Deck 9: Nonexperimental Research: Descriptive and Correlational Methods

Question 1

What would a correlation of .35 be called?

A) moderate
B) weak
C) very strong
D) very weak

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What type of research tool can be either informal or highly structured?

A) interview
B) survey
C) descriptive
D) historical

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which is the weakest correlation?

A) + 0.76
B) + 0.21
C) - 0.01
D) - 0.88

Answer 3

C

Question 4

If your research does NOT include a treatment or control group, what type of research are you conducting?

A) experimental research
B) causal-comparative research
C) descriptive research
D) quasi-experimental research

Question 5

What are unstructured questions also known as?

A) closed-ended questions
B) difficult questions
C) interview questions
D) open-ended questions

Question 6

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of interviews?

A) You may obtain additional helpful information from the interviewee's nonverbal behavior or the environment.
B) They are relatively inexpensive as they do not require much time.
C) You can use rapport to help put the interviewee at ease.
D) You can schedule the interviews at times that are convenient to you.

Question 7

Samantha wanted to investigate the relationship between the amount of time her students engaged in outside leisure reading and their participation in class discussions. Her study would study be classified as _________________.

A) longitudinal
B) historical
C) cross-sectional
D) correlational

Question 8

If you are trying to describe current events, what type of research are you conducting?

A) historical research
B) descriptive research
C) experimental research
D) correlational research

Question 9

What is the basic tool of survey research?

A) case study
B) observation
C) interview
D) log or journal

Question 10

Which of the following is an example of a closed-ended interview question?

A) Why did you vote for Gerald Ford?
B) Did you vote for Gerald Ford?
C) What were the reasons for your decision?
D) What were the strengths of Gerald Ford's presidency?

Question 11

What is the third step of developing an interview?

A) selecting a sample
B) developing the questions
C) training the interviewers
D) stating the purpose of the interview

Question 12

Which interview question is open-ended?

A) Do you smoke?
B) Are you married?
C) How old are you?
D) How do you feel about tests?

Question 13

Which of the following is the potential weakness of survey interviewing?

A) interviewer bias
B) minimal sample size
C) only one contact is made with subjects
D) generalizability with large samples

Question 14

Which correlation coefficient indicates the strongest relationship?

A) 0.00
B) +0.50
C) -0.70
D) +0.60

Question 15

When conducting an interview, what should you be careful NOT to do?

A) begin the interview cold
B) be direct
C) dress appropriately
D) use a tape recorder

Question 16

Which technique establishes validity in survey research?

A) choosing large sample sizes
B) interviewing respondents twice
C) using the proper statistical tests
D) peer interview

Question 17

Which of the following is NOT a type of survey research?

A) interview
B) observation
C) focus groups or panels
D) questionnaires

Question 18

What is the second step in developing an interview?

A) state the purpose of the interview
B) select an appropriate sample
C) develop questions
D) train the interviewers

Question 19

Which of the following statements regarding correlational research is false?

A) Correlational research describes the linear relationship between two or more variables.
B) Correlational research is a very effective means of establishing causal relationships.
C) Correlational research is a type of descriptive research.
D) Correlational research can help to "paint a broad picture" of the current state of some phenomenon.

Question 20

What is the best way to begin an interview?

A) Be direct.
B) Use a tape-recorder.
C) Warm-up with some general conversation.
D) Make the interviewee feel like an important part of the project.

Question 21

The coefficient of alienation describes the:

A) Neutral information such as age, gender, number of children) about the survey respondent.
B) The amount of variance that is accounted for in one variable by the other variable.
C) Most frequently used measure of relationships between variables.
D) The portion of unexplained variance between the tested variables.

Question 22

In a study, the correlation coefficient for W and X is -0.25. The correlation coefficient for X and Y is 0.20. The coefficient of determination for X and Z is 0.16. The coefficient of alienation for Y and Z is 0.90. Which pair of variables has the highest amount of variance accounted for?

A) X and Y
B) X and Z
C) Y and Z
D) W and X

Question 23

What is the difference between a closed-ended and open-ended question?

Question 24

What is the most frequently used measure of relationships?

A) Spearman's rho
B) Pearson product moment
C) Student's t
D) Holmes procedure

Question 25

What are the Ten Commandments of interviewing?

Question 26

Which of the following statements is false?

A) A correlation of .8 may be interpreted as very strong.
B) The higher the correlation is, the larger the "jump" in explained variance.
C) A scattergram is a visual representation of a correlation between two variables.
D) The absolute value of the correlation coefficient is more important than the + or - sign.

Question 27

"At what age did you start smoking?" is an example of:

A) A conventional question.
B) An open-ended question.
C) A structured question.
D) Interviewer bias subtly changing the response.

Question 28

What does the sign + or -) on a correlation mean?

Question 29

What are some advantages of survey research?

Question 30

If you square a correlation coefficient and subtract this number from 1.00, what is the result?

A) the coefficient of alienation
B) the coefficient of determination
C) the amount of variance NOT explained by the variance in each variable
D) both a and c

Question 31

Survey research would be most appropriate for which of the following research questions?

A) the relationship between manual dexterity and typing speed
B) parents' attitudes towards sex education in schools
C) the effectiveness of a weight management program for adolescents
D) the relationship between eye-hand coordination and number of tennis wins

Question 32

Use the information provided in the correlation matrix below to determine which of the following statements is FALSE.

A) The weakest correlation is between Reading and Physical Education.
B) The strongest correlation is between Math and Science
C) The coefficient of determination for Reading and Math is 0.16.
D) The coefficient of alienation for Physical Education and Math is 0.99.

Question 33

Of the following pieces of information, which is NOT needed to compute a correlation coefficient?

A) sample size
B) a pair of scores for two variables) for each subject
C) the level of significance
D) the product of each X score times its corresponding Y score

Question 34

How do you know by looking at the correlation coefficient if there is a strong correlation between one variable and another?

Question 35

Which of the following could be a potential problem in conducting survey research?

A) information is collected over a short period of time
B) producing accurate results
C) getting a broad picture of what is being studied
D) response rate

Question 36

Which of the following shows an example of how a correlation coefficient may be written?

A) R_XR_Y = 0.45
B) rXY = 0.26
C) XY_CC = -0.67
D) r_xy = 0.53

Question 37

Which of the following examples shows a positive or direct correlation?

A) A study showing the correlation between reading scores and physical education scores is -.63.
B) A study showing the correlation between ice cream sales and heat is +.78.
C) The scattergram of pipe smoking and eye color.
D) The coefficient of determination.

Question 38

What is the difference between the coefficient of determination and the coefficient of alienation?

Question 39

What would a correlation of 0.70 be considered?

A) moderate
B) weak
C) strong
D) very strong