiment
b. content analysis
c. cross-sectional research
d. time series
Learning Objective: 6.5: Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using quasi-experimental and experimental designs.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Causal (Internal) Validity
Difficulty Level: Easy
13. To say that variables have an association is to say that ______.
a. the relationship between them is genuine
b. they occur at the same point in time
c. they empirically vary together
d. the relationship between them is false
Learning Objective: 6.3: List the essential components of a true experimental design.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Association
Difficulty Level: Easy
14. Researcher M found that when temperatures rise, the crime rate rises. Researcher M has satisfied which criterion for causality?
a. association
b. non-spuriousness
c. causal mechanism
d. context
Learning Objective: 6.2: Explain the meaning of the expression “correlation does not prove causation.”
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Association
Difficulty Level: Medium
15. To establish time order, what must come first?
a. covariation
b. association
c. the dependent variable
d. the independent variable
Learning Objective: 6.1: List the three criteria for establishing a causal relationship and the two cautions that can improve understanding of a causal connection.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Time Order
Difficulty Level: Easy
16. A university conducts a series of surveys in which subjects are drawn from first year and graduating students. They find that graduating students demonstrate much higher rates of approval for the university (in terms of whether they think the classes were relevant, the instructors were competent, etc.) The university then claims that more experience with the university leads to higher approval. What source of internal invalidity has the university not considered?
a. selection bias
b. mortality
c. non-comparable groups
d. regression
Learning Objective: 6.6: Define five threats to validity in research.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Causal (Internal) Validity
Difficulty: Hard
17. While participating in a lengthy experiment involving job training for welfare recipients, the economy enters into a major recession. Posttest measurements found that job training was unsuccessful in helping participants locate jobs. However, the experiment’s designers claim that the findings were inconclusive because of internal invalidity. Which of the following sources of internal invalidity would they be most likely to name as the problem?
a. contamination
b. history effect
c. selection bias
d. the Hawthorne effect
Learning Objective: 6.6: Define five threats to validity in research.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Causal (Internal) Validity
Difficulty Level: Medium
18. The process through which the independent variable creates changes in a dependent variable is known as a/an ______.
a. association
b. context
c. consideration
d. covariation
Learning Objective: 6.3: List the essential components of a true experimental design.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Association
Difficulty Level: Easy
19. Research Assistant Z is particularly enthusiastic when working with subjects who are receiving super treatment, but less animated when working with subjects who are receiving a placebo. Z’s actions may introduce what type of internal invalidity into the research on super treatment?
a. history effect
b. differential attrition
c. selection bias
d. expectations of experimental staff
Learning Objective: 6.6: Define five threats to validity in research.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Causal (Internal) Validity
Difficulty Level: Medium
20. What technique reduces the risk of spuriousness in non-experimental designs?
a. randomization
b. association
c. time order
d. statistical control
Learning Objective: 6.6: Define five threats to validity in research.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Statistical Control
Difficulty Level: Medium
21. According to the text, what is the “Achilles heel” of true experimental design?
a. establishing time order
b. establishing association
c. need for generalizable findings
d. differential attrition
Learning Objective:6.3: List the essential components of a true experimental design.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Limitations of True Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Easy
22. Which design can evaluate the interaction of testing and treatment?
a. true experimental designs
b. nonequivalent control group designs
c. before-and-after designs
d. Solomon four group designs
Learning Objective: 6.5: Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using quasi-experimental and experimental designs.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Interaction of Testing and Treatment
Difficulty Level: Easy
23. If researchers have evidence that some treatment will produce benefits for participants, but they do not have the financial resources to administer it to all subjects, what is an ethical way to distribute the benefits without compromising the strength of experimental design?
a. first-come, first-serve
b. randomly distribute benefits
c. withhold benefits from all subjects
d. select fewer subjects
Learning Objective: 6.5: Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using quasi-experimental and experimental designs.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Medium
24. A ______ is some a that creates the connection between variation in an independent variable and the variation in the dependent variable that the independent variable is hypothesized to cause.
a. field experiment
b. cause
c. causal mechanism
d. posttest
Learning Objective: 6.1: List the three criteria for establishing a causal relationship and the two cautions that can improve understanding of a causal connection.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Limitations of True Experimental Designs
Difficulty Level: Medium
25. Although an association between the independent and dependent variable is a necessary criterion for supporting a ______ relationship, it is ______ evidence to support causation.
a. causal; not sufficient
b. pretest; causal
c. corollary; ample
d. spurious; unscientific
Learning Objective: 6.2: Explain the meaning of the expression “correlation does not prove causation.”
