Study Tips for Preparing for Quiz
& Asking Questions
Quiz covers all lecture material (except sampling) in
first five classes focusing on Chapters 1-3, 5-6.
Literature Reviews have been covered in
Assignment 2. Sampling will be covered in Quiz 2.
Research Process
Babbie (1995: 101)
Sample Questions: Notion of Empirical
Research
Which one of the following statements
best describes empirical research:
a. involves direct or indirect observation
b. never has any relation to theory
c. only refers to research that involves
asking people questions
Another question
Which of the following could be considered an example
of empirical research?
a. listening to a radio station and analyzing the content of the
lyrics of the songs played
b. sending a survey to the participants at a Liberal Party
fundraising event
c. looking at the garbage thrown out by the University
residences to determine the drinking habits of students
d. all of the above
“Dimensions” of Research
Purpose of
Study
Intended Use
of Study
Treatment of Time
in Study
Exploratory
Descriptive
Explanatory
Basic
Applied
-Action
-Impact
-Evaluation
Cross-sectional
Longitudinal
-Panel
-Time series
-Cohort analysis
-Case Study
-Trend study
Space
Unit of
Analysis
-dependent
-individual
-independent -family
-household
-artifact
(media,
technology)
Neuman (2000: 37)
Sample Question
A study is made of how seniors, single parents on limited
incomes and other concerned groups would be
affected by shutting down a community service that
provides free internet access. Which term best
describes this type of research? (Choose only one)
a. action research
b. a social impact assessment
c. formative evaluation
d. community service
e. conflict theory
Another question about dimensions of
research
Professor Wong conducts a study of the attitudes of all the
participants in a community outreach program for
substance abusers in 2000. Five years later Dr.Wong’s
team returns to the same outreach center and questions
all the participants in the center at this second point in
time (in 2010) about their attitudes. Which term best
describes the treatment of time in this research project?
a. a panel study
b. a social impact assessment
c. time series research
d. basic research
e. cross-sectional research
Review:
 Conceptualization
 conceptual (or theoretical) definition - a careful, systemic
definition of a construct that is explicitly written to clarify
one’s thinking
 Operationalization
 linking a conceptual definition to specific measurement
technique(s) or procedure(s)
 operational definition - the definition of a variable in terms
of the specific activities to measure or indicate it in the
empirical world
Rules for
Creating Measures
 Measures must be:
 mutually exclusive
 possible observations (or responses) must
only fit in one category
 No overlap in coding or response categories
 exhaustive
 categories must cover all possibilities
Sample Possible Quiz question
For each of the following variables indicate whether the list of
categories is exhaustive and mutually exclusive. Then indicate,
where necessary, the changes or additions to the categories
that would have to be made to meet these two requirements:
1. Marital status: single (never married), married
-Is this list exhaustive ?
-mutually exclusive?
-If not, give a corrected list of categories
2. Age: under 17 years, 18-65 years, 65 years and older
-Is this list exhaustive?
-mutually exclusive?
-If not, give a corrected list of categories
Levels of Measurement
• 4 Levels of Measurement
– Nominal:
• different categories (names, labels, images)
• not ranked
– Ordinal
•
•
•
•
different categories
rank-ordered
attributes indicate relatively more or less of that variable
distance between the attributes of a variable is imprecise
More levels of Measurement
• Interval Measures
• different categories
• ranked in order
• can also tell amount of difference between categories
• Ratio Measures




different categories
ranked in order
amount of difference between categories
also possible to state proportion (have a true zero)
 Relations between levels --can collapse from
higher into lower, not vice versa
Sample Possible Quiz Question
Indicate the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal,
interval or ratio) of each of the following variables as
measured. Explain your reasoning briefly by stating
the features of the level of measurement your select.
a. Prize winners: measured by ranking winners in three separate
categories (Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal winners--from the
best to the worst).
b. Mother’s Birthplace: measured by having respondents check one
of these categories in response to a question about where their
mother was born: North America, South America, Europe,
Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Elsewhere (Other place)
.
Another possible question
Which of the following is an example of something
measured at the nominal level?
a. distance of place of residence from Harbour
Centre (measured in kilometers)
b. Nationality (using the name of the country
at the time of the interview)
c. date of birth (using day, month and year)
d. number of students registered at SFU as of
September 30th.
e. level of education (measured by years of
schooling)
Reliability & Validity
 Reliability
 dependability
 is the indicator consistent?
 same result every time?
 Validity
 measurement validity - how well the conceptual and
operational definitions mesh with each other
 does measurement tool measure what we think ?
Sample possible quiz question
Dr. Nassar refused to use mobile phone ownership as a measure of
access to communications technology because mobile phone
ownership does not capture the meaning of Dr. Rouge’s
conceptual definition of access to communications technology.
When a proposed measure does not capture the meaning of an
abstract construct, it can be said to lack
a. standards
b. stability
c. realism
d. reliability
e. validity
Another type of question
Discuss briefly the meaning of validity and
reliability in social science research. Then
discuss the relationship between validity and
reliability.
a. Meaning of validity
b. Meaning of reliability
c. Discussion of the relationship between reliability
and validity.
Recall: Relationship between
Measurement Reliability and Validity
 reliability necessary for validity but does not
guarantee it (“necessary but not sufficient”)
 measure can be reliable but invalid
Studying Relationships between variables
(identifying hypotheses, independent &
dependent variables)
A team of researchers studied whether there is
discrimination against students by landlords in
Vancouver. The hypothesis being tested was that
landlords who owned many rental properties would
discriminate less because they would want to protect
their large investments by obeying human rights laws
(as a way of avoiding expensive court cases and bad
publicity). The researchers posed as students looking
for rental accommodation and tried to rent
accommodation from landlords.
Question (Continued)
They divided landlords into three categories:
A: landlords with more than ten rental units
B: landlords with 2-10 rental units
C: landlords with only one place to rent in their home
The researchers found that landlords in Categories A and C a often refused to
rent to students. Landlords in category B (with 2-10 rentals) seemed to
discriminate less against students than either of the other two groups of
landlords.
What is the dependent variable in the study?
What the construct ("abstract" idea) is being measured?
Using specific information in the description to support your points, explain
briefly whether the hypothesis was confirmed, partly confirmed or not
confirmed on the basis of this data? Did the measure adequately the
concepts in the hypothesis? Why or why not?
Recall: Causal diagrams
Direct relationship (positive correlation)
X
Y
X
Y
Indirect relationship (negative correlation)
Causal Diagram Sample Question
Sketch the causal relationship described in the
following statement. Be sure to indicate the direction
of the relationship and whether the correlation is
positive or negative:
Statement: “ Young people spend more time on social
networking sites than older people."
i) Give names to the variables and letters used for each:
ii) Type of Relationship:
iii) Diagram:
Other types of questions
• True or False
• Matching terminology to definitions