Question 1

A researcher surveys correctional officers once about their attitudes toward the death penalty. This is an example of which type of research design?

Accepted Answer

Cross-sectional research design involves collecting data at a single point in time, which is what the researcher is doing by surveying correctional officers once about their attitudes.

Question 2

Ceteris paribus is a concept related to ______.

Accepted Answer

Ceteris paribus is related to nomothetic explanations, which seek to establish general laws and principles that apply across cases by holding other variables constant.

Question 3

Which of the following research designs is used during election time to track support of candidates?

Accepted Answer

Repeated cross-sectional design is used during election time to track changes in support for candidates over time by surveying different samples from the same population at multiple points.

Question 4

Which research design would you use to answer this question: Are prisons more likely to have drug treatment programs available now than in the 1950s?

Accepted Answer

A repeated cross-sectional design is appropriate for comparing changes over time by examining different samples from the same population at multiple points in time. This design would allow researchers to compare the availability of drug treatment programs in prisons now versus in the 1950s.

Question 5

A person reads a study that finds police agencies in the South are more likely to have excessive force complaints filed against them. From this study, the person concludes that Southern police officers are more likely to use excessive force. This is an example of ______.

Accepted Answer

An ecological fallacy occurs when one makes inferences about individuals based solely on aggregate data for a group. In this case, the person is concluding that individual officers are more likely to use excessive force based on data about police agencies as a whole.

Question 6

If a researcher's claim that the likelihood of recidivating is higher for ex-offenders who are unable to find legitimate employment, that would be a(n) ______.

Accepted Answer

A nomothetic explanation seeks to identify general laws and patterns that apply across different cases, such as the relationship between unemployment and recidivism rates among ex-offenders. This contrasts with idiographic explanations, which focus on the unique aspects of individual cases.

Question 7

In an explaining a female offender's drug addiction, a researcher constructs a narrative that includes how abuse as a child led the offender to self-medicate. This is an example of a(n) ______.

Accepted Answer

An idiographic explanation focuses on the unique aspects of an individual case or situation, explaining phenomena in terms of the specific, singular factors that affect it. In this scenario, the researcher is detailing a unique, personal history of abuse leading to drug addiction, which aligns with the idiographic approach that emphasizes individual experiences and histories.

Question 8

Which of the following are important, but not necessary, to establishing a causal relationship?

Accepted Answer

Mechanism and context are important for establishing a causal relationship because they provide a plausible explanation and relevant conditions under which the relationship occurs, but they are not strictly necessary to demonstrate causality. Time order and association are more fundamental criteria for establishing causality.

Question 9

A researcher is studying the causal relationship between drug use and crime. However, she is unable to determine which variable predates the other. This is an issue of ______.

Accepted Answer

Time order is crucial in establishing causal relationships, as it is necessary to determine which variable (cause) precedes the other (effect) in time. The researcher's inability to establish which variable comes first indicates an issue with time order.

Question 10

A student reads a study that finds that female students are more likely to cheat on exams than male students. From this, he concludes that women's colleges will have high levels of cheating. This is an example of ______.

Accepted Answer

The answer of A student reads a study that finds...

Question 11

In a longitudinal study of the homeless, a researcher has difficulty locating her respondents so that she can collect new data from them. Over time, his sample decreases from 50 to 33. This is an issue of ______.

Accepted Answer

This is an issue of subject attrition, which refers to the loss of participants over time in a longitudinal study, leading to a reduced sample size.

Question 12

When conducting an event-based study, follow-up samples must be selected from similar groups, known as ______.

Accepted Answer

Cohorts are groups of subjects who share a defining characteristic, typically used in event-based studies to ensure that follow-up samples are comparable and to control for variables.

Question 13

The features of true experiments meet all of the causal criteria EXCEPT ______.

Accepted Answer

True experiments meet the criteria for association, time order, and nonspuriousness but do not inherently provide a mechanism, which explains how or why the observed effects occur.

Question 14

In an experiment, a researcher is trying to improve subject recall by using important milestones in the subjects' lives, for example, graduation of high school, start of a new job, and birth of a child. These events are examples of ______.

Accepted Answer

These events are examples of "anchors" in life, which are significant events that can serve as reference points for memory recall.

Question 15

In order for a causal relationship to exist, the ______ variable must cause the change in the ______ variable.

Accepted Answer

In a causal relationship, the independent variable is manipulated or changed to see its effect on the dependent variable, which is the outcome of interest.

Question 16

Idiographic explanations often focus on which of the following factors?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Idiographic explanations often focus on which of...

Question 17

Elijah Anderson's field research in poor urban communities demonstrating the intersection of drug addiction, residential instability, and crime is an example of which of the following explanations?

Accepted Answer

Elijah Anderson's research is an example of idiographic explanation, which focuses on understanding the complex, detailed, and unique aspects of specific cases or phenomena, rather than seeking to generalize across cases as in nomothetic explanations. His work delves into the nuanced dynamics of individual communities, emphasizing the importance of context-specific factors in understanding social issues.

Question 18

______ refers to a linkage between an independent variable and a dependent variable.

Accepted Answer

Association refers to a relationship or linkage between an independent variable (cause or predictor) and a dependent variable (effect or outcome), indicating how changes in one variable are related to changes in another.

Question 19

______ is established by demonstrating that the cause precedes the effect.

Accepted Answer

Causal order is established by showing that the cause comes before the effect, which is a fundamental principle in establishing a cause-and-effect relationship.

Question 20

Which of the following concepts would serve as an explanation as to why a third variable (such as prior violent behavior) is responsible for the relationship between watching violent media and crime?

Accepted Answer

A spurious relationship occurs when two variables appear to be related to each other but are actually both being influenced by a third variable, in this case, prior violent behavior influencing both watching violent media and crime.

Quiz 6: Causation and Research Design