Deck 14: Quantitative Data Analysis

Question 1

The most frequent attribute,in either grouped or ungrouped data,is the

A)mean.
B)median.
C)mode.
D)range.
E)marginal.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Subgroup comparisons are done by

A)dividing cases (subjects or respondents) into subgroups, describing each subgroup in terms of a given variable, and comparing those descriptions across subgroups.
B)dividing, describing, and comparing subgroups on independent and dependent variables.
C)analyzing the simultaneous relationships among several variables among subgroups.
D)dividing, describing, and comparing subgroups based on mean values.
E)multiplying subgroups based upon mean values.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which of the following is(are)an example of multivariate analysis?

A)an examination of the ages of all women who are corporate executives
B)an analysis of the relationship between age, sex, and type of nightspot frequented in a given city in the Midwest
C)an analysis of the relationship that exists between types of undergraduate major and positions held in business
D)an analysis of the relationship between type of offense and length of prison sentence for those who had a jury trial
E)an analysis of the number of parolees who recidivate based upon the length of their sentence.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following statements is(are)FALSE about coding?

A)Codes should be mutually exclusive.
B)It's a good idea to code data in more detail than you plan to use.
C)Code categories can always be collapsed for more detail.
D)Code categories should be exhaustive.
E)Codes should be clearly defined and understandable.

Question 5

Which of the following is(are)aimed primarily at explanation?

A)univariate analysis
B)multivariate analysis
C)bivariate analysis
D)univariate, multivariate, and bivariate analyses are all aimed primarily at explanation
E)multivariate and bivariate analyses are aimed primarily at explanation

Question 6

A friend showed you the following table:

What guideline in table construction does this table violate?

A)Tables should have succinct headings
B)The attributes of each variable should be clearly indicated
C)The base for percentages should be included in the table
D)The number of missing cases should be indicated in the table
E)No guidelines are violated in this table.

Question 7

A friend showed you the following table:

What percentage of males committed a violent crime?

A)20
B)30
C)80
D)70
E)not enough information to calculate

Question 8

A codebook does NOT

A)describes the locations of variables.
B)lists the codes assigned to the attributes on each variable.
C)specify the analysis method to be used.
D)should contain the full definition of the variable.
E)gives an identifier to each variable.

Question 9

If the standard deviation equals 0,we may conclude that

A)there is no dispersion in the data.
B)the mean is a good measure of the average.
C)the data are homogeneous.
D)there is no dispersion in the data and the mean is a good measure of the average.
E)there is no dispersion in the data, the mean is a good measure of the average, and the data are homogeneous.

Question 10

A measure of dispersion describes

A)where the data are clustered.
B)which data are the most important.
C)how the data are distributed.
D)which data are appropriate for analysis.
E)discrete data only.

Question 11

The College of Arts and Science at Delta University has nine departments.The number of faculty in each department is shown below.What is the median number of faculty in departments in the College of Arts and Science? 8,12,9,15,17,11,13,14,7

A) 12.
B) 17.
C) 4.5.
D) 5.
E) 7.

Question 12

A codebook contains the following information:

Which of the following statements is(are)TRUE concerning the codebook?

A)The variables in this codebook are ID number, sex, and class standing.
B)ID number has been coded so that the categories are mutually exclusive but not exhaustive.
C)Class standing has been coded so that the categories are mutually exclusive and exhaustive.
D)The codebook contains two variables.
E)Class standing is a ratio variable.

Question 13

Professor Wilton decided to test whether blondes have more fun.Wilton surveyed 600 people and obtained the following results:

The univariate distribution for the variable fun includes the values:

A)250, 150.
B)50, 150.
C)300, 300.
D)400, 200.
E)250, 50.

Question 14

The College of Arts and Science at Delta University has nine departments.The number of faculty in each department is shown below.What is the mean number of faculty in departments in the College of Arts and Science? 8,12,9,15,17,11,13,14,7

A) 12.
B) 17.
C) 10.7.
D) 11.8.
E) 15.

Question 15

Certain guidelines should be kept in mind when coding.Among these is(are)the following:

A)The coding scheme should be appropriate to the analysis intended in the study.
B)The coding scheme should be appropriate to the theoretical concepts being examined.
C)The reliability of the coder(s) should always be verified.
D)Code categories can always be combined for less detail.
E)All of these choices are correct.

Question 16

Marcella is looking to give a meaningful measure of central tendency for her nationwide study of income levels,which is a skewed distribution.What should she use to most accurately summarize her findings?

