Deck 11: Unobtrusive Research

Question 1

Professor Perlman was interested in comparing two textbooks to determine whether one used more sexist language than the other.Perlman counted the number of times a gender reference (ex: "he," "she," "chairman," etc.)appeared in each book.Perlman was doing

A)latent content coding.
B)manifest content coding.
C)quota sampling.
D)the ecological fallacy.
E)base counting.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

In which of the following analyses is content analysis LEAST likely to be useful?

A)themes in newspaper editorials
B)the wording of this exam
C)topics covered in class lectures
D)the theme of love as discussed in song
E)dating patterns among high school seniors

Answer 2

E

Question 3

Which of the following statements is FALSE regarding negative case testing?

A)It can be used as a technique for qualitative hypothesis testing.
B)It begins with an examination of the data to find a general hypothesis.
C)It requires you to search your data to find all the cases that contradict your initial hypothesis.
D)It requires you to reexamine all the cases that led you to form the initial hypothesis.
E)All of these choices are TRUE.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The categories used in content analysis codes should be

A)mutually exclusive.
B)exhaustive.
C)nominal.
D)mutually exclusive and exhaustive.
E)mutually exclusive, exhaustive, and nominal.

Question 5

In comparison to coding the manifest content of communication,coding the latent content

A)has a disadvantage in terms of validity.
B)has an advantage in terms of reliability.
C)is better designed for tapping the underlying meaning of communication.
D)has an advantage in terms of specificity.
E)All of these choices are true statements.

Question 6

Sources of comparative and historical data can include

A) letters.
B) public records.
C) newspaper articles.
D) diaries.
E) all of these choices are correct.

Question 7

Unobtrusive measures can reduce the problem(s)of

A)the researcher's impact on the phenomenon being studied.
B)invalid operationalization of concepts.
C)unreliable measurements.
D)corroboration.
E)the ecological fallacy.

Question 8

A friend of yours is doing a term paper to compare the infant mortality rates in the United States,Japan,Bolivia,and Pakistan.You tell your friend that a good source to check is

A)Common Cause.
B)the Demographic Yearbook.
C)the Statistical Abstract of the United States.
D)the Gallup poll.
E)the Almanac.

Question 9

Which of the following levels of measurement(s)may be employed in content analysis?

A)nominal
B)ratio
C)interval
D)ordinal
E)Any level of measurement may be employed in doing content analysis."?

Question 10

Which of the following modes of observation does NOT require the researcher to intrude to some degree on whatever he or she is studying?

A)experiments
B)survey
C)complete participant observation
D)complete observer
E)participant action research.

Question 11

The adage that you must walk a mile in another person's shoes before judging the person is similar to the sociological concept(s)of

A)verstehen.
B)comparative and historical research.
C)ideal types.
D)the ecological fallacy.
E)content analysis.

Question 12

After examining the FBI Crime Reports for a 30-year period,Professor Hall claimed that the incidence of rape has increased.After examining the same reports,Professor Shine claimed that the reporting of rape,not the incidence of rape,has increased.This illustrates

A)the problem of reliability in using existing statistics.
B)the problem of validity in using existing statistics.
C)the need to replicate existing statistics.
D)the ecological fallacy.
E)pre-testing.

Question 13

A friend of yours was interested in determining whether the news media picked up on campus events.Your friend decided to do a content analysis of the local newspaper.Your friend counted each story that mentioned the university's name.At the end of two months,136 events had been counted.Your friend asked for your comments on his research.You told your friend that he

A)did manifest coding.
B)did latent coding.
C)should have recorded the base.
D)did manifest coding and he should have recorded the base.
E)did latent coding and he should have recorded the base.

Question 14

An example of unobtrusive data collection is

A)an interview with college freshmen to determine why they selected a particular school.
B)a laboratory experiment designed to determine whether people really prefer Pepsi or Coke.
C)a researcher examining files of students who completed college 25 years ago.
D)a researcher who joins a fraternity to understand its rituals.
E)a mailed survey designed to discern students' attitudes toward a planned change in the school's calendar..

Question 15

When studying newspaper articles to determine how often articles are aimed at increasing the fear of crime amongst the elderly between two newspapers,a researcher counted the word "predator" used 50 times in a month,and the word "elderly" 100 times in one newspaper.In the other,it was "predator" 25 times and "elderly" 50 times.What can be concluded from this?

A) the first newspaper creates twice as much fear as the second.
B) the second newspaper is half as likely to try and create fear.
C) the second newspaper was half as long as the first.
D) the words "predator" and "elderly" both appeared twice as often in the first newspaper.
E) both newspapers were generating fear equally.

Question 16

Professor Jenner was interested in using Census Bureau data to examine the trend in unemployment rates in the United States.However,Jenner's definition of unemployment did not match the one used by the Census Bureau.Jenner was dealing with the issue of

A)reliability.
B)validity.
C)the ecological fallacy.
D)ideal types.
E)verstehen.

Question 17

Which of the following is NOT illustrative of unobtrusive observations?

A)examining the floor tiles at a museum to determine which exhibits are the most popular
B)examining the number of beer cans in the university garbage collections to determine beer consumption patterns
C)examining the wear on the tires of squad cars to determine the extent of police patrols
D)examining the amount of dust on library books to determine the popularity of books
E)observing what food people order in an exclusive restaurant.

Question 18

The possibility that patterns of behavior at a group level do not reflect corresponding patterns on an individual level is known as

A)an ecological fallacy.
B)replication.
C)verstehen.
D)unobtrusive measurement.
E)hermeneutics.

Question 19

Coding in content analysis DOES NOT involve

A)conceptualization.
B)operationalization.
C)selecting a level of measurement.
D)the interaction of theoretical concerns and empirical observations.
E)coding in content analysis involves all of these choices.

Question 20

If we wanted to determine whether states that pass clean air legislation (no smoking in public areas)are more likely to enact laws requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets than are states that had not passed clean air legislation,the unit of analysis would be

A)the individual states.
B)the individual acts of legislation.
C)the passage or nonpassage of the clean air legislation.
D)laws that influence motorcyclists and auto drivers.
E)any law relating to both clean air legislation AND wearing helmets.

Question 21

Which one of the following is not an advantage of content analysis?

A)economy in terms of time and money
B)safety
C)allows you to study processes occurring over a long time
D)no limitations in the quality of units of analysis
E)ease in revising data collection protocols as needed

Question 22

Which method examines "who says what,to whom,why,how,and with what effect"?

A)content analysis
B)secondary analysis
C)analysis of existing statistics
D)historical and comparative analysis
E)research design analysis

Question 23

Which one of the following is an example of unobtrusive research?

A)Sophrinia did an interview of church members
B)Valencia did a questionnaire of Girl Scouts
C)Winkler did a laboratory study on communication patterns
D)Angelo did a study of social class and wedding announcements
E)Jake did a study on kindergarteners' opinion of super-heroes.

Question 24

The process of transforming raw data into a standardized form is known as

A)coding.
B)operationalization.
C)corroboration.
D)reflexivity.
E)transformation

Question 25

Using existing statistics,Professor Ford finds that towns with low median incomes tend to have higher crime rates than towns with high median incomes.Ford concludes that poor people are more likely to commit crimes than people with high incomes.Ford is

A)Committing the ecological fallacy.
B)Using verstehen.
C)Doing content analysis.
D)Developing ideal types.
E)Doing replication.

Question 26

Joe thinks that men who place classified ads seeking women are more likely to describe themselves than are women who place classified ads seeking men.A good sampling scheme for testing this hypothesis is

A)simple random sampling.
B)cluster sampling.
C)quota sampling.
D)stratified sampling.
E)snowball sampling.

Question 27

The best way to address the problem of accuracy of records in historical and comparative analysis is through

A)using multiple researchers.
B)corroboration.
C)indexical reverberation.
D)verstehen.
E)re-interviewing all the sources of information

Question 28

Rita found letters written by soldiers during the American Revolution.According to Aminzade and Laslett,which of the following questions should Rita ask about these letters?

A)Why were the letters written?
B)Who wrote the letters?
C)Did the soldiers face any constraints in writing the letters?
D)How representative are the individuals who wrote the letters?
E)All of these questions are suggested by Aminzade and Laslett.

Question 29

Existing statistics can be used

A)as the main data for social scientific inquiry.
B)to provide a historical context for research.
C)to provide a conceptual context for research.
D)as a supplemental source of data for social scientific inquiry.
E)Existing statistics can be used to do all of these choices.

Question 30

Annettonio did a content analysis of students' notes in her study of differences among professors.The students' notes reflect the

A)unit of analysis.
B)unit of observation.
C)latent content.
D)manifest content.
E)independent variable

Question 31

First selecting a sample of newspapers from across the country,and then sampling specific pages within them is an example of what kind of sampling?

A)cluster sampling
B)systematic random sampling
C)quota sampling
D)snowball sampling
E)PPS sampling

Question 32

The computer program Wordscores is especially effective for researchers studying:

A) latent content.
B) manifest content.
C) indirect content.
D) quantitative data.
E) survey research.

Question 33

Two key problems in the analysis of existing statistics are

A)sampling size and sampling error.
B)longitudinal and cross-sectional issues.
C)units of analysis and the ecological fallacy.
D)reliability and validity.
E)subjectivity and sampling error

Question 34

Which aspect of content analysis requires particular attention to developing operational definitions?

A)what
B)to whom
C)why
D)with what effect
E)how

Question 35

As Arsenio was performing a content analysis of the portrayal of transgender persons in popular magazines,he counted the number of times the word "transgender" appeared in the various articles.The word is an example of

A) unit of analysis.
B) manifest content.
C) latent content.
D) dependent variable.
E) unit of observation.

Question 36

Francesca developed conceptual models of family structures that she discovered in various decades,and these models were composed of the essential characteristics of family structures.She employed

A)corroboration.
B)ideal types.
C)verstehen.
D)content analysis.
E)comparative analysis

Question 37

Within content analysis,defining the type of unit of analysis clearly has a major impact upon:

A)measuring latent content.
B)measuring manifest content.
C)determining the ideal types.
D)selecting a sampling strategy.
E)coding the data

Question 38

Durkheim's famous study of suicide employed which method?

A)analysis of manifest content
B)analysis of latent content
C)focus groups
D)analysis of existing statistics
E)historical research

Question 39

The weaknesses of content analysis include

A)it's limited to examining social artifacts.
B)a researcher cannot use it to study change over time.
C)its use influences that which is being studied.
D)it requires special equipment.
E)if you make a coding error you must recode all of your data.

Question 40

Fantanella did a content analysis of letters to the editor.She counted the number of times that the words "disagree" and "agree" appeared,but she also coded the underlying message of the letters as being positive or negative.Counting the number of times the two words appeared is known as coding the

A)ideal types.
B)manifest content.
C)obvious meaning.
D)latent content.
E)words

Question 41

The number of times the phrase "serial murderer" appears in a criminology textbook would be,in content analysis terms,an example of

A)latent content.
B)pseudo content.
C)manifest content.
D)verstehen content.
E)unspecific content.

Question 42

Monte wants to conduct research to examine the presence of misogyny in popular comic books.His strategy is to examine subtle themes and implications within the art and text.What is he looking for in terms of content analysis?

A)unspecific content
B)latent content
C)manifest content
D)verstehen content
E)pseudo content

Question 43

Fantanella did a content analysis of letters to the editor.She counted the number of times that the words "disagree" and "agree" appeared,but she also coded the underlying message of the letters as being positive or negative.Coding the underlying meaning of the letters is known as coding the

A)ideal types.
B)manifest content.
C)nonobvious meaning.
D)latent content.
E)words

Question 44

Gigi did a content analysis of school board meeting minutes to determine who was the most influential.She developed an initial hypothesis that men carried more power,but she then searched her data to find all the cases that would contradict her initial hypothesis.This process is known as

A)systematic reduction.
B)analytic induction.
C)analytic deduction.
D)corroboration.
E)systematic deduction

Question 45

Units of analysis

A)are also known as units of observation.
B)are the units about which information is collected.
C)are the units from which information is collected.
D)are easy to identify.
E)are the source of analytic strategies

Question 46

_______________ is especially suited for topics that a researcher wants to study over a long time span because the data sets are relatively stable and the data is gathered over multiple time points.

A)Secondary data
B)Primary data
C)Manifest content
D)Nonreactive research
E)Physical trace analysis

Question 47

Which of the following would not be a data source consistent with content analysis?

A)evaluating census data.
B)want ads.
C)diary entries.
D)email messages.
E)newspapers.

Question 48

Using multiple methods (corroboration)increases validity and:

A)is disadvantageous.
B)increases reliability.
C)increases time and cost.
D)decreases reliability
E)decreases time and cost

Question 49

To conduct his research on suicide,Emile Durkheim employed which of the following research methodologies?

A)experimental research
B)survey research
C)content analysis
D)existing statistics
E)interviews

Question 50

Hector wanted to study how his county had changed over the past three decades regarding its actions protecting the environment.It would be best to use

A)content analysis.
B)analysis of existing data.
C)historical/comparative research.
D)nonprobability sampling.
E)field research

Question 51

If you were interested in the difference between commercials during children's and adults' TV programs,your units of observation would be _________ and your units of analysis would be _________.

