Deck 6: Causation and Research Design

Question 1

Dr. Harrison finds that violent criminals are poor and live in cities. He concludes that poverty and urban residence cause violent crime. This conclusion ______.

A) is valid on its face as a causal conclusion
B) violates the principle that correlation does not prove causation
C) violates the requirement that a cause be associated with its effect
D) is valid based on time order of the independent and dependent variables

Answer 1

B

Question 2

All of the following are accurate statements about idiographic and nomothetic explanations EXCEPT ______.

A) both explanations are used in social science research
B) both explanations can involve counterfactuals
C) both explanations involve probabilistic relationships
D) an idiographic explanation is deterministic

Answer 2

C

Question 3

A researcher is interested in the effect of police on crime. She records the size of the police force and the crime rate of 100 communities selected using a quota sampling design. After analyzing the data obtained, she concludes that the size of the police force causes a decrease in the crime rate. This illustrates a(n) ______ approach to establishing causal relations.

A) random
B) experimental
C) longitudinal
D) nonexperimental

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Two studies test a hypothesis about the association between crime and drug use. Study A uses a cross-sectional survey design to test the hypothesis that crime increases drug use. Adults are surveyed and asked about their levels of drug use and criminal behavior. Study B uses a cross-sectional survey design to test the hypothesis that juvenile delinquency causes drug use. Adults are surveyed about their delinquent behaviors in adolescence and whether they are currently using drugs. With respect to the two studies, which of the following is correct?

A) Study A does a better job of meeting criteria for establishing causality between variables.
B) Neither A nor B does a better job of meeting the criteria for establishing time order.
C) Study A is preferable to study B in terms of the criterion of association only.
D) Study B does a better job of meeting criteria for establishing causality between variables.

Question 5

Sampson found that the relationship between rates of family disruption and violent crimes among cities held true for cities with similar levels of joblessness. This shows which of the following?

A) The association between rates of family disruption and violent crime is nonspurious.
B) A causal relationship between family disruption and violence is not possible.
C) The effect of family disruption on violent crime is conditional on the level of joblessness.
D) The rate of joblessness did not cause the association between family disruption and violent crimes.

Question 6

In nonexperimental designs, statistical controls are used to ______.

A) reduce spuriousness
B) identify extraneous variables
C) eliminate irrelevant variables
D) identify intervening variables

Question 7

An experimental study has found that alcoholics who attend peer group meetings are more successful in reducing their consumption of alcoholic beverages than alcoholics who do not attend such meetings. However, the researchers are struggling to determine the precise connection between the two and suggest that it could be due to the social support itself, the sharing of technical information, or the time taken up by the meetings. This suggestion reflects a concern with ______.

A) causal mechanisms
B) association
C) faulty randomization
D) time order

Question 8

Research is reported showing that people who abuse substances are more likely to physically abuse their spouses than those who do not abuse substances. Further investigation reveals that substance abuse leads to less consideration for the abuser's spouse, which in turn leads to more physical abuse. In this instance, consideration for the abuser's spouse is ______.

A) an extraneous variable that creates a spurious relationship between substance abuse and spouse abuse
B) an intervening variable that makes up the causal mechanism connecting substance abuse and spouse abuse
C) the variable that conceptualizes this causal process leading from substance abuse to spouse abuse
D) irrelevant to the establishment of a causal connection between substance abuse and spouse abuse

Question 9

Compare the following two causal models: (A) Homelessness results in high levels of drug use, which in turn increase criminal behavior. (B) Drug use results in a greater likelihood of homelessness and in more criminal behaviors. When drug use is statistically controlled, the relation between homelessness and criminal behavior disappears. What is the causal role of drug use in models A and B?

A) intervening in A, extraneous in B
B) extraneous in A, intervening in B
C) no causal role in either A or B
D) extraneous in both

Question 10

Statistical controls allow researchers to reduce the risk of spurious attributions of causality in nonexperimental research. The value of this for establishing causality is ______.

A) weakened due to the inability to meet the criterion of time order in nonexperimental research
B) weakened due to the inability to meet the criterion of association
C) weakened due to the inability to control for all extraneous variables
D) stronger than the value of random assignment for establishing causality in experimental research

Question 11

Nonexperimental tests of causal hypotheses will continue to be popular because ______.

A) they give the same results as experimental tests, so cost is the more relevant concern
B) there are practical and ethical problems in randomly assigning people in experiments
C) they have to be conducted only once, while experimental studies must be repeated many times
D) they result in findings that are more likely to be causally valid than experimental tests

Question 12

Many researchers draw conclusions about causality with data that are collected at a single point in time. Determining that the cause came before the effect is uncertain with such data. Which of the following circumstances does not allow us to determine that the cause came before the effect?

