Chapter 4: Conceptualization and Measurement

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. The process by which a researcher defines specifically what he or she means when using a concept is known as ______.

A. conceptualization

B. operationalization

C. generalization

D. reliability

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. The procedures for identifying or indicating the value of cases on a variable are known as ______.

A. concepts

B. conceptualizations

C. operations

D. operationalizations

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. Which of the following is NOT a problem with using available data?

A. Some measures may not be appropriate for the current research.

B. Not all available data are accurate.

C. Data may be collected inconsistently.

D. Government agencies and NGOs rarely make data public.

Difficulty Level: Hard

4. Which of the following is NOT true regarding closed-ended questions?

A. They are used by most surveys with large numbers of people.

B. They are easy to process with computers and analyze with statistics.

C. They make it easier for respondents to answer questions.

D. They lessen confusion about meaning of responses involving complex concepts.

Difficulty Level: Hard

5. Open-ended questions are preferable to closed-ended questions in which of the following situations?

A. Responses are mutually exclusive but not exhaustive.

B. The number of respondents is very large.

C. There is little time to review questions before data collection.

D. The range of responses cannot be anticipated.

Difficulty Level: Hard

6. According to Schutt, which is not a reason why youth gangs are hard to define?

A. Youth gangs are not particularly cohesive.

B. Individual gangs change their focus over time.

C. Youth culture is poorly understood by researchers.

D. Gangs may have diverse and unclear membership.

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. Which of the following is NOT an example of a concept?

A. poverty

B. domestic violence

C. youth gangs

D. binge drinking

Difficulty Level: Hard

8. For variables measured at the nominal level of measurement, ______.

A. rankings are possible

B. addition and subtraction are possible

C. multiplication and division are possible

D. values measure in kind but not quantity

Difficulty Level: Easy

9. Unobtrusive measures can provide a researcher with a wealth of content. Which of the following does NOT involve an unobtrusive measure?

A. preaching

B. legal opinions

C. media

D. e-mail messages

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. Which of the following can NOT be performed on data collected at the ratio level of measurement?

A. addition/subtraction

B. greater than/less than

C. multiplication/division

D. all of these can be performed on ratio-level data.

Difficulty Level: Easy

11. A characteristic that doesn't change across cases is known as a/an ______.

A. variable

B. constant

C. operation

D. scale

Difficulty Level: Easy

12. What kind of validity is achieved if scores on measures related to one concept are not strongly associated with measures of different concepts?

A. face validity

B. criterion validity

C. content validity

D. discriminant validity

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. Which of the following statistics is used commonly to measure interitem reliability?

A. Pearson's r

B. Cronbach's α

C. Guttman's scale

D. βs

Difficulty Level: Easy

14. Interobserver reliability occurs when ______.

A. different observers measure the same phenomena in the same way

B. different observers agree on a definition of measurement

C. different observers administer an instrument

D. different observers contribute to the conceptualization process

Difficulty Level: Easy

15. Identify the ordinal measure.

A. nationality

B. blue

C. a little bit wrong

D. carrying a weapon

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. When researchers measure an unchanging phenomenon at two different times, the degree to which the two measurements are related is called ______.

A. test–retest reliability

B. criterion validity

C. predictive validity

D. interitem reliability

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. Reliability refers to which of the following?

A. That a measurement captures what it intends to measure.

B. That a measurement includes all dimensions of a concept.

C. That a measurement is free of error.

D. That a measure yields consistent scores.

Difficulty Level: Easy

18. Questions are often the basis of which type(s) of research?

A. surveys

B. experiments

C. qualitative research

D. all of these

Difficulty Level: Medium

19. Predictive validity occurs when ______.

A. a measure can predict scores on a criterion measured in the past.

B. a measure relates to other measures specified in a social theory.

C. a measure can predict scores on a criterion measured in the future.

D. a measure is associated with a criterion collected at the same time.

Difficulty Level: Easy

20. To establish concurrent validity, a researcher must include which of the following in a survey that includes a new index of depression?

A. a system for weighting responses

B. multiple forms of the same index

C. a previously validated measure of depression

D. single items and matrix questions

Difficulty Level: Hard

21. Face validity refers to ______.

A. the ability of subsets of items to predict one another

B. the strength of items to predict one another

C. the apparent appropriateness of how a concept is measured

D. the likelihood that multiple indicators measure the same phenomenon

Difficulty Level: Medium

22. Which level of measurement is the most mathematically precise?

A. interval

B. nominal

C. ordinal

D. ratio

Difficulty Level: Medium

23. Which of the following is an example of a variable measured at the interval level of measurement?

A. age in years

B. income in dollars

C. temperature in degrees Fahrenheit

D. acres of land planted in food crops

Difficulty Level: Hard

24. Which of the following is an example of a variable measured at the ordinal level of measurement?

A. military rank

B. birth order of siblings

C. age measured as child, teen, adult, and elderly

D. All of these are measured at the ordinal level.

Difficulty Level: Hard

25. Which of the following is an example of a variable measured at the nominal level of measurement?

A. location in which respondent was born

B. religiosity measured as not religious, somewhat religious, and very religious

C. time in seconds in which a subject completes a given task

D. number of respondents' first cousins

Difficulty Level: Hard

26. When a respondent is asked to choose among explicit response categories, he or she has been asked what type of question?

