Social Research Exam Questions With
Correct Answers
A paramount ethical issue that bears on feasibility is _____. - answer✔whether the value and
quality of the research will outweigh any potential discomfort, inconvenience, or risk
experienced by those who participate in the study
T/F In general, you should put off doing your literature review until after you have sharpened
your research question to avoid reviewing irrelevant work. - answer✔F, complete literature
review to avoid 'reinventing the wheel'
Lucinda wants to know how different age groups get information about programs that provide
assistance with utility bills. She interviews individuals between 19 and 78 years of age, and then
analyses the data by 10-year age group (19 to 28, 29 to 38 and so on). This research is best
described as _____. - answer✔cross-sectional
Sam knows that rates of cigarette smoking are higher among individuals with schizophrenia and,
when doing street outreach for a drop-in program often carries cigarettes with him as a way to
break the ice. If Sam assumes that Charles, who has told Sam that he has schizophrenia, smokes
cigarettes and offers him one, Sam has fallen into the _____ fallacy. - answer✔ecological
(unproven inferences)
Leila has been studying the career trajectories of a group of social workers for the past 20 years.
They were randomly selected from among those who were newly licensed in 1995 and she has
surveyed the same individuals every 5 years since then. This is best described as a(n) _____
study. - answer✔panel (same set of people over time)
Silvia is conducting a study that seeks to characterize the mood of remaining employees after a
large-scale layoff. She will be using standardized measures of anxiety, depression and
satisfaction. Her research is best categorized as _____. - answer✔descriptive
Milton believes that the teenage boys who are about to become fathers will be more likely to
form healthy, enduring bonds with their children if they know how to be fathers. Milton has
developed a psychoeducational intervention and wants to find out if it is effective. His research is
best described as _____. - answer✔evaluation
The research question typically deals with needed information to solve practical problems in
social welfare, the terms research question and research problem are often used interchangeably.
In research, the refinement and specification of abstract ideas is referred to as _____. -
answer✔conceptualization
In research, developing specific research procedures that will result in empirical observations is
referred to as _____. - answer✔operationalization
Andre is a school social worker in a community in which getting parents involved in their
children's education is difficult. Many of the parents work, and he suspects that coming home
from a hard day's work, feeding the kids, arranging for someone to watch the kids and then going
to school for a meeting is part of the problem. He works with the district's vocational school,
which has both culinary and child development/care programs and, using donations from local
businesses, arranges to provide services at two schools that serve very similar populations.
Historically, only about 20% of the parents have shown up for the monthly parent/teacher
meetings at each of the schools. The families in one school will be offered a free "family dinner"
coupled with free childcare afterwards, allowing the parents to attend meetings with teachers and
the other will offer free childcare while parents attend meetings with teachers. I -
answer✔whether the families get a meal + childcare or only childcare
Andre wants to improve attendance at parent/teacher meetings and arranges to offer services that
he hopes will do just that at two very similar schools. The families in one school will be offered a
free "family dinner" coupled with free childcare afterwards, allowing the parents to attend
meetings with teachers and the other will offer free childcare while parents attend meetings with
teachers. In the pilot phase of his study, which will last during the first half of the school year,
Andre plans to look at the proportion of parents who attend meetings with teachers at each of the
Although there may be disagreements about how to best operationally define theoretical
constructs that cannot be observed, they still can be operationally defined.
The first step in operationalization is _____. - answer✔conceptualizing the construct
Marlyss measures popularity in an elementary school classroom by asking the children to name
the person they would most like to play with at recess. She then creates a composite rank for all
of the children from most popular (the most nominations) to least popular (the fewest
nominations). Marlyss' is using a(n) _____ scale. - answer✔ordinal
T/F Operationalization in qualitative studies is made more difficult by the fact that the salient
variables may not be known in advance. - answer✔T
In qualitative studies, the problem of operationally defining variables in advance is threefold: we
may not know in advance what all the most salient variables are; limitations in our understanding
of the variables may keep us from anticipating the best way to operationally define those
variables; and, even the best operational definitions are necessarily superficial because they are
specified only in terms of observable indicators.
Which type of error occurs when the information we collect consistently reflects a false picture
of the concept we seek to measure because of either the way we collect the data or the dynamics
of those who are providing the data? - answer✔systematic
The tendency to answer questions in ways that will make the respondent look good is referred to
as _____ bias. - answer✔social desirability
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