Deck 3: Section 1: General Issues in Research Design

Question 1

When scientists consider whether causal statements are true or false, they are concerned with the validity of causal inference.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Ecological fallacy refers to the dangers of making assertions about large groups as the units of analysis based upon examination of individuals.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The scientific criteria for causality include ____.

A) a correlation between the cause and the effect
B) the effect preceding the cause in time
C) the effect being caused by some third variable
D) a cause that is not probabilistic

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Cross-sectional studies are those based on observations made at one time.

Question 5

Suppose a researcher describes the age, race, and gender distributions for people who are charged with shoplifting. The unit of analysis is ____.

A) individuals
B) demographic groups
C) arrest records
D) stores at which shoplifting occurs

Question 6

The pillars of science are logic and rationality.

Question 7

Explanatory scientific research centers on the notion of cause and effect.

Question 8

When we say something is valid, we make a judgment about the extent to which relevant evidence supports that inference as being ____.

A) reliable
B) probable
C) true or correct
D) interesting

Question 9

Scientific realism bridges idiographic and nomothetic approaches to explanation by seeking to understand how causal mechanisms operate in specific contexts..

Question 10

Longitudinal studies are designed to permit intensive observations over a short period of time.

Question 11

Suppose a researcher wants to understand why some stores have higher rates of shoplifting than do others and looks at the relationship between rates of shoplifting for particular stores and the characteristics of the stores

A) individuals
B) demographic groups
C) arrest records
D) stores at which shoplifting occurs
E)g., what is sold there, the type of neighborhood, staffing levels, etc.). In this case, the unit of analysis is ____.

Question 12

Most explanatory social research uses a probabilistic model of causation.

Question 13

When saying validity is "the approximate truth of an inference," the emphasis is on ____.

A) truth
B) approximate
C) inference
D) validity

Question 14

A researcher is interested in how criminality is related to age and a large number of individuals of different ages at one point in time. This is a ____ study.

A) trend
B) cohort
C) panel
D) cross-sectional

Question 15

Traditional approaches to finding cause and effect usually try to isolate causal mechanisms from other possible influences while the scientific realist approach views these other possible influences as ____.

A) deviations
B) causal mechanisms
C) contexts
D) true causes

Question 16

Individuals may be units of analysis in criminal justice research.

Question 17

The two essentials of science are ____.

A) correlation and causality
B) induction and deduction
C) idiographics and nomothetics
D) logic and observation

Question 18

A scientific realist approach to examining mechanisms in context bridges ____.

A) dependent and independent variables
B) idiographic and nomothetic approaches to causation
C) truth and reality
D) sample and population differences

Question 19

A researcher using social artifacts as the unit of analysis might be studying ____.

A) newspaper editorials
B) probation officers
C) students
D) professors

Question 20

In grounded theory, observations rarely contribute to theory development.

Question 21

In an examination of violent crime among the most populous nations in the world, the United States ranks very high along with England, France, and Australia. The chance of being raped is higher in France than in the United States. What units of analysis are being used?

A) individuals
B) organizations
C) social artifacts
D) groups

Question 22

A researcher studying rates of psychiatric disorders among inmates as a function of institutional security level finds that the highest-security prisons have the highest rates of psychiatric disorders. The unit of analysis is ____.

A) individuals
B) organizations
C) social artifacts
D) groups

Question 23

What type of research is characterized by the direct observation of events as they actually occur?

A) field
B) grounded
C) cohort
D) idiographic

Question 24

Which type of study would serve as a "snapshot" of a phenomenon at a single point in time?

A) panel study
B) cross-sectional study
C) cohort study
D) trend study

Question 25

A study of violence in children's programming requires counting the number of violent acts in Saturday morning cartoons for an entire year. The unit of analysis being used for this project is the ____.

A) social artifact
B) individual
C) group
D) organization

Question 26

Which pair refers to whether an explanation seeks to explain a particular event or a class of events?

A) idiographic and nomothetic
B) inductive and deductive
C) quantitative and qualitative
D) social and cultural

Question 27

Units of analysis are typically also the units of ____.

