POLS 2026 EXAMS SCRIPT UPDATED QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔What is the role of an Outside Observer? - ✔✔The researcher observes people and
records behavior without actively participating.
✔✔What is the role of a Participant Observer? - ✔✔The researcher actively participates
in the group or setting being studied.
✔✔What are the three types of information we can gather from a survey? -
✔✔Descriptive Information, Behavioral Information, Preference Information
✔✔What is Descriptive Information in surveys? - ✔✔Demographic information such as
age, income, education, gender, or ethnicity.
✔✔What is Behavioral Information in surveys? - ✔✔Information about what people do,
such as voting, studying, working, or media use.
✔✔What is Preference Information in surveys? - ✔✔People's opinions, attitudes, or
beliefs about issues or policies.
, ✔✔What are the advantages of conducting an in-person survey? - ✔✔High response
rate, interviewer can explain confusing questions, allows follow-up questions, useful for
hard-to-reach populations, more complete questionnaires.
✔✔What are the disadvantages of conducting an in-person survey? - ✔✔Expensive,
time-consuming, interviewer bias may occur, can be dangerous for interviewers,
respondents may feel uncomfortable.
✔✔What are the ethical responsibilities of researchers in social science? - ✔✔Protect
participants from harm, obtain informed consent, maintain privacy, avoid deception,
treat participants fairly, get IRB approval.
✔✔What is an example of unethical research? - ✔✔Milgram Experiment, Stanford
Prison Experiment, Tuskegee Syphilis Study.
✔✔What are the advantages of conducting a Focus Group? - ✔✔Flexible, low cost, fast
results, allows observation of group interaction, high face validity.
✔✔What are the disadvantages of conducting a Focus Group? - ✔✔Less control than
interviews, one person may dominate discussion, difficult to analyze group dynamics,
requires a skilled moderator, hard to assemble participants.
✔✔What are the three reasons for using a non-probability sample? - ✔✔Hard-to-reach
groups, specific groups, pilot programs.
✔✔What is the importance of a sampling frame? - ✔✔It must accurately reflect the
population and its quality affects the representativeness of the study.
✔✔What is the difference between Standard Error and Standard Deviation? -
✔✔Standard Deviation measures variation among individual values; Standard Error
measures variation among sample means.
✔✔What is the confidence interval for a survey result of 53% support with a margin of
error of ±5%? - ✔✔48% to 58%.
✔✔What are the four major components of an experimental design? - ✔✔Experimental
group, control group, independent variable, dependent variable.
✔✔What does Regression toward the Mean mean? - ✔✔Extremely high or low results
tend to move closer to average over time.
✔✔What is the difference between a Stratified sample and a Cluster sample? -
✔✔Stratified sampling divides the population into groups and samples from each;
cluster sampling uses naturally occurring groups.
AND ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔What is the role of an Outside Observer? - ✔✔The researcher observes people and
records behavior without actively participating.
✔✔What is the role of a Participant Observer? - ✔✔The researcher actively participates
in the group or setting being studied.
✔✔What are the three types of information we can gather from a survey? -
✔✔Descriptive Information, Behavioral Information, Preference Information
✔✔What is Descriptive Information in surveys? - ✔✔Demographic information such as
age, income, education, gender, or ethnicity.
✔✔What is Behavioral Information in surveys? - ✔✔Information about what people do,
such as voting, studying, working, or media use.
✔✔What is Preference Information in surveys? - ✔✔People's opinions, attitudes, or
beliefs about issues or policies.
, ✔✔What are the advantages of conducting an in-person survey? - ✔✔High response
rate, interviewer can explain confusing questions, allows follow-up questions, useful for
hard-to-reach populations, more complete questionnaires.
✔✔What are the disadvantages of conducting an in-person survey? - ✔✔Expensive,
time-consuming, interviewer bias may occur, can be dangerous for interviewers,
respondents may feel uncomfortable.
✔✔What are the ethical responsibilities of researchers in social science? - ✔✔Protect
participants from harm, obtain informed consent, maintain privacy, avoid deception,
treat participants fairly, get IRB approval.
✔✔What is an example of unethical research? - ✔✔Milgram Experiment, Stanford
Prison Experiment, Tuskegee Syphilis Study.
✔✔What are the advantages of conducting a Focus Group? - ✔✔Flexible, low cost, fast
results, allows observation of group interaction, high face validity.
✔✔What are the disadvantages of conducting a Focus Group? - ✔✔Less control than
interviews, one person may dominate discussion, difficult to analyze group dynamics,
requires a skilled moderator, hard to assemble participants.
✔✔What are the three reasons for using a non-probability sample? - ✔✔Hard-to-reach
groups, specific groups, pilot programs.
✔✔What is the importance of a sampling frame? - ✔✔It must accurately reflect the
population and its quality affects the representativeness of the study.
✔✔What is the difference between Standard Error and Standard Deviation? -
✔✔Standard Deviation measures variation among individual values; Standard Error
measures variation among sample means.
✔✔What is the confidence interval for a survey result of 53% support with a margin of
error of ±5%? - ✔✔48% to 58%.
✔✔What are the four major components of an experimental design? - ✔✔Experimental
group, control group, independent variable, dependent variable.
✔✔What does Regression toward the Mean mean? - ✔✔Extremely high or low results
tend to move closer to average over time.
✔✔What is the difference between a Stratified sample and a Cluster sample? -
✔✔Stratified sampling divides the population into groups and samples from each;
cluster sampling uses naturally occurring groups.
