Research and Assessment Methods Flashcards
7 cards from real AICP practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Research and Assessment Methods flashcards as text
A planner conducting a housing needs assessment wants to understand the lived experiences of residents in a displacement-threatened neighborhood. Which method is MOST appropriate?
Answer: Ethnographic fieldwork with in-depth interviews
Ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews capture qualitative lived experiences that quantitative or secondary data methods cannot.
Which statistical measure best describes the spread of household income data around the mean in a community needs assessment?
Answer: Standard deviation
Standard deviation measures the average distance of data points from the mean, indicating income variability around the central value.
A city wants to evaluate whether a new transit line caused increased retail sales in adjacent corridors. The MOST rigorous quasi-experimental design would be:
Answer: Difference-in-differences comparing the corridor to a control area over time
Difference-in-differences compares changes in treatment and control areas, controlling for pre-existing trends and isolating the transit effect.
In a Delphi method study, what happens after the first round of expert responses?
Answer: Responses are aggregated and anonymously fed back to experts for revision
The Delphi method uses iterative anonymous feedback rounds, allowing experts to revise opinions based on group results until consensus emerges.
A planner uses GIS to overlay flood zones, low-income census tracts, and age of housing stock. This type of analysis is BEST described as:
Answer: Spatial overlay analysis
Spatial overlay analysis combines multiple geographic layers to identify areas meeting multiple criteria simultaneously.
When a researcher increases sample size in a quantitative study, which outcome is MOST likely?
Answer: Statistical power increases and margin of error decreases
Larger samples reduce sampling error and increase statistical power, making it easier to detect true population differences.
A planner reviewing an environmental impact assessment notices that the document relies on outdated traffic count data from a decade ago. This is PRIMARILY a concern about:
Answer: Data reliability and currency
Using outdated data undermines reliability because the data no longer accurately represents current conditions relevant to the assessment.