1
SMPA 1050 Final Questions with Answers (100% Correct
Answers)
What are the 3 major research design approaches? Answer: Survey,
Content analysis, experiments
Independent variables Answer: The things that influence, effect, cause
other things
Dependent variables Answer: The things that are influenced, effected,
moved
Population Answer: The universe of things you're interested in
understanding
Examples of population Answer: Americans, voters, mainstream
media, broadcast news
Sample Answer: Smaller portion of population that is analyzed bc
population is too big
Examples of samples Answer: 1200 Americans, 500 stories from
newspapers
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Internal validity Answer: Is the study conducted properly
External validity Answer: Is the study generalizable - can we
extrapolate from it to the real world population we want to make
inferences about
When do we use survey research Answer: Used when we're interested
in learning about public opinion, attitudes, behavior
Advantages of survey research Answer: generalizable, helps us
understand and describe
Disadvantages of survey research Answer: Cannot make strong causal
claims since evidence about relationships tends to be correlational not
causal
Issues in survey research Answer: Sampling (is it representative?)
Question wording effects
Question order effects
Non-attitudes (people in survey give answer even if they don't actually
have opinion)
Issues with social desirability/survey setting influencing responses
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, 3
What does Sides say is an effect of bad poll questions Answer: - People
just rationalize their answer based on prior attitudes
- People don't really offer true introspective response
- people give non attitude reasons
- nature of question leads to possible false attitudes
What is on Rakich's checklist for reading polls Answer: - Check
pollster track record
- Avoid comparisons between pollsters
- Note who's being polled
- Pay attention to margin of error
- Consider the source
- If the poll has an off result there might be a reason for it
- Don't try to outguess or "unskew" the polls
- Head averages of polls, not outliers
- In the aggregate, polls are pretty accurate, if imperfect
© 2025 All rights reserved
SMPA 1050 Final Questions with Answers (100% Correct
Answers)
What are the 3 major research design approaches? Answer: Survey,
Content analysis, experiments
Independent variables Answer: The things that influence, effect, cause
other things
Dependent variables Answer: The things that are influenced, effected,
moved
Population Answer: The universe of things you're interested in
understanding
Examples of population Answer: Americans, voters, mainstream
media, broadcast news
Sample Answer: Smaller portion of population that is analyzed bc
population is too big
Examples of samples Answer: 1200 Americans, 500 stories from
newspapers
© 2025 All rights reserved
,2
Internal validity Answer: Is the study conducted properly
External validity Answer: Is the study generalizable - can we
extrapolate from it to the real world population we want to make
inferences about
When do we use survey research Answer: Used when we're interested
in learning about public opinion, attitudes, behavior
Advantages of survey research Answer: generalizable, helps us
understand and describe
Disadvantages of survey research Answer: Cannot make strong causal
claims since evidence about relationships tends to be correlational not
causal
Issues in survey research Answer: Sampling (is it representative?)
Question wording effects
Question order effects
Non-attitudes (people in survey give answer even if they don't actually
have opinion)
Issues with social desirability/survey setting influencing responses
© 2025 All rights reserved
, 3
What does Sides say is an effect of bad poll questions Answer: - People
just rationalize their answer based on prior attitudes
- People don't really offer true introspective response
- people give non attitude reasons
- nature of question leads to possible false attitudes
What is on Rakich's checklist for reading polls Answer: - Check
pollster track record
- Avoid comparisons between pollsters
- Note who's being polled
- Pay attention to margin of error
- Consider the source
- If the poll has an off result there might be a reason for it
- Don't try to outguess or "unskew" the polls
- Head averages of polls, not outliers
- In the aggregate, polls are pretty accurate, if imperfect
© 2025 All rights reserved