A)mode
B)mean
C)median
D)standard deviation
E)range

Question 17

A friend of yours assigned a code of 1 to "male" and a code of 2 to "female" on the variable sex.Your friend asked the computer to compute the average score on sex.The computer printout contained the following information: mean=1.38,standard deviation=.43,median=1.4,and mode=1.0.You advise your friend that the best measure(s)of central tendency to report is(are)the

A)mean.
B)standard deviation.
C)median.
D)mode.
E)mean, median, or mode - all are equally appropriate.

Question 18

In reading a table that someone else has constructed,the rule of thumb is

A)if the table is percentaged down, read across, and if the table is percentaged across, read down.
B)if the table is percentaged down, read down.
C)if the table is percentaged across, read across.
D)if the table is percentaged down, read down, and if the table is percentaged across, read across.
E)there is no rule of thumb for reading percentages in a table that someone else has constructed.

Question 19

Professor Wilton decided to test whether blondes have more fun.Wilton surveyed 600 people and obtained the following results:

The BEST way(s)to percentage this table is(are)

A)within columns, down.
B)within rows, across.
C)divide each cell by 600.
D)within columns, across.
E)within rows, down.

Question 20

Which of the following statistics can be calculated on continuous data?

A)mean
B)median
C)standard deviation
D)the mean, the median, and the standard deviation
E)the mean and the standard deviation

Question 21

Which of the following measures of central tendency can be used at any level of measurement?

A)mean
B)mode
C)median
D)standard deviation
E)range.

Question 22

Marco wants to conduct a research study to determine if students living on campus feel more or less safe than those who live off campus.At the most basic level,he should use:

A)bivariate analysis.
B)univariate analysis.
C)interquartile range.
D)standard deviation.
E)evaluation analysis

Question 23

Given the following distribution 12,4,19,20,6,18,16,10,the mean is

A) 18.
B) 15.
C) 27.
D) 4.
E) 20.

Question 24

Susquehanna wants to compare the variability in scores in her morning English class and her afternoon physics class.It would be best for her to use the

A)mode.
B)median.
C)frequency distribution.
D)standard deviation.
E)standard error

Question 25

A friend showed you the following table:

Which of the following statements illustrates an INCORRECT reading of the table above?

A)The cases were divided into groups according to their attributes on sex.
B)Being a female makes you more than twice as likely to commit a property crime (30 versus 70 percent).
C)Females are more likely than males to commit violent crimes.
D)Males are more likely than females to commit property crimes.
E)Males are less likely to commit violent crimes.

Question 26

Priscilla is a home builder and wants to know the family size that occurs the most often in her survey of prospective customers.It would be best for her to use the

A)mode.
B)median.
C)mean.
D)standard deviation.
E)range

Question 27

Peter is a demographer and wants to know the family size that splits his survey respondents in half,with half having family sizes below that value and half having family sizes above that value.It would be best for him to use the

A)mode.
B)median.
C)mean.
D)standard deviation.
E)range

Question 28

Steve is conducting research on police officers.He is only interested in officers in the "middle ages" of their careers,so not rookie officers and not those nearing retirement.How might he pair down his sample to the officers he's interested in?

A)standard deviation.
B)mean.
C)interquartile range.
D)median.
E)mode.

Question 29

Which one of the following is NOT a basic guideline for presenting tabular data?

A)A table should have a heading.
B)The original content of the variables should be clearly presented.
C)The attributes of each variable should be clearly indicated.
D)Present all the raw numbers of cases in the cells of the table.
E)Variables should be clearly presented on the rows and columns.

Question 30

The process of comparing your assistants' coding with each others' and with your own coding of the responses of sample responses helps to improve

A)validity.
B)reliability.
C)generalizability.
D)internal credibility.
E)content generalizability

Question 31

A description of the number of times that the various attributes of a variable are observed is called a

A)frequency distribution.
B)mean.
C)measure of dispersion.
D)contingency table.
E)multivariable table.