A. qualitative

B. closed-ended

C. hermeneutic

D. reliable

Difficulty Level: Medium

27. Using more than one measure of the same variable, such as using a survey and direct observation, is known as ______.

A. validation

B. reliability

C. conceptualization

D. triangulation

Difficulty Level: Medium

28. Which of the following type of closed-ended question does not have to have mutually exclusive response categories?

A. qualitative

B. check all that apply

C. race/ethnicity

D. demographic

Difficulty Level: Hard

29. Which of the following is NOT a type of unobtrusive measure?

A. archives

B. contrived observation

C. indexes

D. physical trace evidence

Difficulty Level: Medium

30. The nominal level of measurement is synonymous with which of the following level of measurement.

A. interval

B. categorical

C. ordinal

D. ratio

Difficulty Level: Easy

31. The process of specifying the operations that will indicate the value of cases on a variable is known as ______.

A. conceptualization

B. criterion validity

C. construct validity

D. operationalization

Difficulty Level: Easy

32. If a respondent misreads a survey question and answers incorrectly, what is the source of measurement error?

A. idiosyncratic individual error

B. generic individual error

C. generic factor error

D. method factor error

Difficulty Level: Hard

33. If responses are affected by factors that are not what the instrument is intended to measure, then what is the source of measurement error?

A. idiosyncratic errors

B. generic individual error

C. generic factor error

D. systematic errors

Difficulty Level: Medium

34. Which level of measurement has a value that signifies absolutely no amount of whatever variable it indicates?

A. interval

B. ratio

C. categorical

D. nominal

Difficulty Level: Medium

35. Using 24 questions to represent multiple dimensions of the problems associated with alcohol abuse attempts to establish what type of validity?

A. construct

B. content

C. face

D. concurrent

Difficulty Level: Hard

36. Repeated changes in questions about race in the decennial U.S. Census reflect occurred due to ______.

A. political pressure

B. social pressure

C. economic pressure

D. Both A and B

Difficulty Level: Medium

True/False

1. When we conceptualize, we specify what we mean by a term.

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. A concept that does not vary is known as a constant.

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. The term variable may be used interchangeably with the term indicator.

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. An operation is the process of linking abstract concepts to empirical indicants.

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. The primary problem with using available data for new research questions is that there is very little social data available.

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. There can only be one correct definition of a concept.

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. An open-ended question is designed with explicit response choices.

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. When we operationalize, we identify specific observations that we will take to indicate a concept in empirical reality.

Difficulty Level: Easy

9. Open-ended questions are most frequently used for large surveys.

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. A survey asks married people whether their marriage is very happy, somewhat happy, or not very happy. This is an example of a closed-ended question.

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. Qualitative research usually takes an inductive approach to the process of conceptualization.

Difficulty Level: Easy

12. Only open-ended questions need to be exhaustive and mutually exclusive.

Difficulty Level: Easy

13. Direct observation is a method of choice for measuring behavior in natural settings.

Difficulty Level: Easy

14. Contrived observation is considered unethical and unreliable and should not be used in social scientific research.

Difficulty Level: Easy

15. Triangulation weakens measurement considerably because we can achieve similar results with different measures of the same variable.

Difficulty Level: Easy

16. Gender is a good example of a ratio level of measurement.

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. Unlike other levels of measurement, nominal levels of measurement need not be exhaustive and mutually exclusive.

Difficulty Level: Medium

18. Government statistics generated by a central agency usually have higher quality than official data collected by local levels of government and compiled into a single report.

Difficulty Level: Easy

19. At the ratio level of measurement, addition and subtraction are possible.

Difficulty Level: Easy

20. Reliability is a prerequisite for measurement validity.

Difficulty Level: Easy

21. The U.S. Census always included a question in order to categorize the respondent by race.

Difficulty Level: Easy

Essay

1. Discuss the difference between conceptualization and operationalization.

Difficulty Level: Hard

2. Explain why a lot of surveys use closed-ended questions.

Difficulty Level: Hard

3. Explain the difference between reliability and validity. Why is it important for a measurement instrument to have both?

Difficulty Level: Hard

4. Explain what it means for a question to be mutually exclusive and exhaustive. Why is this important for data collection?

Difficulty Level: Hard

5. What are unobtrusive measures? What are the four types of measures identified by Eugene Webb and colleagues (2000)?

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. Describe the differences between direct observations and controlled observations. Be sure to give at least one example of each.

Difficulty Level: Hard

7. Define each of the four levels of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio) and give an example of each. Also, explain the special case of dichotomies in levels of measurement and give an example of a dichotomous level of measurement.

Difficulty Level: Hard

8. List the four methods of evaluating validity in research. Be sure to define and give an example of each.

Difficulty Level: Hard

9. List four methods of evaluating the validity of measures, such as discriminant validity. Be sure to define and give an example of each.

Difficulty Level: Hard