Week 1: Introduction + Philosophy of Social Science

1. Which of the following terms reflect scientific research? (Multiple answers possible)
A) Intuition
B) Systematic
C) Personal experience
D) Falsification
E) Customs
F) Replication

2. Karl Popper argued that the falsification of theories or hypotheses should be the
primary goal for scientific researchers. Which of the following terms matches the logic
of falsification most?
A) Deduction
B) Retroduction
C) Induction
D) Verification

3. The question whether there is an objective reality, independent of the observer, is

a(n)...
A) Ontological question
B) Epistemological question
C) Methodological question

4. Post-colonialism as an approach falls under which philosophy of social science?

Please answer in one or two words

5. The term “normal science” has been used by the following author:
A) Carl Gustav Hempel
B) Thomas Kuhn
C) Imre Lakatos
D) Karp Popper
 6. Which philosophical position considers the objectivity of a researcher least
important?
A) Interpretivism
B) Logical positivism
C) Scientific realism
D) Classical positivism

Week 2: Research Questions & Theories + Causality & Research Designs

1. ‘As the number of hours of negative ads watched increases, the probability that an
individual will vote decreases.’ This hypothesis reflects which type of research
question?
A) Normative
B) Predictive
C) Explanatory
D) Descriptive

2. What do you call a factor or variable that can fully explain what was originally
considered to be a causal relationship between a cause (IV) and an effect (DV)?
(Note: The answer should be one word)

3. The main impact of a moderating factor can be described as

A) Affecting the dependent variable
B) Affecting the relationship between cause and effect
C) Affecting the independent variable
D) Mediating the relationship between cause and effect

4. Some researchers do not consider a natural experiment to be a true experimental

design because it is missing
A) A randomised intervention or treatment
B) An intervention or treatment
 C) The controlled setting of a laboratory
D) A careful design process by the researcher

5. Please match the following examples of research questions with the appropriate type
of research question.

What facilitates terrorism more, ethnic or religious 1. Descriptive

conflicts?

When, if ever, are war and political violence 2. Explanatory

justified?

What is the most effective way that governments 3. Predictive

can respond to terrorism?

Will terrorist attacks increase over the next 4. Prescriptive

decade?

How are terrorists and their actions similar to or 5. Normative

different from traditional political or military actors
and actions?

Week 3: Research Ethics and (Threats to) Validity + Data & Measurement

1. The research design of Milgran’s study “Obedience to Authority” can be best

described as:
A) Experimental design
B) Cross-sectional design
C) Comparative design
D) Historical design

2. The Milgram Study on “Obedience to Authority” raised ethical issues for several
reasons, but the most serious problem was:
A) The psychological burden
B) The use of electric shocks
C) The use of deception
D) The use of concealment
 3. Obtaining informed consent can be a challenge for experiments and the four
scenarios below describe different study procedures. Please check each situation in
which a participant was NOT able to give their informed consent for participation
A) Someone participates in an online survey experiment but does not read the
explanation about the experiment provided by the researcher and
immediately clicks on ‘start survey’. Upon completing the survey, the
participant is sent a ‘thank you’ email with the contact information of the
researcher in case they change their mind about participating.
B) Participants are given false information about the purpose of an experiment
before participating. Only after the experiment has been completed, the
researchers tell the participants what the actual purpose of the experiment
was.
C) Before the start of an experiment, all participants are informed about what
kind of experiment they are going to be participating in. The researchers do
not tell the participants that the study is sponsored by Facebook
D) For the testing of a new medicine, participants are told about all the
potentially dangerous side effects the medicine can have and are informed
about all the risks. They are also offered a large monetary reward to
participate in the experiment.

4. The ability to draw causal inferences - having confidence in the observed causal
relationship and being able to rule out alternative explanations - is called (Note: The
answer should be one to two words)

Week 4: Comparative / Historical Research & Case Selection + Surveys &

Sampling

1. Which of the following comparative designs will (usually) perform best in terms of
BOTH internal and external validity?
A) Single case study
B) Small-N case study
C) Large-N case study
2. If a researcher wants to test a theory with a single case study, which of the following
case selection strategies would be most recommended?
A) Unusual or extreme case
B) Critical or crucial case
C) Deviant case
D) Most different system design (MDSD)

3. A researcher wants to study the effect of religiosity on charitable giving. For a small-n
comparison, the researcher wants to use the most different system design (MDSD)
case selection approach to choose relevant countries. All the criteria or aspects listen
below are relevant for this selection, but which criterion or aspec should be LEAST
relevant for this decision?
A) A high level of charitable giving
B) Countries that in general are very different
C) A high level of religiosity
D) Countries that differ in major religion

4. Which of the following survey designs is most likely to allow causal inferences?
A) Panel study
B) Trend study
C) Cohort study

5. A researcher wants to study changes in public opinion over an extended period of

time by distinguishing the effects of age, different generations, and major events.
What kind of study or survey design would be most appropriate for this purpose?
(Note: The answer should be two words)

6. A researcher wants to use a survey to ask respondents about their participation in

illegal protests. What should the researcher be most concerned about?
A) Misreporting
B) Recall problems
C) Question order effects
D) Acquiescence bias
 7. The following question is an example of a common question included in European
public opinion surveys:
“Now thinking about the European Union, some say European unification should go
further. Others say it has already gone too far. Please indicate your position on the
scale below.” The question is followed by an 11-point response scale randing from
“Unification has already gone too far” to “Unification should go further.”
This type of question can be best characterised as:
A) Leading question
B) Double-barreled question
C) Open-ended question
D) Balanced question

