Test Bank

Chapter 2: Types of Variables and Levels of Measurement

Multiple Choice

1. A constant is best defined as ______.

A. a characteristic that assumes only one value in a sample

B. a characteristic whose values vary over categories

C. a multiple-regression technique used to determine causality

D. a binomial characteristic whose value alters with respect to specific categorization

2. Which of the following is defined as a characteristic that takes on multiple values in a sample or population?

A. a constant

B. a variable

C. a distribution

D. a skew

3. A professor is undertaking a longitudinal research project into the criminal behavior of Irish women residing in Chicago. In this example Irish Women would be an example of which of the following?

A. accio analytic unit

B. standard deviation unit

C. a constant variable

D. unit of analysis

4. A factor that is used to try to explain or predict a dependent variable is referred to as what in statistics and research?

A. an empirical variable

B. a skewed variable

C. an independent variable

D. an effectual variable

5. Which level of measurement is the most basic and least descriptive?

A. ordinal

B. ratio

C. interval

D. nominal

6. Which of the following lists the levels of measurement in statistics?

A. categorical and ordinal

B. categorical, ordinal, and quantitative

C. nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio

D. nominal, categorical, frequency, and empirical

7. A ruler could be described as which type of level of measurement?

A. interval

B. categorical

C. nominal

D. ratio

8. A researcher has collected data for her most recent study into criminal incidents in rural areas. She has one variable that has a ranked characteristic. This variable would be described as belonging to what level of measurement?

A. ordinal

B. binomial

C. nominal

D. ratio

9. For a study into rural crime, a researcher has a good amount of descriptive data. One variable is a basic demographic data point indicating a subject’s racial/ethnic origin. This variable is composed of classifications indicating Hispanic, Caucasian, Pacific Islander, and African-American. What type of data is this variable?

A. ratio

B. categorical

C. continuous

D. binomial

10. What study is conducted by the Bureau of Justice statistics as a supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey in which respondents are asked questions regarding recent experiences with police?

A. The Police–Public Contact Survey

B. The National Law Enforcement Quality Survey

C. The General Social Survey

D. The National Police Survey

11. What is the Department of Justice’s data repository?

A. The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)

B. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs (OJJDP)

C. The Library of Congress

D. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)

12. The only level of data that contains a TRUE zero is ______.

A. interval

B. nominal

C. ratio

D. categorical

13. The level of measurement that is numeric, rank-orderable, and has equal intervals between adjacent points, but that does not have a true zero is ______.

A. nominal

B. ratio

C. interval

D. ordinal

14. Which of the following words describes a phenomenon that is measured, observed, or tangible?

A. empirical

B. independent

C. dependent

D. didactic

15. A researcher has started analyzing data in a project investigating urban crime. Unbeknownst to him, he has inadvertently omitted one very important variable that would have explained the dependent variable very well. What error has been committed in this study?

A. oliminated variable dilemma

B. ocological fallacy

C. There has been no error as the researcher will simply manipulate the data and arrive at meaningful results.

D. omitted variable bias

16. The results of a study on police use of conducted energy devices (CED) indicated that police were more to likely to use CEDs for what race of suspects?

A. Blacks

B. Whites

C. Hispanics

D. There was no difference in suspects’ race for CED deployment.

17. Categorical variables are generally divided into two distinct types. What are the two types?

A. categorical and discrete

B. nominal and ordinal

C. nominal and categorical

D. interval and ratio

18. Continuous variables are generally divided into two types. What are the two types?

A. categorical and discrete

B. nominal and ordinal

C. nominal and categorical

D. interval and ratio

19. The General Social Survey (GSS) is one of the most important sociological questionnaires proctored. The GSS is conducted by which organization?

A. The RAND Corporation

B. The Virgin Corporation

C. The ICPSR

D. The National Opinion Research Center (NORC)

20. Which large-scale survey is available only in the English language?

A. The General Social Survey (GSS)

B. The Police-Public Contact Survey (PPCS)

C. The Minnesota Multiphasic Police Interview (MMPI)

D. The National Police Survey (NPS)

21. The difference between the ratio level and interval level of measurement is which of the following?

A. Ratio-level scales have meaningful zero points that represent the absence of a given characteristic, but interval-level scales do not.

