7126/6667 Survey Research & Design in Psychology

Semester 1, 2007

Practice Mid-semester Exam(with answers)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. This practice exam has 50 multiple choice items; each is worth ½ mark. The actual mid-semester exam will have 60 multiple choice items.

2. The mid-semester exam will be worth 30% of your final mark for this unit.

3. There is a time limit of 90 minutes for the mid-semester exam – to meet this pace, these practice items should be done in 75 minutes.

4. For each item select the best answer.5. Some questions in this practice exam require

matching or an exact answer.6. You are permitted to use a non-programmable

calculator.

NAME:

ID:

Date:

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1. Gender is usually operationalised as:*a. nominal/categorical datab. ordinal datac. interval datad. ratio data

2. Placings in a horse race is an example of:a. nominal/categorical data*b. ordinal datac. interval datad. ratio data

3. Class ranking on a test is:a. nominal/categorical data*b. ordinal datac. interval datad. ratio data

4. Someone's annual income (in dollars) would be usually be coded as:a. nominal/categorical datab. ordinal datac. interval data*d. ratio data

5. Political party affiliation(Labour, Liberal etc.) would be recorded as:*a. nominal/categorical datab. ordinal datac. interval datad. ratio data

6. Which of the following statements is true?*a. Ratio data is continuousb. Interval data is continuousc. Ordinal data is continuousd. Categorical data is continuous

7. The most appropriate statistic for indicating central tendency in nominal/categorical data would be:* a. Frequency / Modeb. Medianc. Meand. range

8. If the mean was smaller than the median, the skewness would be:a. Positive *b. Negativec. Zero d. Irrelevant

9. A normal distribution can be described by ___ statistical parameters or moments.a. 2 b. 3*c. 4d. 5

10. Classify the most likely purpose of this research question:"What is the likelihood of a case of bird flu being detected in Australia in the next 12 months?"

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a. exploratoryb. descriptivec. explanatory*d. predictive

11. In a study of university student satisfaction, which of the following is most likely to be a dependent variable?a. Students' ageb. Type of university course*c. Satisfaction with university ratingd. Students’ residential status

12. A semantic differential response format typically involves what kind of stimuli?*a. Ratings made in response to adjectives with opposite meaningsb. A true/false formatc. Selecting a graphic representation of affective stated. “Shopping list” type items for memory recall

13. Results obtained from a sample population:* a. Are generalised to the target populationb. Are identical to those in the target populationc. Are usually non-representatived. Are only obtained in quasi-experiments

14. Which of the following is not one of Tufte’s guidelines for preparing graphs:a. Present many numbers in a small spaceb. Show the datac. Reveal data at several levels*d. Keep it simple

15. Cannell makes which of the following comments about this survey question: “Did you eat breakfast yesterday?”*a. The definition of ‘breakfast’ varies widely.b. It is a leading question.c. The question is not specific enough.d. A better question would be “What did you eat for breakfast yesterday?”

16. The most appropriate statistic for indicating central tendency in normally distributed ratio data would be:a. Standard deviationb. Variance*c. Meand. Standard error

17. The variance is calculated based on:a. positive skewnessb. leptokurtosis*c. the sum of squared deviation scoresd. the mode

18. In creating a plot to show the relationship between the rate of skin cancer and exposure to UV light, which variable should be shown on the X axis?*a. exposure to UV lightb. rate of skin cancerc. the Y axisd. all of the above

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19. Which of the following best describes the standard deviation:*a. The average amount to which scores in a distribution differ from the meanb. the average of the scores in a distribution c. The variance multiplied by the ranged. the mean of the standardised scores

20. The standard deviation is:*a. the square root of the varianceb. the variance squaredc. also known as the standard error of the meand. the variance divided by N

21. Correlation is:*a. the covariance of standardised scoresb. the mean of the population standard deviationsc. a way of testing cause and effectd. for comparing mean differences

22. The appropriate statistic(s) for examining the relationship between ordinal variables is/are:*a. spearman’s rho / kendall’s taub. phi / Cramer’s Vc. point-biseriald. product-moment correlation

23. Product-moment correlations are used for examining ____________.a. univariate descriptivesb. bivariate differences*c. bivariate relations d. multivariate relations

24. The degrees of freedom for Pearson’s r is equal to:a. Nb. N – 1*c. N – 2d. N + 7

25. A curvilinear relationship is often described as being:a. straight lineb. broken line*c. U- or J-shapedd. A big mistake

26. A point biserial coefficient is for estimating the linear relationship between:a. two dichotomous variables*b. one dichotomous variable and one continuous variablec. two ordinal variablesd. one ordinal variable and one continuous variable

27. Non-parametric statistics are most likely to be used for:a. string variables*b. Non-normally distributed ratio datac. Normally distributed interval datad. Normally distributed ratio data

28. From a practical data analysis point of view, an interval scale can be generally be treated as continuous data when there are _____ or more intervals.