A) observation
B) inference
C) interaction
D) deduction

Question 28

What unit of analysis is being used in the following statement? "An enormous variation of deviant activities was represented in a sample of 1,485 news items. We categorized these deviant activities into five general types of analysis: violence, economic, political, ideological/cultural and diversionary."

A) individuals
B) social artifacts
C) organizations
D) groups

Question 29

Which unit of analysis is a social artifact?

A) citizen attitudes about the death penalty
B) editorials in the New York Times
C) cities with over 250,000 inhabitants
D) months of the year

Question 30

Which type of study attempts to account for errors in drawing a sample by measuring the same people on two or more occasions?

A) cohort study
B) panel study
C) trend study
D) cross-sectional study

Question 31

If a cross-sectional study can be likened to a "snapshot," and a trend study to a "slide show," then which study is most like a "motion picture?"

A) trend study
B) retrospective study
C) prospective study
D) panel study

Question 32

Marvin Wolfgang's study of males born in Philadelphia in 1945 was an attempt to measure delinquency by following those males from their 10^th birthday until they were 18. This is an example of what type of study?

A) cohort study
B) panel study
C) trend study
D) cross-sectional study

Question 33

A major Midwestern university does annual surveys of its alumni. These surveys are designed to gauge the attitudes that alumni hold about the university, its academic programs, and the major team sports. These surveys have been an annual event for the last two decades and represent which type of study?

A) cohort study
B) panel study
C) trend study
D) cross-sectional study

Question 34

Which study design would allow a researcher to measure change in a general population over time?

A) trend study
B) cohort study
C) panel study
D) cross-sectional study

Question 35

The relationship between attributes and variables lies at the heart of ____.

A) both science and mathematics
B) publishing your outcomes
C) units of analysis
D) both description and explanation in science

Question 36

A researcher studies community-level arson rates in relation to economic indicators such as household income, poverty, and unemployment. The researcher finds that communities with higher arson rates have higher poverty and unemployment rates and lower household income. The researcher concluded that unemployed people are more likely to commit arson than are those who are employed. What error was just committed?

A) the ecological fallacy
B) reductionism
C) using the wrong time dimension
D) an internal validity threat

Question 37

Data analysis looks for patterns in what is ____.

A) proved
B) observed
C) hypothesized
D) assumed

Question 38

After reading current research on the causes of juvenile crime and noting that lack of opportunity, school failure, and parental neglect are often prominently mentioned, you have trouble reconciling what you read with what your personal experience. You think in particular of someone you went to high school with who, despite coming from a well-educated, wealthy family, being a star student and athlete, and having very attentive parents, carried out a series of burglaries and arsons. This illustrates the ____ fallacy.

A) individualistic
B) ecological
C) observational
D) personal

Question 39

The ____ is a panel study.

A) National Incident-based Reporting System
B) U.S. Census
C) National Crime Victimization Survey
D) Uniform Crime Reports

Question 40

A survey distributed on a college campus discovered that males support the death penalty in greater numbers than do females. The units of analysis in this case would be ____.

A) social artifacts
B) groups
C) organizations
D) individuals

Question 41

Define cohort, panel and cross-sectional study. Give an example of each.

Question 42

Scientists assess the truth of statements about cause by considering threats to ________________.

Question 43

Give a hypothetical situation that would lend itself to a cross-sectional study. What would be the research purpose in your hypothetical? Why would your example not lend itself to a longitudinal approach?

Question 44

_______________ reasoning moves from the specific to the general, from a set of particular observations to the discovery of a pattern that represents some degree of order among the varied events under examination.

Question 45

Research that asks people to recall their pasts is called _______________ research.

Question 46

Explain in detail using an example of the way in which the ecological fallacy is the result of errors with units of analysis.

Question 47

An) _______________ is a structure that is intended to represent or model something about the world.

Question 48

Types of longitudinal studies include trend, panel, and _______________ studies.

Question 49

When someone tries to come to conclusions about an individual based on group-level data, the _______________ is being committed.

Question 50

Explain the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning. Give an example of each from the criminal justice literature.

Question 51

According to your text, causation, units of analysis, and _______________ are key considerations in planning a research study.

Question 52

Theories describe _______________ that might logically be expected among variables.

Question 53

The two pillars of science are logic and _______________.

Question 54

In _______________ studies, data are gathered at a single point in time.