Question 1

What is it that interviewers seek when asking a respondent for his or her life history?

Accepted Answer

When asking for a respondent's life history, interviewers are typically seeking a chronological account of the person's experiences and milestones. This can include important events, relationships, and career achievements. While biographical information on the maternal side, detailed accounts of early childhood memories, and a genealogical map of family ancestry may be interesting and informative, they are not usually the primary focus of a life history interview.

Question 2

Why do social scientists who use interviews rarely speak with large numbers of people for a project?

Accepted Answer

Face-to-face interviewing is a very time-consuming process, and therefore, social scientists who use interviews rarely speak with large numbers of people for a project.

Question 3

After researchers conduct a series of interviews,they usually transcribe the responses.The transcription process is fairly time-consuming,but it is valuable in part because it allows researchers to:

Accepted Answer

Transcribing responses allows researchers to have a written record of their interviews, which they can then analyze for patterns in the data. This can help them draw conclusions and make informed decisions based on the information gathered.

Answer: B 
 Transcribing responses can help researchers check for bias in their own questioning. By having a written record of what was asked and how it was asked, researchers can identify if there were any leading questions or if they unintentionally influenced the responses of the interviewees.

Answer: C 
 While transcribing responses may not directly help researchers think up new questions, it can provide a deeper understanding of the topic being researched and the interviewees' perspectives. From this, researchers may gain insights and formulate new questions for future interviews or research.

Answer: D
 Transcribing responses would not necessarily allow researchers to determine the average age of their interviewees, as they would need to ask this question specifically and record the response during the interview itself.

Question 4

What kind of question usually produces a wide variety of responses by allowing respondents to answer in whatever way seems appropriate to them?

Accepted Answer

Open-ended questions allow for more individualized and varied responses as respondents can answer in their own words and provide more detailed and personalized information compared to closed-ended questions. Double-barreled questions ask multiple questions in one and can lead to confusion and inaccurate responses. Leading questions can influence respondents towards a particular answer.

Question 5

Which of the following is an advantage of using interviews as a research method?

Accepted Answer

Interviews can reveal attitudes and beliefs not accessible by other means, such as surveys or experiments.

Question 6

A research team is curious about the relationship between exercise habits and academic performance among American college students.In order to get their data,the researchers randomly select seventeen colleges by pulling names out of a hat and traveling to campuses,where they stand in prominent public places and ask for volunteers until they have ten people from each campus willing to be interviewed.What is the researchers' target population?

Accepted Answer

The answer of A research team is curious about the...

Question 7

The anthropologist Ruth Behar traveled to San Luis Potosí to learn more about the everyday lives of Mexican women.Instead,she ended up conducting one very long,intensive interview with a woman named Esperanza and took more than a year to collect her interview data.Which DISADVANTAGE of the interview methodology does her research highlight?

Accepted Answer

Ruth Behar's research highlights the disadvantage of time-consuming face-to-face interviews. She spent more than a year collecting her interview data from a single woman, which suggests that this method can be inefficient and require a significant amount of time and resources.

Question 8

Maria is worried about the representativeness of her study.She is conducting interviews,but each one seems to last at least five hours.Given that she only has one month to collect her data,what strategy might she use to increase her sample size?

Accepted Answer

Conducting a focus group would allow Maria to interview multiple participants at once, potentially increasing her sample size without sacrificing the length of each individual interview. Cutting off interviews early or relying solely on written responses may compromise the quality of the data collected, and asking only open-ended questions may not necessarily increase the sample size.

Question 9

Every four years when it is time to elect a new president,we pay much attention to surveys,which we usually call "polls." Even though there are more than 300 million people in the United States,most political pollsters ask about a thousand people who it is they plan to vote for and use that information to predict how the election will turn out.Who is the sample for a presidential poll?

Accepted Answer

The sample for a presidential poll is the 1,000 people who are asked whom they will vote for. This small group is meant to represent the larger population of voters in the United States.

Question 10

Any time a social researcher is going to use sampling,he or she must first identify his or her target population.What is this target population?

Accepted Answer

The target population is the larger group of people about whom the researcher wishes to generalize their findings. This population should be well-defined and specific enough for the researcher to draw meaningful conclusions. It is important to identify this population before selecting a sample to ensure that the sample is representative of the larger group. Option A, B, and C are incorrect because the target population is not necessarily the group whose behavior the researcher wants to change, the group from whom the data will be collected, or the least-studied group.

