Question 1

Which of the following standards is typically applied when judging the truthfulness of the responses people make to survey questions?

Accepted Answer

A)   generally be skeptical of people's responses as probably not truthful unless there is strong evidence that they are truthful
B)   generally be skeptical of people's responses as probably not truthful and statistically adjust the responses
C)   generally accept people's responses as truthful unless there is reason to do otherwise
D)   generally accept people's responses as not truthful C

Question 2

Which of the following samples would represent a biased sample if a population comprised 40% freshmen,20% sophomores,20% juniors,and 20% seniors?

Accepted Answer

A)   200 of each class year (a total sample of 800 students) 
B)   80 freshmen, 40 sophomores, 40 juniors, 40 seniors
C)   40 freshmen, 20 sophomores, 20 juniors, 20 seniors
D)   8 freshmen, 4 sophomores, 4 juniors, 4 seniors A

Question 3

A survey on consumer products asks questions regarding automobile repair,home electronics,and travel destinations.Allowing respondents to skip the section on automobile repair if they don't own a car is an example of using a

Accepted Answer

A)   leading question.
B)   loaded question.
C)   funnel question.
D)   filter question. D

Question 4

A researcher identifies a potential mediating variable in the pattern of correlations among variables in a path analysis.If the researcher seeks to make a causal inference about the mediating variable,the suggested next step would be to

Accepted Answer

A)   manipulate the variable as an independent variable in an experiment.
B)   conduct a successive independent samples survey to measure the variable.
C)   observe different levels of the variable as part of naturalistic observation.
D)   determine whether a representative sample was used.

Question 5

An important initial step when developing a questionnaire is to

Accepted Answer

A)   avoid "expert" opinions about the topic because they may bias the survey.
B)   test only one or two items and then add more for the final survey.
C)   pretest the questionnaire using a sample similar to the planned survey.
D)   all of these

Question 6

The best approach for obtaining a representative sample when using stratified random sampling is to

Accepted Answer

A)   sample so that there is an equal number of respondents in the different strata.
B)   use random-digit dialing.
C)   sample so that the proportion of respondents in the different strata represents the proportions in the population.
D)   eliminate people from the sampling frame who are unlikely to return a completed survey.

Question 7

The problem of selection bias in survey research is similar to the problem of ________ in research using archival data.

Accepted Answer

A)   selection threat to internal validity
B)   selective deposit
C)   selective survival
D)   spurious relationships

Question 8

Why is a longitudinal design preferred over a study using successive independent samples to assess the direction and extent of attitude change for individual respondents?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Why is a longitudinal design preferred over...

Question 9

Which of the following survey methods is best for dealing with highly personal or embarrassing topics,especially when the anonymity of respondents is preserved?

Accepted Answer

A)   mail survey
B)   personal interview
C)   telephone interview
D)   successive survey

Question 10

A survey researcher chose to administer a survey using the Internet.This sample likely overrepresents people who own a computer and underrepresents people who don't own a computer.This problem in the researcher's survey is best described as

Accepted Answer

A)   low response rate.
B)   a stratified sample.
C)   selection bias.
D)   a spurious relationship.

Question 11

A major threat to the interpretation of results from a successive independent samples design is

Accepted Answer

A)   interviewer bias.
B)   attrition from the study.
C)   stratified random sampling from the population.
D)   noncomparable successive samples.

Question 12

Unless all the respondents in the original sample complete all phases of a longitudinal design,there is a possible problem due to

Accepted Answer

A)   selection bias.
B)   attrition.
C)   extrapolated data.
D)   social desirability.

Question 13

Research findings indicate that people's verbal reports of their behavior and observations of their actual behavior do not always match.These findings provide a good rationale for a(n)__________ approach to psychological research.

Accepted Answer

A)   correlational
B)   observational
C)   survey
D)   multimethod

Question 14

A student is asked in a survey question about whether he would help another person who is in trouble.The student thinks that he probably would not help because he would be hesitant to get involved in a potential dangerous situation.The student decides,however,to respond that he would help.The student is likely responding to the pressure of

Accepted Answer

A)   social desirability.
B)   convergent sensitivity.
C)   response bias.
D)   discriminant responding.

Question 15

Convergent validity in survey research,used to establish the construct validity of a measure,is similar to the use of _________ to establish the validity of findings from research employing unobtrusive measures.

Accepted Answer

A)   archival data
B)   spurious relationships
C)   natural treatments
D)   converging evidence

Question 16

Students at a university volunteered to complete an online survey about the different attitudes men and women have about exclusive,serious dating relationships (e.g.,"going Facebook official").One criticism of this cross-sectional research likely concerns

Accepted Answer

A)   attrition from the study over time.
B)   noncomparable samples over time.
C)   response rate bias.
D)   the extent to which the findings can be generalized.

Question 17

Attrition in survey research corresponds most closely to which of the following problems in the use of unobtrusive measures (physical traces,archival records)?

Accepted Answer

A)   selective survival
B)   selective deposit
C)   spurious relationships
D)   natural treatments

Question 18

The potential problem of noncomparable successive samples can arise in the successive independent samples design.Samples are considered noncomparable when

Accepted Answer

A)   they are not representative of the same population.
B)   they differ in sample size by more than 50 respondents.
C)   there is a large difference among the samples on the average survey response.
D)   there is no standard value in the population on which the different samples can be compared.

Question 19

,separated by six months.At the second testing session she also administered a similar questionnaire called "Nice," which previous research has shown to be a valid measure of people's ability to get along with people and to make friends.She also administered a questionnaire designed to measure art ability,which she predicted to be unrelated to friendliness.She observed the following correlations among the measures:  What correlation coefficient value indicates the "Friend" measure has good discriminant validity?

Accepted Answer

The answer of ,separated by six months.At the second testing...

Question 20

A researcher's new measure of "friendliness" correlates strongly with a measure of agreeableness,and demonstrates a very low correlation with a measure of intelligence.This pattern of correlations indicates the researcher's measure demonstrates good

Accepted Answer

A)   reliability.
B)   social desirability.
C)   causal relationships.
D)   construct validity.

Exam 5: Survey Research