A)children's and adults' TV programs; commercials attached to those programs
B)commercials attached to the programs; children's and adults' TV programs
C)all commercials; all programs
D)all programs; all commercials
E)sports programming

Question 52

William Robinson,a sociologist,found that during the 1930s there was a positive relationship between the literacy rate and percentage of the population that was foreign born.If you concluded on this basis that your neighbor,Yasmine,who is a foreign-born resident,has a higher literacy rate than other native-born residents,you would be committing the

A)individualistic fallacy.
B)ex post facto fallacy.
C)ecological fallacy.
D)part-whole fallacy.
E)secondary data fallacy.

Question 53

Illiana did an historical/comparative of college yearbooks over a 30-year time period.Her particular goal was to take on the circumstances,views,and feelings of those she studied so that she could interpret their lives appropriately.It would be best to use

A)analytic induction.
B)corroboration.
C)ideal types.
D)verstehen.
E)content analysis

Question 54

Hillary did an historical/comparative study of dating patterns in the 1950s and 1960s but had some reservations about the accuracy of her data sources.It would be best to use

A)corroboration.
B)analytic induction.
C)content analysis.
D)verstehen.
E)historical research

Question 55

Which of the following is NOT a good source of existing statistics?

A)Local newspaper
B)Bureau of the Census
C)Department of Education
D)Bureau of Transportation Statistics
E)Central Intelligence Agency

Question 56

Which of the following ethical concern still applies to unobtrusive research?

A)reactivity
B)no harm to participants
C)Confidentiality
D)Deception
E)informed consent

Question 57

What type of sampling is used in content analysis?

A)simple
B)random
C)stratified
D)cluster
E)any sampling method is appropriate

Question 58

In conducting content analysis research,ethical issues can arise from all but which of the following?

A)how we collect the data.
B)protecting the privacy of individuals/organizations.
C)analyzing the data.
D)physical harm to subjects
E)reporting the data

Question 59

If you wanted to conduct a content analysis of the attitudes of lyricists toward women,as portrayed in contemporary music,which of the following would not be a good source of information?

A)rock music
B)country and western music
C)rap music
D)instrumental jazz
E)Christian music

Question 60

Like other kinds of social research,one of the first steps in content analysis is to determine

A)the number of cases that the research will focus on.
B)the kind of medium that the analysis will focus on.
C)the units of analysis that the research will focus on.
D)the ease of accessibility of the subject matter.
E)the type of sampling for the research.

Question 61

Unobtrusive measures measure the impact of the researcher on the phenomena being studied.

Question 62

In content analysis,the units of observation and the unit of analysis are the same.

Question 63

Logical reasoning and replication are used to handle the problem of validity in the analysis of existing statistics.

Question 64

Studying ten years of college sociology classes,Rudy found that the first three years each class had a higher average GPA than the following seven.He then concluded that the students were smarter during those early years.What has Rudy done?

A) used verstehen.
B) using content analysis.
C) studying manifest content.
D) committing the ecological fallacy.
E) performing a replication.

Question 65

According to Weber,an ideal type indicates the characteristics that the phenomena under study should strive to attain.

Question 66

Which of the following best represents unobtrusive research?

A) Lyle giving a survey to construction companies.
B) Lamilton interviewing elderly residents about identity theft.
C) Paul examining the portrayal of gender in children's books.
D) Leslie conducting a laboratory experiment on online dating.
E) Leonard observing visitors to a local soup kitchen.

Question 67

An ideal type is a conceptual model composed of the essential characteristics of social phenomena.

Question 68

Content analysis is a method of data collection in which some form of communication (e.g.TV programs,letters,newspaper articles etc)is studied systematically.

Question 69

Sample selection depends on what the unit of analysis is.

Question 70

Existing statistics should be used as supplemental data only.

Question 71

Unobtrusive research cannot be quantitative research.

Question 72

Content analysis can be done on newspaper materials and government documents but NOT on diaries and letters.

Question 73

One of the interesting developments provided by unobtrusive online research is that large scale ________ observation of social processes can be observed

A) static.
B) dynamic.
C) longitudinal.
D) latent.
E) none of these choices are correct.

Question 74

Standard probability sampling techniques should NOT be used in content analysis.

Question 75

In data collection and analysis,the determination of the unit of analysis occurs after sampling.

Question 76

A researcher using official government documents need not be concerned about the reliability of those records.

Question 77

Secondary analysis is synonymous with the analysis of existing statistics.

Question 78

All content analysis results in counting.

Question 79

Content analysis is essentially a coding operation.

Question 80

Many existing statistics can be found on the World Wide Web.