Assignment Questions

1 How do environmental factors affect response rates in personal interviews? How can we overcome these environmental problems?

2 Assume you are planning to interview shoppers in a shopping mall about their views on increased food prices and what the federal government should do about them. In what different ways might you try to motivate shoppers to cooperate in your survey?

3 You decide to take a telephone survey of 40 families in the 721-exchange area. You want an excellent representation of all subscribers in the exchange area. Explain how you will carry out this study.

4 What ethical problems do you see in conducting experiments with human subjects?

5 A pharmaceuticals manufacturer is testing a drug developed to treat cancer. During the7final stages of development the drug’s effectiveness is being tested on individuals for different (1) dosage conditions and (2) age groups. One of the problems is patient mortality during experimentation. Justify your design recommendations through a comparison of alternatives and in terms of external and internal validity.

a) Recommend the appropriate design for the experiment.
b) Explain the use of control groups, blinds, and double blinds if you recommend them.