Chapter 5: Making Controlled Comparisons

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. A relationship between a causal variable and a dependent variable within one value of another causal variable is known as a ______.

A. controlled effect

B. compared effect

C. compound effect

D. consistent effect

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Essential Terms and Concepts

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. A(n) ______ summarizes a relationship between two variables after accounting for a rival variable.

A. additive effect

B. spurious effect

C. partial effect

D. interactive effect

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Essential Terms and Concepts

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. The rule of direction for nominal relationships helps us identify ______.

A. spuriousness

B. additive relationships

C. zero-order relationships

D. interaction relationships

Learning Objective: 5-4: Three possible scenarios for the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable, controlling for a rival cause.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: A Spurious Relationship

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. To determine the direction of a nominal relationship it is necessary to ______.

A. subtract the other values from the base category’s value

B. add the other values to the left-most column of a variable value

C. subtract the other values from the right-most column of a variable value

D. add the other values to the right-most column of a variable value

Learning Objective: 5-4: Three possible scenarios for the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable, controlling for a rival cause.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: A Spurious Relationship

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. In a study of partisanship and attitudes toward social welfare spending while controlling for gender a researcher finds that women are 15 points more likely than men to support social welfare spending. This is an example of ______.

A. a zero-order relationship

B. the partial effect of gender

C. the normative effect of gender

D. the nominal effect of gender

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Essential Terms and Concepts

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. If the direction of the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable changes at different values of a control variable, it indicates that a(n) ______ is present.

A. additive relationship

B. spurious relationship

C. interactive relationship

D. zero-order relationship

Learning Objective: 5-4: Three possible scenarios for the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable, controlling for a rival cause.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: A Spurious Relationship

Difficulty Level: Medium

7. A researcher is examining the effect of partisanship on attitudes about Congress while controlling for gender and finds no relationship between partisanship and attitudes at any value of gender. This means the relationship between partisanship and attitudes toward Congress is ______.

A. interactive

B. additive

C. zero-order

D. spurious

Learning Objective: 5-4: Three possible scenarios for the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable, controlling for a rival cause.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: A Spurious Relationship

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. A researcher studying support for international institutions finds that Democrats are more likely to support such institutions than are Republicans. When she controls for income, she finds that individuals with higher incomes are about 12 points more supportive of international institutions regardless of party. This is an example of a(n) ______.

A. additive effect

B. spurious effect

C. interactive effect

D. zero-order effect

Learning Objective: 5-4: Three possible scenarios for the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable, controlling for a rival cause.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Additive Relationships

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. A researcher studying support for international institutions finds that Democrats are more likely to support such institutions than are Republicans. When she controls for income, she finds no difference between Republicans and Democrats on support for international institutions. This is an example of a(n) ______.

A. additive effect

B. spurious effect

C. interactive effect

D. partial effect

Learning Objective: 5-4: Three possible scenarios for the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable, controlling for a rival cause.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: A Spurious Relationship

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. When graphing the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable, the independent variable should be on the ______.

A. vertical axis

B. either axis

C. horizontal axis

D. it is omitted from the graph

Learning Objective: 5-3: How to construct line charts of the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable, while holding a control variable constant.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Essential Terms and Concepts

Difficulty Level: Easy

11. If age and gender together help to explain attitudes regarding welfare policy, it indicates that a(n) ______ is present.

A. interactive relationship

B. zero-order relationship

C. spurious relationship

D. additive relationship

Learning Objective: 5-4: Three possible scenarios for the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable, controlling for a rival cause.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Additive Relationships

Difficulty Level: Easy

12. Which of the following are especially useful for lending clarity and simplicity to controlled comparison relationships?

A. bar graphs

B. line charts

C. pie charts

D. cone graphs

Learning Objective: 5-3: How to construct line charts of the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable, while holding a control variable constant.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Essential Terms and Concepts

Difficulty Level: Easy

13. A method of measuring respondents’ attitudes from 0 to 100 is called a ______.

A. Guttman scale

B. Likert-type scale

C. feeling thermometer

D. cross-tabulation

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Party Identification, Age, and Attitudes about Homosexuals | Example of an Additive Relationship

Difficulty Level: Easy

14. In political research, controlled effects are summarized by a(n) ______ relationship.

A. zero-order

B. additive

C. interactive

D. partial

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Summary

Difficulty Level: Easy

15. We are able to summarize a partial effect using one number when the relationship is ______.

A. additive

B. spurious

C. interactive

D. zero-order

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Summary

Difficulty Level: Easy

16. When the partial effect must be described separately for each category of a control variable what type of relationship exists?