Question 32

The two basic approaches to the coding process are

A)well developed coding schemes developed ahead of time and using others' coding schemes.
B)using others' coding schemes and using computerized programs.
C)using computerized programs and generating codes from your data.
D)generating codes from your data and using well developed coding schemes developed ahead of time.
E)coding at face value

Question 33

Iona completed her study of volunteer workers at the zoo.She has completed the coding process and now wants to examine the results to get a feel for the data and to see if any cases have values that she did not code for.It would be best for Iona to use

A)central tendency.
B)frequency distribution.
C)dispersion.
D)multivariate analysis.
E)serves as a guide for locating variables, and also keeps track of determining how many cases are coded

Question 34

To determine which measure of central tendency is the "best," you should consider

A)the nature of your data and the purpose of your analysis.
B)how many cases you have and the nature of your data.
C)how many variables you have and the purpose of your analysis.
D)how many variables you have and how many cases you have.
E)what the easiest and most efficient measure is

Question 35

Given the following age distribution of 12,15,8,17,34,43,2,16,43,3
The age range is between

A)12, 3.
B) 17.
C)2, 17.
D)2, 43.
E)2, 15.

Question 36

Which two functions does a codebook serve?

A)It keeps track of how many respondents exist and keeps track of determining how many cases are coded.
B)It keeps track of determining how many cases are coded and serves as the primary guide used in the coding process.
C)It serves as the primary guide used in the coding process and serves as a guide for locating variables and interpreting codes.
D)It serves as a guide for locating variables and interpreting codes, and keeps track of how many respondents exist.
E)missing data analysis

Question 37

Which of these measures of central tendency is the result of dividing the sum of the values by the total number of cases?

A)median
B)mode
C)mean
D)interquartile range
E)range

Question 38

Yolanda wanted to examine the relationship between church attendance and philanthropic giving while controlling for social class because she felt that social class may affect the relationship between church attendance and giving.It would be best to use

A)bivariate analysis.
B)univariate analysis.
C)interquartile range.
D)multivariate analysis.
E)descriptive table

Question 39

Duke wanted to determine the spread between the highest and lowest scores on an exam for a class he was teaching.He should use

A)frequency distribution.
B)range.
C)mean.
D)standard deviation.
E)interquartile range

Question 40

The first step after data collection that must be completed before data analysis can begin is

A)bivariate analysis.
B)coding.
C)multivariate analysis.
D)grouping data.
E)sorting the data

Question 41

Teachers at Central High School earn a mean salary of $45,000,with a standard deviation of $2,500.Those at Midlands High School earn an average of $30,000,but a standard deviation of $7,000.Which of these two have the largest variation in salary?

A)Central High School
B)Midlands High School
C)Both have the same variation
D)Cannot discern from information given.
E)The standard deviation is not appropriate for this study.

Question 42

Within a normal distribution,what percentage of cases are within two standard deviations of the mean?

A)34%
B)68%
C)95%
D)98%
E)

Question 43

If the mean is 10 for a given variable,and the standard deviation is 1,then 99.9 percent of cases are between which two values?

A)8 and 12
B)7 and 13
C)6 and 14
D)5 and 15
E)4 and 16

Question 44

Deke wanted to compare the participation by women and men in extracurricular activities.It would be best to use

A)standard deviation.
B)subgroup comparisons.
C)frequency distributions.
D)bifurcated frequency distributions.
E)case studies

Question 45

Within a normal distribution,68 percent of cases are within how many standard deviations of the mean?

A) 0.5
B)1
C)2
D)3
E)4

Question 46

To determine if age,education,and parental support have a measurable effect on if children become delinquent or not,which of the following should be performed?

A) univariate analysis.
B) multivariate analysis.
C) bivariate analysis.
D) frequency table.
E) standard deviation.

Question 47

What is the median score for students with the following class scores?

A)43
B)42
C)41
D)40
E)39

Question 48

Jennifer's research project to correlate temperatures with crime rates in urban areas uses temperature as an independent variable.What type of variable is this?

A)nominal variable
B)dichotomous variable
C)categorical variable
D)discrete variable
E)continuous variable

Question 49

What is the modal score for students with the following scores?

A)53
B)45
C)42
D)40
E)43

Question 50

What is the mean or average score (to one decimal point)of the following class scores?

A) 41.7
B) 41.1
C) 42.0
D) 42.5
E) 42.7

Question 51

Which one of the following is a continuous variable?

A)religion
B)gender
C)year in college
D)income
E)political affiliation

Question 52

As a measure of dispersion,a _________ is a measure that specifies how far 68%,95%,and 99.9% of a sample is around a mean value.

A)range
B)standard deviation
C)mode
D)regular distribution
E)median

Question 53

A variable whose attributes are separate from another is known as a ____________,and an example is ____________.

