Chapter 5 Test Bank
5.1 Multiple-Choice Questions
1. When is research valid?
A) When it supports a company or client’s position
B) When it measures what it purports to measure
C) When it gauges support for a cause
D) When results are not consistent and stable
2. The use of existing information in books, articles, and electronic databases is known as
A) secondary research.
B) primary research.
C) summative research.
D) qualitative research.
3. Which of the following is an example of qualitative research?
A) a Likert-type scaled survey
B) a telephone poll
C) a focus group
D) an employee survey
4. Which is NOT a popular, “acceptable” online database for a literature review?
A) Factiva
B) LexisNexis
C) Wikipedia
D) ProQuest
5. A systematic analysis of communication that includes searching and counting key
words or concept references is
A) benchmarking.
B) cultivation analysis.
C) content analysis.
D) concept testing.
6. An intercept interview would most likely occur in a
A) stealth, front-group campaign.
B) political campaign.
C) pairing with ethnographic procedures.
D) shopping mall.
7. An observational technique in an “anthropological” form is known as
A) ethnographic technique .
B) copy testing.
C) scene sampling.
D) split-messaging.
8. Which is NOT indicative of a focus group?
A) almost exclusively used in media research
B) usually 8–12 participants
C) trained facilitator
D) qualitative research
9. When the representatives of the target audience are asked to read or view materials in
draft form before it is mass-produced and distributed is referred to as
A) copy testing.
B) split messaging.
C) benchmarking.
D) piggybacking.
10. The most expensive form of research is
A) a survey.
B) a focus group.
C) local market research.
D) personal interviews.
11. The most precise random sampling is usually done from
A) lists that give the name of everyone in the targeted audience.
B) federal government agencies.
C) specialized public relations firms.
D) impetus from exploratory focus groups.
12. Content analysis essentially revolves around
A) database management.
B) copy testing.
C) piggybacking.
D) counting and categorizing.
13. Biased wording on questionnaires is often a by-product of
A) poor construction of survey questions.
B) economic considerations.
C) affiliations (party/politics) of agencies administering surveys.
D) advocacy research.
14. What is a problem with Web and e-mail surveys?
A) cost
B) time
C) self-report bias
D) low response rate
15. A scale (oftentimes with five points) that probes depth of feeling among respondents
is called a
A) Thurstone scale.
B) semantic differential.
C) content analysis.
D) Likert-type scale.
16. A typical “margin of error” for a sample of 100 people is
A) 1 percent.
B) 10 percent.
C) 3 percent.
D) 8 percent.
17. Highly charged words that elicit an emotional reaction from survey respondents
indicate this type of research
A) market
B) advocacy
C) omnibus
D) government
18. Which of the following is a biased question?
A) Do you believe college bookstores charge a fair price for textbooks?
B) Do you believe college bookstores should sell texts to students at cost?
C) Do you believe that college bookstores should stop charging excessive prices for
textbooks?
D) Do you believe that college bookstores should charge students on financial aid less
money for texts?
19. Which is NOT a guideline when preparing a survey?
A) limit possible answers
B) edit out leading questions
C) use closed-ended answers
D) state the objectives of the survey
20. A term that best describes the nature of the omnibus survey is
A) targeted.
B) stealth.
C) piggyback.
D) stratified sample.
1. In basic terms, research is a form of speaking to audiences.
2. Most organizational crises come from unexpected natural or uncontrollable disasters.
3. Qualitative data is often called “soft” data.
4. Secondary research refers to data or information that originally comes from another
source.
5. Copy testing, at its most basic level, refers to the assembling of news clips in a
scrapbook to count the number of column inches generated about a particular
organization or issue.
6. An “intercept” interview usually involves the cross-pollination of ideas among related
departments, such as marketing and advertising, in order to intercept key ideas of like
stakeholders.
7. In general, because of their straightforward style, Likert-type survey questions are
good for examining respondents’ perceptions and attitudes.
8. Telephone surveys generally have high response rates.
9. Gallup and Harris are popular government-based organizations.
10. An e-mail survey is less expensive than conducting personal interviews.
5.3 Essay Questions
1. You are moderating and coordinating a focus group on behalf of a popular national tire
brand. The company is targeting younger consumers. What “types” of people would
comprise the 12-person group, and what would be the three strong questions (outside of
group “introductions”) that would set a tone and get the conversation going? NOTE: you
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2. You have been asked to do a Web and e-mail based survey of students on your
campus regarding underage smoking. What are some things you need to consider?
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