Week 5: Interviews & Focus Groups + Experiments

1. The European Election Study is conducted in all EU countries shortly after each
European election.Despite the fact that EU countries differ considerably in population
size, the sample in each country is around 1000 respondents. The equal size can be
best explained as:
A) Only equally-sized samples can be compared with each other
B) The samples will be weighted by population size
C) The size of the sample does not matter for sampling error
D) The size of the population does not matter for sampling error
2. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A) Internet-based surveys are by far the cheapest data collection method and
thus the best choice for population surveys
B) Face-to-face interviews are best suited to ask personally sensitive survey
questions
C) Due to wrong/nonexistent numbers, the response rate for phone surveys is
much lower when using random digit dialling (RDD) than an established list of
phone numbers (e.g. phone book)
 3. When interviewing political elites, an interviewer will often use a combination of
structured questions (for basic factual information) and unstructured questions (to
follow-up and probe deeper). How is such an interview called? (Note: Response
should be one or two words)

4. An interviewer plays a crucial role for a successful interview. Which of the following
behaviours or activities should a good interviewer do or engage in? (Check all that
apply)
A) Obtain informed consent before the start of the interview
B) Take written notes or record the interview
C) Advance preparation (e.g. collecting background information) by the
interviewer can lead to a researcher bias and should be avoided
D) Never deviate from the questions in the questionnaire
E) React positively or negatively to the statements of an interviewee
F) Encourage interviewees to elaborate their answers

Week 6: Ethnography & Participant Observation + Textual / Content Analysis

& Big Data

1. The criterion of ecological validity can best be classified as part of which general type
of validity?
A) Measurement reliability
B) External validity
C) Measurement validity
D) Internal validity

2. Which of the following characteristics correctly describe the design of the

decision-making experiment about counterterrorism strategies by Mintz, Redd, and
Vadliz (2006)? (Check all that are correct)
A) Quasi-experimental treatment
B) Posttest-only design
 C) Pretest-posttest design
D) Factorial design
E) Within-participants design
F) Randomised treatment

3. The different forms of validity and reliability are important for the assessment of
research. Because the application of the common criteria for validity and reliability
works better for quantitative research, qualitative researchers such as Lincoln and
Guba (2007) have developed alternative criteria for validity and reliability that
specifically apply to qualitative research. Below the different criteria are listed. Please
match the quantitative criteria with the corresponding qualitative criteria

Transferability 1. Internal Validity

Confirmability 2. External Validity

Credibility 3. Reliability

Dependability 4. Objectivity

4. Which of the following aspects were not discussed by Kelsall in his observational
study of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone?
A) Credibility of interpretations
B) Role of the observer
C) Form of observation
D) Generalisability of findings

5. There are a number of important differences between qualitative and quantitative

content analyses. Please indicate for the following aspects whether they are
characteristics of qualitative or quantitative content analysis

Statistical analysis

Use of quotations
 Standardised codebook 1. Qualitative Content Analysis

Coding of latent content

Narrative summary 2. Qualitative Content Analysis

Open coding

A priori codes

6. When conducting a quantitative content analysis, the coding result and coding
categories are summarised in a document called (enter the name of the document as
one word)

7. Measurement reliability of qualitative content analysis can be assessed by:

A) Plausibility
B) Coder stability
C) Objectivity
D) Reproducibility

Week 7: (Mostly Quantitative) Data Analysis

1. Which of the following terms are all basic attributes of scientific research?
A) Systematic, verifiable, theory-based
B) Methodological, personal experience, systematic
C) Intuitive, self-critical, methodological
D) Verifiable, self-critical, tradition

2. A researcher studying the political and economic development of member countries

of the European Union over the last 40 years notices that in 1990, West Germany
was reunified with East Germany, affecting all kinds of measures and indicators. THis
might pose a threat to the internal and external validity primarily due to:
 A) Selection bias
B) Instability
C) Maturation
D) History

3. Kelsall’s observational study of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing in

Sierra Leone primarily raises ethical questions due to:
A) Violation of subjects’ privacy
B) Deception of subjects
C) Failure to use a consent form
D) Exposing subjects’ to potential harm

4. When measuring a concept with several indicators, a researcher would (if no perfect
measurement is possible) prefer:
A) Small random error and high systematic error
B) Small random error and small systematic error
C) High random error but no systematic error
D) High random error but no systematic error
E) High random error and high systematic error

5. If we can establish that variable X changes before variable Q in time, then we can
conclude with certainty that:
A) Variable X is not a cause of variable Q
B) Variabel X is a cause of variable Q
C) Variable Q is not a cause of variable X
D) Variable G is a cause of variable X

6. Data mining is:

A) An exploratory method of data analysis
B) A qualitative data collection method
C) A ‘Big Data’ technique for theory testing
D) A quantitative data collection method

7. A common answer format in questionnaires is so-called Likert-item, for example

capturing agreement on a five-point scale: (1) strongly agree, (2) agree, (3) neither
agree nor disagree, (4) disagree, (5) strongly disagree. The level of measurement of
this response scale is:
 A) Nominal
B) Ordinal
C) Interval
D) Ratio

8. A confidence interval (CI) is established around:

A) A population parameter
B) The value zero (0)
C) A sample statistic
D) The grand mean of a sampling distribution

9. In order to protect the privacy and confidentiality of social media users, personally
identifying information from publicly available data should be removed. What is this
measure called? (Note: The answer should be one or two words)