B. Ratio-level scales are quantitative while interval-level scales are qualitative.

C. The ratio-level has equal and know distances between adjacent points while interval level does not.

D. Interval-level scales have a true zero point, but ratio-level scales do not.

22. What were the units of analysis for the Hart and Meithe (2009) study on self-defensive gun use?

A. guns

B. victims

C. criminal incidents

D. self-defense

23. What were the units of analysis for the Kleck and Kovandzic (2009) study on the choice to keep a firearm in the home and local levels of crime and police strength?

A. individuals and cities

B. firearms and local levels of crime

C. police strength and firearms

D. homes and local levels of crime

24. What two variables are often used interchangeably in the “real world” of statistical analysis?

A. ratio and interval

B. ordinal and interval

C. categorical and ordinal

D. interval and ratio

25. Which kind of variable is a quantitative measurement of the presence or absence of a certain characteristic in a group of people or objects?

A. nominal variable

B. continuous variable

C. categorical variable

D. ordinal variable

26. Which of the following is the lowest level of measurement?

A. nominal variable

B. ordinal variable

C. interval variable

D. ratio variable

27. The Centigrade and Fahrenheit temperature scales would be considered which of the following levels of measurement?

A. nominal variable

B. ordinal variable

C. interval variable

D. ratio variable

28. Which of the following is the level of measurement of the variable gender?

A. nominal variable

B. ordinal variable

C. interval variable

D. ratio variable

29. Which of the following is the level of measurement of the variable number of times arrested?

A. nominal variable

B. ordinal variable

C. interval variable

D. ratio variable

30. It is possible for a researcher to take continuous data and generate ______ data.

A. fake data

B. categorical data

C. focus group data

D. none of these

31. A ______ is a variable that takes on only one value in a sample or population and is often used by researchers examining multiple variables to determine more nuanced statistical associations.

A. dependent variable

B. auxiliary variable

C. constant

D. mediating variable

32. The ______ is essentially the object of target of a research project.

A. research question

B. unit of analysis

C. hypothesis

D. none of these

33. ______ is an example of a unit of analysis/

A. People

B. Cities

C. Newspaper articles

D. All of these

34. The frequently hardest to overcome element when trying to establish a cause and effect.

A. temporal order

B. empirical relationship

C. nonspurious

D. none of these

35. Which of the following is the most rudimentary level of measurement?

A. nominal

B. ordinal

C. interval

D. ratio

1. A unit of analysis is defined as the target or object under study.

2. The empirical event a researcher is trying to explain is known as the independent variable in a research study.

3. In research methods, the terms independent variable and dependent variable are synonymous with cause and effect.

4. The exclusion of one or more important variables in a research study is referred to as omitted variable bias.

5. A characteristic that takes on multiple values in a sample or population is defined as a variable.

6. Statistical analyses are scientific examinations of aggregate trends.

7. An independent variable is better understood as an outcome rather than an effect.

8. It is vital in statistics to acknowledge the fact that all statistical relationships and associations are causal in nature.

9. Categorical data are measured using numbers that have equal intervals between adjacent points on a scale.

10. If the variable monthly income were to be measured as number of dollars earned in 1 month, then this variable would be ratio level.

11. Ordinal variables are important and useful in research because high powered statistical analyses and algebraic functions can readily be applied to them.

12. The General Social Survey (GSS) has been conducted annually or every 2 years since 1972.

13. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) gathers national data on a variety of criminal justice agencies, institutions, and issues.

14. Continuous variables can be added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided, whereas categorical variables cannot.

15. When selecting which type of data to use, it is wise to select the lowest level possible as that would be the easiest to manipulate numerically.

16. Continuous variables can be made into categorical variables.

17. Categorical variables can be made into continuous variables.

18. An omitted variable is an independent variable that is significantly related to a dependent variable but has erroneously been excluded from a statistical analysis.

19. A variable such as race would be considered an interval level of measurement by a researcher.

20. The Police–Public Contact Survey is conducted by the U.S. Census.

1. Describe the different levels of measurement.

2. Why is it important to correctly identify a particular variable’s level of measurement before proceeding with any type of statistical analysis?

3. Define the term unit of analysis. In criminal justice and criminology research, what is often the unit of analysis?

4. Explain why it is possible to generate categorical variables from continuous data but not possible to obtain continuous data from categorical variables.

5. Briefly explain why it is easier to scientifically and mathematically analyze continuous data and not so easy a task to examine categorical data.