POLI 105 MIDTERM EXAM 1 QUESTIONS WITH
VERIFIED ANSWERS
Which of the following is an important characteristic of politics as discussed in class -
Answers - Compromise is not always possible
As discussed early in the semester and explained in the readings, the behavioral
revolution in Political Science involved which of the following? - Answers - A more
objective, qualified approach to explain and predict political behavior
The population based survey experiment reading discussed the "holy trinity of
causation" ( also discussed in class as Humean causation). According to this model,
which of the following is not one of the three necessary conditions for causation to be
identified? - Answers - The explanatory variable must be randomly assigned.
True or false "how does issue framing by the media affect individual attitudes on
terrorism?" is an example of a normative research question - Answers - false
Which of the following hypothetical scenarios constitutes a concrete example of why it is
difficult to study Politics - Answers - All of the above
Which of the following would be most easily accomplished with a case study of the
genocide in Rwanda - Answers - Exploring in depth the casual process that led to the
specific event
In a theory linking the parliamentary style of democracy to better human rights practices
(relative to the presidential style), a political scientist makes the explicit assumption that
executives always make decisions unilaterally, ignoring the role of advisors. Which of
the following is true? - Answers - The assumption is most likely false, but the theory
could be useful
True or false: narrative based journalism is scientific in the specific case that reporting
consists only of facts - Answers - False
A researcher found statistically significant evidence that the probability of civil war onset
is higher during the years in which the olympics are held. The relationship is most likely
- Answers - spurious
True or false: A major problem with the use of statistics is that we have no idea how
much uncertainty surrounds our estimates - Answers - False
, Which of the following research questions is least suitable to testing with an
experiment? - Answers - The link between level of democracy and respect for human
rights
In a study linking democracy to higher income growth, a researcher grouped states into
non-democracies, semi-democracies, and full democracies. This grouping represents
which level of measurement? - Answers - Ordinal
Seeing the study mentioned directly above, a second researcher argues that it is
inappropriate to consider a country to be a semi democracy. This research recodes all
countries to be either democracies or non-democracies. This alternate grouping
represents which level of measurement - Answers - Dichotomous
Which of the following is a useful visualization to summarize a categorical variable? -
Answers - A bar chart of frequencies in each category
A researcher examines the link between socio-ecomomic status and political
participation, finding that individuals who grew up in a wealthier household are more
likely to vote and to be active in political organization. Applying statistics to examine the
association, the research finds statistical significance (specifically, p<0.01). Which of the
following is true? - Answers - There is less than a 1% probability to observe this
association due merely to random chance
A researcher develops a theory that people with more passionate personalities are
more likely to be involved in protest activity. Which of the following is required in order to
use an observational research design to test this theory. - Answers - Operationalizing
passion
A researcher uses observational data to examine the relationship between alliances and
trade (using the country as the level of analysis). Although expecting that the presence
of an alliance will promote higher trade, the researcher is concerned that her results
might be biased because higher trade levels might also lead countries to form an
alliance; causation could go either way, or both ways. The bias, if it exists, would be an
example of - Answers - Endogeneity
A few decades ago, political scientists observed that no two democracies had ever
fought a major war. The political scientists that explored possible explanations for this
empirical relationship between democracy and war in an attempt to build a theory
linking mutual democracy to peace. Which of the following is true? - Answers - These
scholars engaged in inductive reasoning
Which of the following is an advantage of collecting a representative sample of the US
population when designing a survey to examine the political attitudes of US
representatives? - Answers - All of the above
VERIFIED ANSWERS
Which of the following is an important characteristic of politics as discussed in class -
Answers - Compromise is not always possible
As discussed early in the semester and explained in the readings, the behavioral
revolution in Political Science involved which of the following? - Answers - A more
objective, qualified approach to explain and predict political behavior
The population based survey experiment reading discussed the "holy trinity of
causation" ( also discussed in class as Humean causation). According to this model,
which of the following is not one of the three necessary conditions for causation to be
identified? - Answers - The explanatory variable must be randomly assigned.
True or false "how does issue framing by the media affect individual attitudes on
terrorism?" is an example of a normative research question - Answers - false
Which of the following hypothetical scenarios constitutes a concrete example of why it is
difficult to study Politics - Answers - All of the above
Which of the following would be most easily accomplished with a case study of the
genocide in Rwanda - Answers - Exploring in depth the casual process that led to the
specific event
In a theory linking the parliamentary style of democracy to better human rights practices
(relative to the presidential style), a political scientist makes the explicit assumption that
executives always make decisions unilaterally, ignoring the role of advisors. Which of
the following is true? - Answers - The assumption is most likely false, but the theory
could be useful
True or false: narrative based journalism is scientific in the specific case that reporting
consists only of facts - Answers - False
A researcher found statistically significant evidence that the probability of civil war onset
is higher during the years in which the olympics are held. The relationship is most likely
- Answers - spurious
True or false: A major problem with the use of statistics is that we have no idea how
much uncertainty surrounds our estimates - Answers - False
, Which of the following research questions is least suitable to testing with an
experiment? - Answers - The link between level of democracy and respect for human
rights
In a study linking democracy to higher income growth, a researcher grouped states into
non-democracies, semi-democracies, and full democracies. This grouping represents
which level of measurement? - Answers - Ordinal
Seeing the study mentioned directly above, a second researcher argues that it is
inappropriate to consider a country to be a semi democracy. This research recodes all
countries to be either democracies or non-democracies. This alternate grouping
represents which level of measurement - Answers - Dichotomous
Which of the following is a useful visualization to summarize a categorical variable? -
Answers - A bar chart of frequencies in each category
A researcher examines the link between socio-ecomomic status and political
participation, finding that individuals who grew up in a wealthier household are more
likely to vote and to be active in political organization. Applying statistics to examine the
association, the research finds statistical significance (specifically, p<0.01). Which of the
following is true? - Answers - There is less than a 1% probability to observe this
association due merely to random chance
A researcher develops a theory that people with more passionate personalities are
more likely to be involved in protest activity. Which of the following is required in order to
use an observational research design to test this theory. - Answers - Operationalizing
passion
A researcher uses observational data to examine the relationship between alliances and
trade (using the country as the level of analysis). Although expecting that the presence
of an alliance will promote higher trade, the researcher is concerned that her results
might be biased because higher trade levels might also lead countries to form an
alliance; causation could go either way, or both ways. The bias, if it exists, would be an
example of - Answers - Endogeneity
A few decades ago, political scientists observed that no two democracies had ever
fought a major war. The political scientists that explored possible explanations for this
empirical relationship between democracy and war in an attempt to build a theory
linking mutual democracy to peace. Which of the following is true? - Answers - These
scholars engaged in inductive reasoning
Which of the following is an advantage of collecting a representative sample of the US
population when designing a survey to examine the political attitudes of US
representatives? - Answers - All of the above