Question 11

If a researcher has obtained informed consent from all his participants,it means that:

Accepted Answer

Informed consent means that the participants have been fully informed about the nature of the study, what will be asked of them, and any potential risks or benefits. It does not necessarily involve monetary compensation, confidentiality is a separate issue that may also be addressed in the consent process, and reading prior literature is not a requirement for giving informed consent.

Question 12

When survey researchers write closed-ended questions,they often use Likert scales to construct the possible answers.How do Likert scales allow respondents to answer?

Accepted Answer

Likert scales allow respondents to answer along a continuum, typically ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree". This provides a range of responses that allows for more nuance and granularity in the data collected.

Question 13

A closed-ended question is one that:

Accepted Answer

A closed-ended question is designed to limit the possible responses and typically results in a short or specific answer. The other options, such as allowing for a wide variety of responses or encouraging creative answers, are characteristics of open-ended questions. The option about being answered orally is not relevant to whether a question is closed-ended or not.

Question 14

Some researchers suggest that interviews give "voice" to people who may never have been heard before and offer privileged access to authentic experience,private worlds,and true selves.How do interviews do this?

Accepted Answer

Interviews allow respondents to speak in their own words, which can reveal their thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, providing access to their internal states that may not be accessible by any other means. This gives voice to people who may not have had the opportunity to share their experiences before.

Question 15

In her research for The Second Shift,Arlie Hochschild interviewed married couples to find out how they dealt with changing family roles as more women entered the workforce.What advantages came from her decision to use interviews as a research method?

Accepted Answer

Using interviews as a research method allowed Arlie Hochschild to gather direct quotations and construct an intimate portrait of married couples, giving her a deeper understanding of how they dealt with changing family roles.

Question 16

Arlie Hochschild was concerned that her sample of interviewees was too small to guarantee representativeness.How did Hochschild attempt to overcome this problem?

Accepted Answer

Hochschild attempted to overcome the problem of a small sample size by comparing information about her interviewees with a national survey, which suggests that she was trying to establish the generalizability of her findings beyond her small sample. Option A is incorrect as it suggests that Hochschild simply ignored the issue of representativeness, which is unlikely given her concern about sample size. Option B is incorrect as asking open-ended questions would not address the issue of a small sample size, although it might generate more detailed information from the interviewees. Option C is incorrect as follow-up interviews would not guarantee representativeness unless the initial sample was representative in the first place.

Question 17

Imagine that you are trying to rewrite a survey.You find a multiple-choice question that asks,"What is your favorite recreational activity?" and gives three response options: watching television,shopping,or sports.You add a fourth response option,"other," and invite respondents to write an activity of their choice.What kind of question have you just made?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Imagine that you are trying to rewrite...

Question 18

Researchers are often worried that interviewees have not been completely honest or forthcoming,especially when asked about sensitive subjects.How did Arlie Hochschild attempt to deal with this problem?

Accepted Answer

Arlie Hochschild attempted to deal with the problem of interviewees not being completely honest or forthcoming by observing some respondents as they went about their daily routines to see if their actions matched their answers. This allowed her to verify the accuracy of the information provided in the interviews. Options A and D are not recommended as they may intimidate or deceive the respondents, leading to incomplete or inaccurate data. Option B, interviewing each spouse separately, may be helpful but is not specifically mentioned as a method used by Hochschild.

Question 19

A professor has been commissioned by a college to do research on its new academic system.The college has moved from a semester system to block scheduling.He asks,"How have teachers and students responded to the new intensive block scheduling system?" This is an example of:

Accepted Answer

This is a double-barreled question because it is trying to address two different groups, teachers and students, and is asking them to respond to the same question about the new academic system. It would be better to ask separate questions for each group to get more specific and accurate answers.

Question 20

Researchers should try to avoid double-barreled questions,or questions that:

Accepted Answer

Double-barreled questions make it difficult for respondents to provide a clear and accurate response. By asking about multiple issues, the researcher may not be able to isolate the specific factors that influence the respondent's perceptions or attitudes. Therefore, it is best to avoid this type of question and instead ask separate questions for each issue.

Quiz 2: Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods