POS 4931
Study Questions for Midterm Examination

  1. You have been assigned to write a paper about how viewing President Obama's speeches affects public attitudes toward health care reform. Your instructor asks you to conduct a study using either an experimental  design or a survey. Discuss the factors you would consider in making the choice and why you would recommend one or the other means of data collection.

  2. You've been asked to survey UF students on their attitudes about sexual orientation. Because the Administration is considering changing UF policies, they need student input quickly. The questionnaire is to include an inquiry about the respondents' sexual orientation and you want to test whether a question about sexual attraction or a self-identification question works better. The bad news is that both time and money are very limited. What survey mode or modes would you choose and why? What about the content of the survey prompts you to recommend one mode over naother?

  3. A recent New York Times story about a poll included the following: "In addition to sampling error, the practical difficulties of conducting any survey of public opinion may introduce other sources of error into the poll.." What does this refer to?

  4. Consider the following two questions about America's role in the world:
Question A. "This country would be better off if we just stayed home and did not concern ourselves with problems in other parts of the world." Do you agree strongly, agree somewhat, disagree somewhat or disagree strongly with this statement.

Question B. "Some people believe the United States would be better off is we just stayed home and did not concern ourselves with problems in other parts of the world. Other people say that the United States has a responsibility to address global problems that might later pose a problem to American interests." On a scale where 1 indicates the US should stay home and 7 indicates that the US has responsibility to address global problems, where would you place yourself?

How and why would the differences in the two questions affect the responses given by respondents?