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a. 1b. 2c. 3*d. 5

29. Which of the following checks are not relevant to deciding whether the Pearson product-moment correlation is an appropriate indication of the degree of linear association between two variables?a. Check the scatterplot for outliersb. Each variable is normally distributed *c. The data represent a sample, not a populationd. Check the scatterplot for linearity

30. The square of the correlation coefficient or r2; is called the *a. coefficient of determinationb. variancec. covarianced. coefficient of discontent

31. Cronbach’s alpha is a measure of:a. test-retest reliabilityb. external validity*c. internal reliabilityd. internal validity

32. The eigen values in a factor analysis add up to 120. Two factors explain 20% of the variance. What is the total of the eigen values for factors 3 to 120 (inclusive)?*a. 96b. 100c. 117d. 97

33. Match the 4 factor analysis terms with their best partner.1. Principal Components2. Oblimin3. Varimax4. Principal Axis Factoring

a. Theoreticalb. Practicalc. Pattern Matrixd. Rotated Factor Matrix**1b,2c,3d,4a

34. These two tables are based on the same dataset. Which of the following statements (may be more than one) are correct according to the tables?

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*a. A one factor model could be viable*b. A two factor model could be viable*c. A three factor model be viabled. A varimax solution is better than an oblimin solution*e. An oblimin solution is better than a varimax solution*f. PAF was usedg. PC was used

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35. This data has a simple factor structure with factors which could be meaningfully named Product Quality (factor 1), Product Familiarity (factor 2), and Product Accessibility (factor 3).

a. True*b. False

36. Which of the following 3 items do you think should be eliminated? (may be more than 1)

a. 1*b. 2c. 3d. 4*e. 5f. 6

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g. 7h. 8i. 9j. 10*k. 11l. 12m. 13n. 14o. 15

37. Match the following values of Cronbach's Alpha with the interpretations.1. .402. .603. .704. .805. .906. 1.00

a. Poorb. OKc. Moderated. Stronge. Very strongf. Too high; redundant**1a,2b,3c,4d,5e,6f

38. Internal reliability refers to the extent to which a measure is consistent within itself.*a. Trueb. False

39. Validity is the degree to which a measure accurately reflects the underlying concept. (The degree to which a measure actually measures what it is supposed to.)*a. Trueb. False

40. Measured value =a. True value of conceptb. True value of concept + random errorc. True value of concept + non-random error*d. True value of concept + non-random error + random error

41. Test-retest reliability is a measure of internal reliability.a. True*b. False

42. Which of the following would not be an appropriate method for creating a unit-weighted composite score:a. Adding all the items together and dividing by the number of itemsb. Adding all the items together and dividing by any number*c. Multiplying the scores on each item by a weight and adding the products togetherd. Multiplying the scores on each item by the same weight and adding the products together

43. Which are the two most closely correlated university student motivational factors according to the following tables? (may be more than 1)

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*a. Altruismb. Reject alternativesc. Qualifications & careersd. Social pressuree. Social enjoyment*f. Self exploration

44. What percentage of variance did the following factor analysis explain when 6 factors were extracted? (report to 3 decimal places)

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Correct Answer:58.276%

45. Match the following pictures with the appropriate combination of reliability and validity. The bullseye represents a target construct, the darts represent measurement items.Bulleye #1:

Bullseye#2:

Bullseye#3:

1. Bullseye#12. Bullseye#33. Bullseye#2

a. Reliable & Validb. Reliable but not Validc. Not Reliable not Validd. Valid but not Reliable**1a,2c,3b

46. Which components in the following linear equation are "weights"?Y = a1X1 + a2X2 + a3X2 + a4X4 + ea. Y*b. a1, a2, a3, a4c. X1, X2, X3, X4d. e

47. Cronbach's Alpha is an indicator of the extent to which a measure yields similar results among its different parts as it measures a single phenomenon.*a. Trueb. False

48. Reliability is the degree to which a measure of the same object would produce the same value on repeated measurements.*a. Trueb. False

49. An instrument that is not reliable may be valid.a. True*b. False

50. Based on the following tables, which items do you think belong in the factor examined in the reliability analysis?

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a. 2, 8, 20, 26, 29*b. 2, 8, 20, 26c. 8, 20, 26d. 2, 8, 26, 29

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