A. additive

B. interactive

C. spurious

D. zero-order

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Summary

Difficulty Level: Easy

17. A researcher hypothesizes that individuals differ in their support for free speech based upon partisanship. He controls for gender and finds that women are more supportive than men for both Democrats and Republicans. What’s going on here?

A. interaction

B. spuriousness

C. an additive relationship

D. a zero-order relationship

Learning Objective: 5-4: Three possible scenarios for the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable, controlling for a rival cause.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Additive Relationships

Difficulty Level: Medium

18. A researcher hypothesizes that individuals differ in support for a balanced budget amendment based upon their partisan affiliation. He controls for education level and finds that highly educated Democrats are twenty-seven points less likely to support a balanced budget amendment than highly educated Republicans, but Democrats with lower education are two points more likely to support a balanced budget than Republicans with lower education. What’s going on here?

A. an additive relationship between education and partisanship

B. a spurious relationship between education and partisanship

C. a zero-order relationship between education and partisanship

D. an interaction between education and partisanship

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Interactive Relationships

Difficulty Level: Medium

19. If the direction of the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable is not constant at all values of the control variable, it means the relationship is______.

A. interactive

B. spuriousness

C. additive

D. nonexistent

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Interactive Relationships

Difficulty Level: Medium

20. A researcher studies attitudes about involvement in foreign wars based upon individual partisanship while controlling for issue salience. She graphs the results on a line-graph and notices that the lines for salience and partisanship cross each other at a point on the chart. This indicates the presence of a(n) ______ relationship.

A. additive

B. interactive

C. spurious

D. zero-order

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Interactive Relationships

Difficulty Level: Medium

True/False

1. Rival explanations undermine researchers’ ability to evaluate the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable.

Learning Objective: 5-1: How controlled comparisons rule out rival causes.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Logic of Controlled Comparisons

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. A simple comparison of two variables provides a zero-order relationship.

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Essential Terms and Concepts

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. An overall association between two variables that does not take into consideration other possible differences between the cases being studied is known as a zero-order relationship.

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Essential Terms and Concepts

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. A controlled cross-tabulation table demonstrates the relationship between one or more in dependent variables and the dependent variable.

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Essential Terms and Concepts

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. When you’re analyzing how values of an interval-level variable vary among groups, you use a mean comparison table.

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Essential Terms and Concepts

Difficulty Level: Easy

6. Cross-tabulation analysis may be used only when both variables are measured at the ordinal level.

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Essential Terms and Concepts

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. A cross-tabulation analysis may be used with an ordinal independent variable and a nominal dependent variable.

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Essential Terms and Concepts

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. Determining whether an independent variable is positively or negatively related to a dependent variable is done using the partial relationship or partial effect.

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Essential Terms and Concepts

Difficulty Level: Easy

9. A zero-order relationship summarized an overall relationship between variables.

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Essential Terms and Concepts

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. A controlled comparison design refers to any characteristic that varies across categories of an independent variable.

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Essential Terms and Concepts

Difficulty Level: Easy

11. An outlier is a pretreatment variable that is related to both the treatment and the outcome.

Learning Objective: 5-2: How to set up controlled comparisons using cross-tabulation analysis and mean comparison analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Essential Terms and Concepts

Difficulty Level: Easy

12. If there is a clear rival explanation, a controlled comparison design does not work well.

Learning Objective: 5-5: How to identify spurious relationships, additive relationships, or interaction relationships in empirical data.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Advanced Methods of Making Controlled Comparisons

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. Matching methods attempt to replicate random assignment in an observational setting.

Learning Objective: 5-5: How to identify spurious relationships, additive relationships, or interaction relationships in empirical data.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Advanced Methods of Making Controlled Comparisons

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. All additive relationships are straightforward and have symmetrical quality.

Learning Objective: 5-5: How to identify spurious relationships, additive relationships, or interaction relationships in empirical data.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Identifying Patterns

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. Interaction relationships are protean shape-shifters, assuming a variety of forms.

Learning Objective: 5-4: Three possible scenarios for the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable, controlling for a rival cause.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Many Faces of Interaction

Difficulty Level: Easy