A)continuous variable; age
B)continuous variable; income
C)discrete variable; political affiliation
D)discrete variable; age
E)continuous variable; political affiliation

Question 54

The most sophisticated of the dispersion measures discussed is the:

A)interquartile range.
B)median.
C)range.
D)standard deviation.
E)mode.

Question 55

The best method to measure the amount of dispersion of employee income in a shoe factory is

A)mode.
B)mean.
C)median.
D)range.
E)outliers.

Question 56

Lyle's research on recidivism contains a variable that measures the number of offenses an individual was charged with prior to being paroled.This count of offenses is a(n):

A)continuous variable.
B)discrete variable.
C)dichotomous variable.
D)categorical variable.
E)nominal variable.

Question 57

Look at the column percentages below from the cross-tabulation of FEAR CRIME and SEX from the NES file.(Cramer's V = .146 and the significance level is .001).Which of the following conclusions is supported by these results?

A)Males are more likely to fear crime than females are.
B)Females are more likely to fear crime than males are.
C)Males and females are equally likely to say that they fear crime.
D)None of the above statements is supported by these results.
E)It depends on the definition of fear.

Question 58

The best way to handle "don't know" responses is to

A)delete them before calculating percentages.
B)include them before calculating percentages.
C)simply split them proportionately among the remaining categories.
D)decide first what makes sense in terms of your research purposes.
E)delete half of them, and include the other half

Question 59

The basic rule for setting up and interpreting tables is to

A)percentage down within categories of the independent variable and read across the categories of the independent variable on the dependent variable.
B)percentage down within categories of the dependent variable and read across the categories of the dependent variables on the independent variable.
C)percentage in terms of the total number of respondents and read across the independent variable on the dependent variable.
D)percentage in terms of the total number of respondents and read across the dependent variable on the independent variable.
E)interpret the percentages with common sense.

Question 60

If you have only a few respondents in the extreme categories of your variable,in order to maximize accurate interpretation of the results you should give thought to

A)removing "don't knows."
B)expanding response categories.
C)collapsing response categories.
D)using subgroup comparisons.
E)leaving the data as it is

Question 61

In multivariate analysis a second dependent variable is added.

Question 62

To determine how drastic the variation in civil service exam scores were for a state,what would most likely be used?

A) mode.
B) median.
C) standard error.
D) standard deviation.
E) frequency distribution.

Question 63

The mean is a particularly useful statistic when there are extreme values in a distribution.

Question 64

The number of cases omitted from a bivariate analysis because of missing data should be included in the table.

Question 65

If you do ALL your own coding then you do not need to verify your reliability as a coder.

Question 66

When examining the income levels within a major urban area,Ernest wanted to summarize his findings of a skewed distribution.Which measure of central tendency should he use?

A) mean.
B) standard deviation.
C) range.
D) median.
E) mode.

Question 67

Half the cases are above the median and half the cases are below the median.

Question 68

Frequency distributions indicate the number of times that variables are observed.

Question 69

A codebook is a guide for locating variables and interpreting codes in a data file.

Question 70

Whereas univariate analysis and subgroup comparisons focus on the descriptions of the people under study,the focus of bivariate analysis is on the relationships among the variables themselves.

Question 71

Which of the following is a discrete variable?

A) standing in college.
B) income.
C) yearly budget.
D) age.
E) time in prison.

Question 72

Which of the following is a measure of dispersion?

A) mean.
B) median.
C) range.
D) mode.
E) none of these choices are correct.

Question 73

Craig coded political affiliation as 1-Republican,2-Democrat,3-Independent,4-Other,5-None.If he wanted to summarize his data for presentation,it would be best to use the:

A) median.
B) mode.
C) range.
D) standard deviation.
E) mean.

Question 74

If Rose wanted to determine if there were any significant outliers in her data set,the simplest method would be to examine a(n)

A) frequency distribution.
B) standard deviation.
C) multivariate analysis.
D) central tendency.
E) mean.

Question 75

A univariate analysis examines the distribution of cases on one or more variables.

Question 76

The "don't know" category should always be excluded from analysis.

Question 77

A bivariate table is read by comparing the independent variable subgroups with one another in terms of a given attribute of the dependent variable.

Question 78

A nominal variable is a discrete variable.

Question 79

Coding should always begin with a relatively well-developed coding scheme derived from your research purpose.

Question 80

Half the cases are above the mode and half the cases are below the mode.