Sample Questions for the Midterm Exam:

Sociological Methods

1. Which of the following is not part of the definition of a “push poll?”

A. *It is a research tool used to evaluate strategies that might work in a campaign, and several positive and negative themes might be evaluated.

B. It is a form of political telemarketing.

C. Thousands of calls are made, and no data are usually recorded.

D. It is “negative persuasion calling” rather than a poll.

E. It is designed to move the support of voters away from one candidate and toward another.

2. Independent variable is to dependent variable as

A. theory is to hypothesis.

B. disease is to cure.

C. *cause is to effect.

D. response is to stimulus.

E. outcome is to treatment.

3. What do we call it when a measure is related to a variety of other measures, as specified in a theory?

A. Face validity

B. Content validity

C. Criterion validity

D. *Construct validity

4. The most important distinction that needs to be made about samples is whether they are based on a

A. population that is easy or difficult to find.

B. single or a multi-stage selection procedure.

C. *nonprobability or a probability sampling method.

D. large or a small fraction of the population.

E. sampling frame of all elements or not.

5. Which type of longitudinal design does the following describe? Samples are drawn at different points in time in the same population with the same respondents.

A. Single cross-sectional designs

B. Repeated cross-sectional designs

C. *Panel designs

D. Cohort studies (event-based designs)

E. None of the above