Midterm Review - Fall 2005

The test will have 4 parts. It assumes that you know what you're doing and you can quickly move thru the items. That m eans - prepare rought answers to the essays before hand. Go over spss output on your own and look at the different pieces. Reread your lecture notes and your notes from the assigned readings, whether we've talked about them in class or not.
  • SPSS output analysis - I'll give you the output (printed) and ask you a series of questions that you answer using the output.
  • Definitions - I'll give you a list and you will get to choose a given number from that list which will probably include terms such as vriable and unit of analysis and a whole lot more
  • Hypotheses - fix, identify variables
  • Short essays - see below. There won't be any questions on the test that are not on this list. Not all the questions from the list will be on the test.

Short Answer Questions

  1. Define the mean, median and mode ­ be sure to highlight how they are different from each other. How are each of them affected by a few really small numbers in the data set? (In your answer do not say just that mean equals average)
  2. What is the relationship between these 2 steps in research - reviewing the existing literature and developing hypotheses?
  3. What could we include in a content analysis of videogames if we wanted to see if videogames were becoming more violent over time? Be as specific and detailed as possible.
  4. Why was it so difficult for the class to create a coding scheme for the brand integration levels described in the Chen and Ringel article and how could we overcome that/those difficulties? (the answer is not we're new and don't know what we're doing - that answer will get ya an automatic F)
  5. Is an advergame (as described in the Chen and Ringel article) really a videogame? A good answer to this will include a definition of video game. Bring in examples of games we played in class. More importantly, bring in examples and ideas from the things you've read for class.
  6. Define content analysis - what is it, what's it good for, common problems, anything else you can bring in especially stuff from the readings
  7. What do we mean when we say research is cyclical?
  8. What role does the methods section play in an academic article?
  9. What is statistical significance? (the answer is not the p value)
  10. What's the purpose of a bibliography style like APA?

This page last updated 3 October 2005 by Kim Gregson


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