GRM697 The Research Process MCQs
GRM697 The Research Process MCQs
Text: Exploring Research
8th Edition, 2012
ISBN-I0: 0-205-09381-7
Authotts). Neil J. Salkind
Publisher: Pearson
Multiple Choice Questions (Enter your answers on the enclosed answer sheet)
5. How many steps are included in the research process?
a. 4
b. 6
c.8
d. 9
6. What is the most important step in the research process?
a. testing the hypothesis
b. data collection
c. formulating the hypothesis
d. asking the question
11. Which of the following best describes independent variables?
a. not manipulated by the experimenter
b. manipulated to assess the effect of the treatment
c. unrelated to the treatment
d. not necessary
12. Sampling allows researchers to overcome the problem of which of the following?
a. overcrowded laboratories
b. biased subject response
c. not having access to the whole population
d. not havi ng access to the proper statistical methods
13. If you read that a study’s finding was significant at the p < .05 level, you could conclude that there is a less than 5 probability that _
a. the results will translate to real world situations
b. most researchers in that area would consider the finding to have clinical meaning
c. the researchers used unreliable measures
d. the resu Its were due to chance
GRM697 The Research Process MCQs
16. In testing whether riding a bicycle at least 30 minutes each day reduces weight, what would be the independent variable?
a. the person’s age
b. amount of time bicycling each day
c. the person’s weight
d. the person’s diet
19. A well-written hypothesis _
a. creates a unified theme
b. reflects a theory or body of literature upon which it is based
c. searches through secondary sources
d. uses participants in the study who have been used in similar studies
20. What does the ethical principle of “sharing benefits” mean?
a. all participants in the same study should receive an equal share of the benefits or subject payments
b. all those who belong to the population being studied will share equally from the benefits the study produces
c. the results of studies must be shared with the public so society may benefit from the increased knowledge
d. all groups involved in a study should eventually be given an opportunity to receive any treatments that were found to be effective in the study
22. Which is NOT a component of informed consent?
a. the purpose of the research
b. who you are
c. how the participant can get a copy of the records
d. a computer simulation of the data
24. Sally selects classrooms of first graders to study the effects of teaching styles on math achievement. This is an example of _
a. stratified random sampling
b. cluster sampling
c. proportional sampl i ng
d. sampling error
26. Sampling error can be defined by which of the following statements?
a. increased by increasing sample size
b. larger as the diversity of sample values becomes smaller
c. can be minimized by using simple random sampling
d. becomes equal to zero over many samples
27. Which of the following statements is true with respect to sample size?
a. use small samples when mailing questionnaires
b. the greater the number of subgroups of interest to the study, the larger the sample
c. more subjects are always better
d. large samples increase sampling error
28. Which of these statements is true regarding cluster sampling?
a. one example of a nonprobability sampling method
b. individuals grouped together based on cluster of profile characteristics
c. minimizes the risk of bias due to a heterogeneous population
d. a great time-saver compared to simple random sampling
29. When might you need a larger sample to represent the population?
a. the amount of variability within groups is small
b. the difference between the two groups is small
c. the difference between the two groups is great
d. both a and c
30. David asks the first 10 freshmen he sees on campus a series of questions. This is an example of a sampling technique.
a. convenience
b. simple random
c. quota
d. proportional stratified
32. What levels of measurement define most variables in behavioral and social science research?
a. interval and ratio
b. nominal and ordinal
c. nominal and ratio
d. nominal and interval
33. Which one of the following is NOT an important criterion for increasing reliability?
a. eliminate unclear test items
b. standardize the environmental conditions in which the test is given
c. moderate the ease and difficulty of the test
d. use subjective scoring procedures
34. Which of the following is an example of method error?
a. subject fatigue
b. bias in grading
c. lack of motivation
d. test-taking anxiety
GRM697 The Research Process MCQs
35. Which is the least frequently established form of reliability?
a. inter-rater
b. internal consistency
c. test -retest
d. parallel
43. Which of the following is a reason you need to be cautious when observing behavior?
a. Your very presence may affect the behavior being observed.
b. The researcher records everything that happens.
c. Your questionnaire should not be too long and tedious.
d. You may confuse the difficulty index with the discrimination index.