A) The independent variable is fixed at some point prior to the variation in the dependent variable.
B) Reliability of the variables is established by having different interviewers question the respondent.
C) It can be established that the respondents' retrospective accounts are reliable.
D) The measures are based on records that contain information on cases in earlier time periods.

Question 13

A researcher collects data on the same group of children at age 5 and age 15. This is an example of which research design?

A) cross-sectional
B) true experiment
C) longitudinal
D) random

Question 14

In a repeated cross-sectional design, when the population is not changing, data are collected at two or more points in time from which of the following?

A) the same individuals from the same population
B) individuals in a population that is defined by a common starting point
C) different samples of the same population
D) different individuals in different populations

Question 15

Which of the following is an accurate statement about nonexperimental designs and testing a causal relationship?

A) Cross-sectional design is preferable over a repeated cross-sectional design.
B) Repeated cross-sectional design is preferable over a cross-sectional design.
C) There is no difference in the ability of either to test a causal relationship.
D) Nonexperimental designs are preferable to experimental designs.

Question 16

A study is conducted to test whether individuals who lived in New York City in September 2001 have more mental health problems than a comparison group in 2011 and 2021. This is an example of a(n) ______.

A) cross-sectional design
B) repeated cross-sectional design
C) event-based design
D) fixed-sample panel design

Question 17

A researcher is conducting a study examining gambling among high school students in the United States. The unit of analysis is ______.

A) countries
B) high schools
C) students
D) casinos

Question 18

True experiments are by design ______.

A) cross-sectional
B) longitudinal
C) neither cross-sectional nor longitudinal
D) noncausal

Question 19

The counterfactual is a useful concept in experimental research because it designates the ______.

A) control group actually used in an experiment or quasi-experiment
B) outcome that occurred for experimental subjects after the fact of treatment
C) outcome that occurred for the control group after the fact of treatment
D) ideal comparison group to which actual comparison groups can be contrasted

Question 20

Which of the following is NOT a requirement of a true experiment?

A) random assignment
B) experimental group
C) assessment of change in the dependent variable
D) deception

Question 21

A researcher surveys correctional officers once about their attitudes toward the death penalty. This is an example of which type of research design?

A) cross-sectional
B) trend
C) fixed-sample panels
D) longitudinal

Question 22

Ceteris paribus is a concept related to ______.

A) anchors
B) subject fatigue
C) nomothetic explanation
D) idiographic explanation

Question 23

Which of the following research designs is used during election time to track support of candidates?

A) cross-sectional
B) repeated cross-sectional
C) fixed-sample panel
D) event-based

Question 24

Which research design would you use to answer this question: Are prisons more likely to have drug treatment programs available now than in the 1950s?

A) cross-sectional
B) repeated cross-sectional
C) fixed-sample panel
D) event-based

Question 25

A person reads a study that finds police agencies in the South are more likely to have excessive force complaints filed against them. From this study, the person concludes that Southern police officers are more likely to use excessive force. This is an example of ______.

A) a nomothetic explanation
B) an idiographic explanation
C) reductionism
D) an ecological fallacy

Question 26

If a researcher's claim that the likelihood of recidivating is higher for ex-offenders who are unable to find legitimate employment, that would be a(n) ______.

A) nomothetic explanation
B) idiographic explanation
C) spurious statement
D) intervening variable

Question 27

In an explaining a female offender's drug addiction, a researcher constructs a narrative that includes how abuse as a child led the offender to self-medicate. This is an example of a(n) ______.

A) nomothetic explanation
B) idiographic explanation
C) quantitative explanation
D) spurious statement

Question 28

Which of the following are important, but not necessary, to establishing a causal relationship?

A) mechanism and time order
B) context and time order
C) mechanism and context
D) context and association

Question 29

A researcher is studying the causal relationship between drug use and crime. However, she is unable to determine which variable predates the other. This is an issue of ______.

A) empirical association
B) time order
C) mechanism
D) nonspuriousness

Question 30

A student reads a study that finds that female students are more likely to cheat on exams than male students. From this, he concludes that women's colleges will have high levels of cheating. This is an example of ______.

A) a nomothetic explanation
B) an idiographic explanation
C) reductionism
D) an ecological fallacy

Question 31

In a longitudinal study of the homeless, a researcher has difficulty locating her respondents so that she can collect new data from them. Over time, his sample decreases from 50 to 33. This is an issue of ______.

A) subject recall
B) time order
C) association
D) subject attrition

Question 32

When conducting an event-based study, follow-up samples must be selected from similar groups, known as ______.

A) cohorts
B) anchors
C) divisions
D) troops

Question 33

The features of true experiments meet all of the causal criteria EXCEPT ______.

