1. In an article entitled “Success Matters: Casualty Sensitivity a...

1. In an article entitled “Success Matters: Casualty Sensitivity and the War in Iraq,” the researchers investigated the claim that the U.S. public will support military operations only if combat deaths are minimal, the so-called casualty-phobia thesis. Their work responded to a debate over whether the American public reflexively withdraws its support for U.S. military missions as casualties mount or whether casualties are but one factor in a more complicated cost-benefit analysis affecting support for military missions. They are also interested in how individuals’ assessments of the likelihood of success affect their support for military operations. Please number your answers.
- What is the dependent variable?
- What is/are the independent variable(s)?
- Evaluate this theory for its generality. (What matters here is how you explain and support your answer.)
- Put the relationship between the variables in terms of one or more hypotheses. (E.g., “The greater…., the more….)
- Identify the unit of analysis in one of your hypotheses.

2. The study of political corruption is important, yet very tricky. Let’s say you want to carry out research on corruption in Russia. You need to get at how much political corruption is taking place. Two different indicators have been suggested; evaluate each one separately for its validity and its reliability, explaining any potential problems you see.
The answer to a survey question (in a questionnaire consisting of 78 questions), asking whether the respondent was asked to pay a bribe when dealing with a public official in the last twelve months. (Assume that the survey will be carried out on a representative sample of Russian and foreign businesspeople.)
The number of convictions for corruption-related crimes, taken from official Ministry of Justice records.
Please number your answers. For extra credit, you can suggest one alternative measure and discuss its reliability and its validity as well.

3. Researchers wanted to examine whether reactions to news about the consequences of immigration depend upon who the immigrants are. They claim to have carried out an experiment to explore this question.
The researchers made use of a nationally representative survey of 578 adults. The respondents were contacted through Knowledge Networks, which maintains a large, randomly contacted respondent pool by offering free Internet access in exchange for occasional participation in surveys. The median interview, conducted via the Internet, was 16 minutes. Prior to the experiment, subjects were told they would take part in “a survey regarding a number of current social issues.” The subjects were randomly assigned to a first and a second group. Subjects in both groups were told that the researchers wanted their reactions to a story that “had been in the news lately.” After reading the story, subjects answered questions about immigrants and immigration, as well as questions on political predispositions and economic outlook.
All the respondents received the same news story to read, an actual news story about a governors’ conference on immigration. The story discussed both positive consequences of immigration (e.g., strengthening the economy, increasing tax revenues, enriching American culture) and negative consequences (e.g., driving down wages, consuming public resources, undermining American values).
The story given to respondents in the first group was accompanied by a photo picturing a white European immigrant. The story given to respondents in the second group was accompanied by a photo picturing a Latino immigrant. The photo caption read: “[Nikolai Vandinsky from Russia/Jose Sanchez from Mexico] is one of thousands of new immigrants who arrived in the U.S. during the first half of this year.” To maximize control, a graphic artist altered the images so that only the heads differed (i.e., bodies, dress, and background were identical). The photos were selected to look distinctly European or Hispanic, but otherwise similar.
1. Is the research question empirical or normative?
2. Is the research question causal or descriptive? Explain your answer.
3. Evaluate to what extent this research design fulfills or departs from the requirements for a true experiment. Make sure to apply each of the five requirements discussed in this course.
4. Evaluate the internal validity of this research design. That is, to what extent did the research design allow the researchers to infer causality?
5. Are there any ethical problems with this research design? Your answer should demonstrate that you understand ethics as a criterion for a research design.
6. Optional: Here you are welcome to add any additional comments on or critiques of this research design that do not address the above questions. If your comments show mastery of relevant course issues they might earn additional points.

4. What is the level of measurement of the following measures--nominal, ordinal, or interval/ratio? Or is the measure dichotomous, so that you do not have specify level of measurement? (Illustrative examples of possible values are listed in parentheses for each measure—note that these are not necessarily exhaustive lists of the possible values for each measure.) If you feel your choice needs explanation or qualification, you may add a few words if time permits. Each item is worth four points. Please number your answers.
1. War outcome for a country (win, draw, loss)
2. Whether or not the individual voted in the last presidential election (voted, did not vote)
3. Dominant nationality in precinct (Polish-American, Irish-American, African-American, Greek-American, other)
4. Response to the following statement: “The Affordable Care Act should be declared unconstitutional.” (Strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree, strongly disagree)
5. Households below the poverty line as a percentage of total households (9%, 13%, 27%, 43%)