Communication Research practice questions

Question: ___________ research is designed to address real‑world problems. The focus is geared towards a specific issue.

Answer Options:
Theoretical; Basic; Applied; Practical; Realistic

Answer: Applied

Question: The ____________ stage of research involves identifying a topic/issue worth studying.

Answer Options:
Conceptualization; Planning; Methods/Data Collection; Analyze the Data; Reconceptualization

Answer: Conceptualization

Question: In scholarly journals, we should expect the reconceptualization stage where author’s offer recommendation for additional evaluation to be explained in the:

Answer Options:
Abstract; Introduction; Methods; Results; Discussion

Answer: Discussion

Question: In a quantitative research article, we should expect the operationalizations of the variables studied to appear in the _ section. This is also called the __ stage of the research.

Answer Options:
Abstract; Introduction; Methods; Results; Discussion

Answer: Methods

Question: There are three levels/aims of science. At the ______ level, researchers take descriptions and explications and begin generating theories to explain why things occur the way they do.

Answer Options:
Description; Explication; Predict; Control; Systematic

Answer: Predict

Question: From generalized theory, researchers derive _________ or specific predicted relationships among variables.

Answer Options:
Research questions; Hypotheses; Variables; Spurious; Constructs

Answer: Hypotheses

Question: Science operates at two levels: the abstract and concrete. Researchers think conceptually (abstract) and test their thoughts in a world of numbers. In an effort to translate ideas, researcher must first clearly define what it is they are interested in investigating. This process is called:

Answer Options:
Planning; Definition; Explication; Construction; Theory development

Answer: Explication

Question: ___ definitions are how researchers define constructs whereas definitions are how they observe and measure what was defined.

Answer Options:
Operational/conceptual; Conceptual/operational; Conceptual/theoretical; Conceptual/practical; Operational/explication

Answer: Conceptual/operational

Question: The relationship or bridge between a conceptual and operational definition is:

Answer Options:
the degree of conceptual fit; whether the target can be tested by using research questions; whether the target’s key attributes can be proven through the scientific method; whether the target is unique and, thereby, triggers diverse conceptualizations; cannot answer with information provided

Answer: the degree of conceptual fit

Question: If a researcher defines the communication variable “argument quality” as “the degree to which a message’s arguments are logically related and robust”, which one of the following processes has the researcher engaged in here?

Answer Options:
Conceptualization; Operationalization; Conceptual fit; Measurement

Answer: Conceptualization

Question: The Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (or the PRCA) instrument or scale is best described as:

Answer Options:
A conceptual definition of Communication Apprehension; An operational definition of Communication Apprehension; The conceptual fit of Communication Apprehension; The content validity of Communication Apprehension

Answer: An operational definition of Communication Apprehension

Question: A scale that presents a topic and then requests participants to indicate their reaction along a continuum anchored by bipolar adjectives is an example of a:

Answer Options:
Nominal scale; Semantic differential scale; Likert scale; Ratio scale

Answer: Semantic differential scale

Question: Please identify the correct level of measurement for the following variable: “Communication Apprehension”: measured using 12, 5‑point Likert‑type scale items.

Answer Options:
Binary; Nominal; Interval; Ordinal; Ratio

Answer: Interval

Question: Please identify the correct level of measurement for the following variable: What countries have you visited outside the United States?

Answer Options:
Binary; Nominal; Interval; Ordinal; Ratio

Answer: Nominal

Question: A research team is attempting to ascertain what influence, if any, listening to Keeping up with the Kardashians has on intelligence in college students. “Intelligence” is best defined here as a/an:

Answer Options:
Nominal variable; Independent variable; Interval variable; Dependent variable; Spurious variable

Answer: Dependent variable

Question: In the above example, “listening to Keeping up with the Kardashians” is best defined here as a/an:

Answer Options:
Nominal variable; Independent variable; Interval variable; Dependent variable; Spurious variable

Answer: Independent variable

Question: Validity is the degree to which a scale produces stable, consistent measurements.

Answer Options:
True; False

Answer: False

Communication Research practice questions

Question: ___________ research is designed to address real‑world problems. The focus is geared towards a specific issue.

Question: The ____________ stage of research involves identifying a topic/issue worth studying.

Question: In scholarly journals, we should expect the reconceptualization stage where author’s offer recommendation for additional evaluation to be explained in the:

Question: In a quantitative research article, we should expect the operationalizations of the variables studied to appear in the _______ section. This is also called the ________ stage of the research.

Question: There are three levels/aims of science. At the ______ level, researchers take descriptions and explications and begin generating theories to explain why things occur the way they do.

Question: From generalized theory, researchers derive _________ or specific predicted relationships among variables.

Question: ___________ definitions are how researchers define constructs whereas ________ definitions are how they observe and measure what was defined.

Question: The relationship or bridge between a conceptual and operational definition is:

Question: If a researcher defines the communication variable “argument quality” as “the degree to which a message’s arguments are logically related and robust”, which one of the following processes has the researcher engaged in here?

Question: The Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (or the PRCA) instrument or scale is best described as:

Question: A scale that presents a topic and then requests participants to indicate their reaction along a continuum anchored by bipolar adjectives is an example of a:

Question: Please identify the correct level of measurement for the following variable: “Communication Apprehension”: measured using 12, 5‑point Likert‑type scale items.

Question: Please identify the correct level of measurement for the following variable: What countries have you visited outside the United States?

Question: A research team is attempting to ascertain what influence, if any, listening to Keeping up with the Kardashians has on intelligence in college students. “Intelligence” is best defined here as a/an:

Question: In the above example, “listening to Keeping up with the Kardashians” is best defined here as a/an:

Question: Validity is the degree to which a scale produces stable, consistent measurements.

Question: In a quantitative research article, we should expect the operationalizations of the variables studied to appear in the _ section. This is also called the __ stage of the research.

Question: ___ definitions are how researchers define constructs whereas definitions are how they observe and measure what was defined.