A) association
B) time order
C) mechanism
D) nonspurious

Question 34

In an experiment, a researcher is trying to improve subject recall by using important milestones in the subjects' lives, for example, graduation of high school, start of a new job, and birth of a child. These events are examples of ______.

A) constants
B) intervening variables
C) anchors life
D) extraneous variables

Question 35

In order for a causal relationship to exist, the ______ variable must cause the change in the ______ variable.

A) independent; dependent
B) dependent; independent
C) constant; independent
D) dependent; constant

Question 36

Idiographic explanations often focus on which of the following factors?

A) social actors
B) social places
C) social times
D) all of these

Question 37

Elijah Anderson's field research in poor urban communities demonstrating the intersection of drug addiction, residential instability, and crime is an example of which of the following explanations?

A) nomothetic
B) idiographic
C) atheoretical
D) legal

Question 38

______ refers to a linkage between an independent variable and a dependent variable.

A) Qualitative
B) Artifact
C) Association
D) none of these

Question 39

______ is established by demonstrating that the cause precedes the effect.

A) Empiricism
B) Causal order
C) Spuriousness
D) Nonlinearity

Question 40

Which of the following concepts would serve as an explanation as to why a third variable (such as prior violent behavior) is responsible for the relationship between watching violent media and crime?

A) implied relationship
B) direct relationship
C) spurious relationship
D) nonspurious relationship

Question 41

Context is unimportant in idiographic explanations.

Question 42

All true experiments have a pretest but not necessarily a posttest.

Question 43

The narrative is the fundamental element of a nomothetic causal explanation.

Question 44

Association is a necessary criterion for establishing a causal effect.

Question 45

An event-based design can be a type of repeated cross-sectional design or a type of panel design.

Question 46

In every experiment, units of analysis and units of observation are always the same.

Question 47

All longitudinal research experiments are true experiments.

Question 48

A researcher is struggling to prove that two variables have a statistical relationship between each other. This is an issue of association.

Question 49

A fixed-sample panel design is better than a repeated cross-sectional design for testing causal hypotheses.

Question 50

A cross-sectional design to study the youthful activities of current adults may be biased by memory lapses.

Question 51

Extraneous and intervening variables refer to the same relationship; as such, the terms can be used interchangeably.

Question 52

A true experiment can have nonrandom assignment to the experimental group.

Question 53

In a true experiment, both the experimental group and the control group receive the intervention.

Question 54

In order to be classified as a longitudinal design, the exact same respondents must be involved in at least two rounds of data collection.

Question 55

According to research, about one fourth of subjects in panel designs are lost to attrition.

Question 56

Establishing time order is necessary and sufficient for establishing a causal relationship.

Question 57

Variable effects that vary across geographical context are considered contextual effects.

Question 58

Random assignment results in unequivalent experimental and control groups.

Question 59

In a true experiment, the outcomes are measured in a posttest.

Question 60

Control over conditions is more feasible in nonexperimental designs.

Question 61

Causal mechanisms are seen by some experts as an essential part of causal explanations, but others argue that it is not a criterion for causality. Defend one side of this debate. Illustrate your argument with a hypothetical causal effect that is (or is not) strengthened by identification of a causal mechanism.

Question 62

A politician campaigns on a platform of eliminating parole. One ad used by the politician says, "The early release of prison inmates leads to a higher crime rate. Inmates who are released early are not sufficiently punished and will, on average, recidivate more than inmates who are not released early." Construct a plausible alternative explanation for recidivism that does not involve an effect of early release on recidivism, but which does allow for their association.

Question 63

Propose a cross-sectional research design.

Question 64

Propose a nonexperimental research designs to study the relation between attendance at boot camp and recidivism among criminals.

Question 65

Subject attrition and fatigue are issues in longitudinal studies. How can a researcher prepare for and overcome them?

Question 66

You have been asked by a warden to conduct a study in which you examine if as a result of their participation in a dog training program, inmates are better behaved as compared with nonparticipants. How would you go about designing a true experiment and ensuring that you can offer a causal explanation?

Question 67

Provide an example of an explanation of white-collar crime.

Question 68

Why is it so difficult to conduct true experiments in the social sciences?

Question 69

Explain the term ecological fallacy.

Question 70

What impediments exist to establishing causality in nonexperimental designs?

Question 71

Describe a research question where a spuriousness could serve as an explanation for the observed relationship between an independent and dependent variable.

Question 72

Design a true experiment to examine a criminal justice research question.

Question 73

Describe a study using individuals as the unit of analysis in criminal justice research.

Question 74

Describe a study using groups as the units of analysis in criminal justice research.