47. In a set of scores with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, what raw score is represented by a z-score of 2.00?
a. ll5
b.130
c. 100
d. 70
48. In a normal distribution, what percentage of scores fall between the mean and a z-score of +1.00?
a. 16
b.34
c.50
d.95
51. When you have ordinal data (such as class rank), which is the best measure of central tendency to use?
a. range
b. mode
c. median
d. mean
58. The first step for conducting a meta-analysis is _
a. deciding on an appropriate statistical software package
b. developing a system to code the various dimensions of the study
c. collecting as many studies as possible (or at least a representative group)
d. determining the most appropriate type of descriptive or correlational technique to examine the outcomes of the studies as a whole
59. In a study, the correlation coefficient for Wand X is -0.25. The correlation coefficient for X and Y is 0.20. The coefficient of determination for X and Z is 0.16. The coefficient of alienation for Y and Z is 0.90. Which pair of variables has the highest amount of variance accounted for?
a. X and Y
b. X and Z
c. Y and Z
d. Wand X
GRM697 The Research Process MCQs
61. Survey research would be most appropriate for which of the following research questions?
a. the relationship between manual dexterity and typing speed
b. parents’ attitudes toward sex education in schools
c. the effectiveness of a weight management program for adolescents
d. the relationship between eye-hand coordination and number of tennis wins
64. The coefficient of alienation describes the _
a. neutral information (such as age, gender, number of children) about the survey respondent
b. amount of variance that is accounted for in one variable by the other variable
c. most frequently used measure of relationships between variables
d. portion of unexplained variance between the tested variables
67. wou Id the researcher be adjacent to the environment, but NOT actively involved in the process being studied?
a. a focus group
b. participant observation
c. direct observation
d. an interview
68. Which is NOT a main function of focus groups?
a. generating insight into previously misunderstood topics
b. in-depth information gathering on one participant
c. understanding how group members arrive at their conclusions
d. encouraging group interaction
69. Which of the following is NOT characteristic of ethnographic research?
a. Ethnographers tend to examine the group or phenomenon as a whole rather than the sum of its parts.
b. Ethnographers often use participant observation.
c. Ethnographers develop a research question prior to initiating their research methods just as empirical researchers do.
d. Ethnography is typically very time-consuming.
74. What is the proper order of the followi ng designs if they are to be I isted from the one with the least amount of control over variables to the most?
a. pretest posttest control group, Solomon four-group, quasi-experimental, one-group pretest posttest
b. one-group pretest posttest, quasi-experimental, pretest posttest control group, Solomon four-group
c. one-group pretest posttest, pretest posttest control group, Solomon four-group, q uasi-experi menta I
d. quasi-experimental, one-group pretest posttest, pretest posttest control group, Solomon four-group
75. True experimental designs are NOT characterized by _
a. random selection from the popu lation
b. random assignment to different groups
c. control groups
d. descriptive statistics
76. To what does the term internal validity refer?
a. the degree to which results of a study can be generalized from one sample to another
b. the process of subject selection
c. the development of a treatment
d. the degree to which the results of a study can be attributed to the manipulation of the independent variable
77. Susan has twelve subjects drop out of her study. Which threat to internal validity must she consider?
a. mortality
b. history
c. selection
d. randomization
78. Many researchers devise “sham” treatments for their control groups to undergo, meaning that the control group interacts with researchers in some way that is not thought to impact the dependent variable or the outcome. This is done to weaken the argument that the treatment group improvement may have occurred in part simply due to the attention this group received from the researchers. These researchers are attempting to control for which of the following?
a. multiple treatment interference
b. the Hawthorne effect
c. selection
d. experimenter effects
88. Which is NOT a primary area to evaluate when judging a research report?
a. the hypothesis
b. the answer
c. the problem and purpose
d. references
92. Which section of the proposal contains information on the instrumentation used?
a. introduction
b. method
c. implications and limitations
d. I iterature review
96. Which is a subsection found in the method section?
a. introduction
b. running head
c. results
d. data analysis
97. What type of information may be contained in the appendices of a manuscript?
a. original data
b. author’s notes
c. references
d. both a and c
