Final exam review

Here are some review questions to help you study.  The questions have multiple parts and I’ve indicated point values to help organize a response.  Remember I have extra office hours on Monday and Wednesday.  Good luck studying!

===========

Ch 6—Levels of Measurement

You begin with the concept of “education” and must now operationalize it.  Create questions that measure education at nominal, ordinal, and ratio levels.  Provide response categories. (6 points)  (Hint:  Here’s how to approach this question.  You’re asked to write both questions and responses for each level of measurement.  There are three levels of measurement.)

Ch 7—Sampling

I am interested in the voting behavior of young adults (ages 18-24) in Canada.  I have limited resources, so I’m going to confine my study to a survey of York undergrads in this age group.  However, this still amounts to over 40,000 people!  I can’t survey that many, so I’ve decided to randomly sample 400 students.  What are the population and target population?   What are the sampling ratio and sampling elements?  What is the sampling frame and how might I obtain it?  (6 points)

Ch 8—Survey Research

In tutorial we saw a news article.  It reported that “68% of Torontonians were opposed to forcibly removing the homeless from public places.”  Presumably, what was the question asked?  What’s wrong with how it was phrased?  How would you fix it? (3 points)

Ch 9—Experiments

Ontario has the highest rate of workplace injury.  A group of researchers has developed a training module specifically designed to teach people how to avoid repetitive strain from activities like typing and how to lift heavy items without straining the back.  The module must be tested via experimental design before being adopted by the province.  Two workplace offices have volunteered to participate in a study.  Describe the key elements of your experiment and explain how you can conduct a double-blind study (Hint: The elements include variables, pre and post-tests, etc.)  (8 points)

Ch 10—Content Analysis

Think back to the in-class content analysis of film sequences from Requiem for a Dream and Trainspotting.  What was the unit of observation?  What was the unit of analysis?  Explain how the analysis was “structured” (frequency, space, intensity, or direction).

Ch 10—Content Analysis

Imagine you and I are asked to work on a content analysis of newspaper comics.  The research question is “How is violence portrayed in weekly comic strips?”

1. What is the unit of analysis?  What is the unit of observation? (2 points)

2. Provide an example of a manifest code.  Explain exactly what has to be seen for the comic image to qualify as manifest content. (2 points)

3. Provide an example of a latent code.  Explain exactly what has to be seen for the comic image to qualify as latent content. (2 points)

4. You and I rate the manifest and latent content of a bunch of comics.  Our percent agreement is 90%.  That’s really high!  Or, is it?  Are there any potential problems with the apparent success of our ratings? (2 points)