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Association
Difficulty Level: Medium
26. A relationship between two variables is not spurious when it is ______.
a. caused by a variation in third variable
b. not caused by a variation in the third variable
c. caused by the relationship between the independent and dependent variables
d. not measured by the research study
Learning Objective: 6.1: List the three criteria for establishing a causal relationship and the two cautions that can improve understanding of a causal connection.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Nonspuriousness
Difficulty Level: Medium
27. Which two ethical issues are of special importance in experimental research design?
a. association and distribution
b. causation and confidentiality
c. deception and selective distribution of benefits
d. validity and the Hawthorne effect
Learning Objective: 6.7: Discuss the most distinctive ethical challenges in experimental research.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Ethical Issues in Experimental Research
Difficulty Level: Medium
28. Deception may be employed in social experiments to create which outcome?
a. Participation in a research study
b. Hypothesized results
c. Selective distributions of benefits
d. More realistic treatments or conditions
Learning Objective: 6.7: Discuss the most distinctive ethical challenges in experimental research.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Ethical Issues in Experimental Research
Difficulty Level: Medium
29. What is the strongest research design for testing casual effects?
a. true experiment
b. quasi-experiment
c. generalization
d. correlation
Learning Objective: 6.1: List the three criteria for establishing a causal relationship and the two cautions that can improve understanding of a causal connection.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Causal Explanations and Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Easy
30. ______ identify the common influences on a number of events.
a. Variable causations
b. Causal effects
c. Casual explanations
d. Ceteris paribus
Learning Objective: 6.1: List the three criteria for establishing a causal relationship and the two cautions that can improve understanding of a causal connection.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Casual Explanations and Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Easy
31. A discernible process that creates a causal connection between two variables is known as a(n) ______.
a. mechanism
b. hypothesis
c. element
d. causal effect
Learning Objective: 6.2: Explain the meaning of the expression “correlation does not prove causation.”
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Limitations of True Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Easy
32. ______ is known as a set of interrelated circumstances that alter a relationship between other variables.
a. The Hawthorne effect
b. A placebo
c. A context
d. Causation
Learning Objective: 6.1: List the three criteria for establishing a causal relationship and the two cautions that can improve understanding of a causal connection.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Causal Explanations and Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Easy
33. A randomized experimental design with a pretest and posttest is referred to a(n) ______ design.
a. randomized comparative change
b. after-test control group
c. before-and-after
d. repeated measures panel
Learning Objective: 6.4: Distinguish the concepts of random assignment (randomization) and random sampling.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Easy
34. ______ is what makes the comparison group in a true experiment such a powerful tool for identifying the effects of the treatment.
a. Snowballing
b. Randomization
c. Time series design
d. Extraneous variables
Learning Objective: 6.4: Distinguish the concepts of random assignment (randomization) and random sampling.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Easy
35. The technique of ______ allows researchers to determine whether the relationship between the independent and dependent variable still occurs while other variable remain constant.
a. nonspuriousness
b. association
c. statistical control
d. quotas
Learning Objective: 6.2: Explain the meaning of the expression “correlation does not prove causation.”
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Statistical Control
Difficulty Level: Easy
36. A ______ is given to a control group to make sure their experience does not differ from the experimental group except for the actual treatment.
a. placebo
b. quota
c. variable
d. causal effect
Learning Objective: 6.4: Distinguish the concepts of random assignment (randomization) and random sampling.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Causal (Internal) Validity
Difficulty Level: Easy
37. ______ occurs when participants can select the group, they enter based upon the treatment they expect to receive.
a. Internal validity
b. A history effect
c. Selection bias
d. Differential attrition
Learning Objective: 6.4: Distinguish the concepts of random assignment (randomization) and random sampling.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Causal (Internal) Validity
Difficulty Level: Easy
38. ______ occurs when groups become different after an experiment begins and the number of participants who drop out of each group is uneven.
a. Differential attrition
b. Causal variation
c. Contamination
d. The Hawthorne effect
Learning Objective: 6.6: Define five threats to validity in research.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Causal (Internal) Validity
Difficulty Level: Easy
39. The effect that can occur when external events during the experiment change the subjects’ outcome scores is known as a(n) ______.
