Deck 1: The Importance of Statistics in the Criminological Sciences or Why Do I Have to Learn This Stuff

Question 1

The question "How many homicides were committed in the year 2020" is an example of what type of research?

A) explanatory
B) descriptive
C) inferential
D) evaluation

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which type of research seeks to identify causes and effects of social phenomena?

A) descriptive
B) explanatory
C) evaluation
D) case study

Answer 2

B

Question 3

What type of variable is expected to change or vary depending on the value of another variable?

A) independent variable
B) dependent variable
C) change variable
D) altered variable

Answer 3

B

Question 4

What type of variable is expected to cause or change another variable?

A) independent variable
B) dependent variable
C) change variable
D) altered variable

Question 5

A researcher is analyzing how one's fear of crime changes based upon one's gender, race, and age. Which would be the dependent variable?

A) gender
B) race
C) age
D) fear of crime

Question 6

The hallmark of a true experimental design is ______.

A) forced assignment into groups
B) a researcher's subjective determination of who is assigned to groups
C) random assignment to groups
D) respondent selection into a group

Question 7

A ______ is a smaller group of data that is selected from a population.

A) micro-group
B) sample
C) sub-sample
D) sampling error

Question 8

Generalizability is the extent that the sample ______.

A) produces similar results to other studies
B) is similar to other samples
C) produces information that can inform the population it was taken from
D) is representative of a general sample found in the field of study

Question 9

What is considered to be the fundamental aspect of probability sampling?

A) populations
B) samples
C) unbiased selection
D) random selection

Question 10

If you wanted to select a sample by generating random numbers to select cases from the population, which type of sampling would you use?

A) simple random sample
B) systematic random sample
C) multistage cluster sample
D) stratified sample

Question 11

Which type of sampling technique allows the researcher to select subjects based solely on convenience?

A) simple random sample
B) quota sample
C) availability sample
D) purposive sample

Question 12

What type of sampling technique has respondent provide other participants for inclusion in the study?

A) inter-personal sampling
B) snowball sampling
C) trade-off sampling
D) multistage sampling

Question 13

The smaller the sampling error, the ______ representative the sample is of the population.

A) less
B) more
C) same
D) better

Question 14

If a question a researcher is asking in a survey does not actually measure what they intended to, what is this question lacking?

A) reliability
B) internal validity
C) measurement validity
D) survey validity

Question 15

What is considered to be the first concern in establishing confidence in research results?

A) causal validity
B) measurement validity
C) internal validity
D) external validity

Question 16

If a question in a survey is able to consistently capture a phenomenon as long as that phenomenon is not changing, the question is said to be ______.

A) valid
B) reliable
C) true
D) accurate

Question 17

Random assignment is the best way to make causal statements that one variable affects another?

Question 18

When a researcher seeks to identify the cause and effect of a social phenomenon, they are participating in evaluation research.

Question 19

Evaluation research tests theory whereas explanatory research is used to determine whether an implemented program or policy had the intended outcomes.

Question 20

Nonprobability sampling methods allow us to know in advance the likelihood that any element will be selected from the population.

Question 21

When a researcher seeks to identify the cause and effect of a social phenomenon, they are participating in evaluation research.

Question 22

When a researcher seeks to identify the cause and effect of a social phenomenon, they are participating in explanatory research.

Question 23

Name and discuss the different probability sampling techniques?

Question 24

Explain the difference between reliability and validity. Use your explained difference to discuss how these two components can be used in assessing the question "How many drugs do you use?"