a. Hawthrone effect
b. history effect
c. selection bias
d. generalized impact
Learning Objective: 6.6: Define five threats to validity in research.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Causal (Internal) Validity
Difficulty Level: Easy
40. A quasi-experimental design consisting of several pretest and posttest observations of the same group is known as a(n) ______ design.
a. repeated measures panel
b. measurement series
c. before and after
d. ex post factor control group
Learning Objective: 6.5: Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using quasi-experimental and experimental designs.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Statistical Control
Difficulty Level: Easy
41. Despite their obvious strengths, ______ are rarely used to study research problems that interest social scientist.
a. surveys
b. interviews
c. quasi-experiments
d. true experiments
Learning Objective: 6.3: List the essential components of a true experimental design.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Conclusion
Difficulty Level: Medium
True/False
1. Correlation proves causation.
Learning Objective: 6.2: Explain the meaning of the expression “correlation does not prove causation.”
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Association
Difficulty Level: Easy
2. Identifying causes and figuring out why things happen are the goals of most social science research.
Learning Objective: 6.2: Explain the meaning of the expression “correlation does not prove causation.”
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Causation and Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Medium
3. Experimental designs do not consider causal validity and generalizability issues.
Learning Objective: 6.6: Define five threats to validity in research.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Validity in Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Easy
4. Randomization is a technique used to ensure spuriousness in experimental designs.
Learning Objective: 6.4: Distinguish the concepts of random assignment (randomization) and random sampling.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Limitations of True Experimental Designs
Difficulty Level: Medium
5. Random assignment of subjects to experimental and comparison groups is the same as random sampling of individuals from some larger population.
Learning Objective: 6.4: Distinguish the concepts of random assignment (randomization) and random sampling.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Causal (Internal) Validity
Difficulty Level: Medium
6. Nonequivalent control group design is the most common type of quasi-experimental design.
Learning Objective: 6.6: Define five threats to validity in research.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Statistical Control
Difficulty Level: Medium
7. The history effect is a source of causal invalidity when events outside of the study influence posttest scores.
Learning Objective: 6.6: Define five threats to validity in research.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Causal (Internal) Validity
Difficulty Level: Medium
8. David Willer and Henry A. Walker argue that experiments involving deception vary and a debriefing of the deception should be looked at on a case by case basis.
Learning Objective: 6.7: Discuss the most distinctive ethical challenges in experimental research.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Deception
Difficulty Level: Medium
9. When researchers do not know whether some treatment actually is beneficial or not, random distribution of benefits is justified.
Learning Objective: 6.7: Discuss the most distinctive ethical challenges in experimental research.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Selective Distribution of Benefits
Difficulty Level: Easy
10. A causal effect identifies common influences on a number of cases or events.
Learning Objective: 6.1: List the three criteria for establishing a causal relationship and the two cautions that can improve understanding of a causal connection.
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Causal Explanations and Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Easy
Short Answer
1. Under what conditions is it ethical to deceive participants in an experiment? Provide an example that would ethically allow deception and an example in which the ethics of deception are more ambiguous.
Learning Objective: 6.7: Discuss the most distinctive ethical challenges in experimental research.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Deception
Difficulty Level: Medium
2. How is causality established in experimental research, and how does this differ when using non-experimental research designs? Why do both experimental and non-experimental designs exist in social sciences?
Learning Objective: 6.1: List the three criteria for establishing a causal relationship and the two cautions that can improve understanding of a causal connection.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Causal Explanations and Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Hard
3. Identify an example in which you expect that a contextual effect exists. Why do you think this contextual effect occurs? How would you design research to account for this contextual effect?
Learning Objective: 6.2: Explain the meaning of the expression “correlation does not prove causation.”
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Causal Explanations and Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Hard
4. Describe the characteristics of a true experiment. Explain how true experiments meet (or do not meet) the criteria for causality. Do quasi-experiments and non-experimental designs improve on these criteria? Explain how (or how not).
Learning Objective: 6.3: List the essential components of a true experimental design.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Causal Explanations and Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Hard
5. Compare randomization and random sampling. What are their similarities and differences? In what way does each help to improve the validity of research conclusions? Why does the use of one of these techniques preclude the use of the other?
Learning Objective: 6.4: Distinguish the concepts of random assignment (randomization) and random sampling.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Experimental Design
Difficulty Level: Hard
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Comprehensive Test Bank | Understanding the Social World 2e by Schutt
By Russel K. Schutt