In order to foster the eventual utilization of an evaluation, one of the steps evaluators
should take is
a. make sure stakeholders are not involved in planning the evaluation.
b. ensure that program personnel do not influence the evaluation design.
c. involve stakeholders throughout all phases of the evaluation.
d. withhold the sharing of the evaluation report with stakeholders until it has been
perfected and finalized.
Which of the following statements is true regarding the order in which items appear in a
questionnaire?
a. The order should be random.
b. The order does not matter.
c. Researchers should attempt to estimate the effect of question order and use their
judgment so as to minimize any order problems
d. The order can be random because it does not matter.
Probability samples are advantageous to the researcher because
a. the method by which they are selected limits conscious and unconscious sampling
bias, and the accuracy or representativeness of the sample can be estimated.
b. there is no sampling error whatsoever.
c. they always are perfectly and precisely representative of the population from which
they are drawn.
d. all of these.
In single-case experiments, maximizing the number of measurement points helps by
a. enhancing the identification of precipitating conditions during assessment.
b. enabling us to change the intervention plan at the point at which we see that no
progress is occurring.
c. increasing our ability to pinpoint unlikely coincidences and therefore infer what is
causing changes in the dependent variable.
d. all of these.
Which of the following statements is/are true about the need to critique research
quality?
a. Practitioners can rely on researchers to produce good studies, and therefore only have
to know the results of those studies.
b. If a research study gets published practitioners can be assured that it is of high
quality.
c. Social work practitioners need to understand research methods so they can
discriminate strong from weak studies.
d. All of these.
When follow-ups are planned with mail surveys,
a. the anonymity of respondents can no longer be guaranteed.
b. more thoughtful answers are usually provided by those who wait until the follow-up
to respond.
c. response rates typically increase.
d. response bias can no longer be estimated.
When selecting a comparison group in a quasi-experimental design, one should
a. select a group unlike the experimental group.
b. select a group as similar as possible to the experimental group.
c. use random assignment.
d. none of these
Which of the following is a method for tracking and contacting hidden and oppressed
populations to retain their ongoing participation in longitudinal research studies
include:
a. Identify as many anchor points as possible.
b. Make repeated reminder calls to anchor points in advance of scheduled sessions.
c. Use mail tracking.
d. Ask service providers or other community agencies whether they have been in recent
contact with participants whom you are unable to locate.
e. Talk with people on the streets about where to find particular participants
f. All of these.
You want to draw a representative sample of social workers employed in domestic
violence programs. You have a list of all such programs, but not of their staff members.
Your survey will involve face-to-face interviews, and your travel budget is limited to
visiting 10 cities. What kind of sampling design would you use?
a. simple random sampling.
b. quota sampling.
c. multistage cluster sampling.
d. stratified sampling.
e. available sampling.
Which of the following has been recommended to enhance the cultural competence of
interviews:
a. use interviewers who are of the same ethnicity as the members of the minority
population whom you seek to interview.
b. use interviewers who have had adequate previous experience or training in working
with members of the target population.
c. use bilingual interviewers
d. use role playing in training interviewers
e. all of these
A practitioner tests whether a new technique will be effective in reducing the number of
time-outs required in play therapy sessions for children with conduct disorders. In each
of the two sessions before implementing the new technique, five time-outs occurred. In
each of the two sessions after implementing the new technique, no time-outs occurred.
The practitioner should conclude:
a. The technique clearly was effective.
b. History can be ruled out as an alternative explanation for the improvement.
c. There were a sufficient number of data points in the study.
d. None of these.
Drawing a purposive judgmental sample
a. allows researchers to use their prior knowledge about the topic.
b. enlists the aid of uninformed respondents.
c. results in a sample that has no researcher bias.
d. ensures a representative sample.
Which of the following statements is/are true about constructing qualitative measures?
a. You should rely primarily on close-ended questions.
b. Highly structured self-administered questionnaires are more desirable than interview
guides.
c. Interviews can range from completely unstructured, informal conversational
interviews that use no measurement instruments to highly structured, standardized
interviews in which interviewers must ask questions in the exact order and with the
exact wording in which they are written out in advance.
d. All of these.
Which of the following statements is TRUE about the grounded theory method?
a. It is similar to case-oriented analysis
b. It is similar to variable-oriented analysis
c. It is similar to cross-case analysis
d. Depending upon the topic of study it could be similar to either a, b, or c
For social scientists, an advantage to utilizing available records for data is
a. the reliability and validity of the data am guaranteed.
b. the reliability and validity of the data can easily be assessed and connected, if
necessary.
c. the reports are very accurate.
d. the data can be obtained with limited financial cost.
e. the data is already in ideal types.
The grounded theory method begins with
a. Hypotheses
b. Patterns
c. Observations
d. Theory
Culturally competent problem formulation involves
a. being well read in the culture of concern before beginning any investigation in it.
b. being ethnocentric.
c. making broad generalizations about the culture as a whole.
d. all of these.
Which of the following statements is correct about evidence-based practice?
a. It is mainly a cost cutting tool.
b. It does not allow room for practitioner expertise to overrule the best evidence.
c. It calls for practitioners to make practice decisions based on the integration of their
practice expertise, their knowledge of client attributes, and the best research evidence.
d. It has only two stages.
Quasi-experimental designs are often used instead of experimental designs because
a. agency constraints often make experiments infeasible.
b. they have more internal validity than experiments
c. quasi-experiments randomly assign participants to groups.
d. all of these.
5. If we find that test performance improves as level of anxiety increases from low to
moderate amounts and then worsens as level of anxiety increases beyond moderate
amounts, then we have found what type of relationship?
a. positive.
b. negative.
c. curvilinear.
d. causal.
Which of the following statements, as currently stated and without the need for
rewording, comes closest to being a useful hypothesis?
a. The provision of case management services reduces the number of days spent in
institutions.
b. The provision of case management services should be increased.
c. The number of days spent in institutions can be decreased.
d. The greater the number of days spent in institutions, the fewer the number of days
spent outside of institutions.
Which of the following statements is/are true about qualitative sampling methods?
a. They are less complicated than quantitative sampling methods.
b. They always rely on available subjects.
c. They might involve purposively selecting deviant cases.
d. All of these.
Suppose an ABCD design obtains the following results regarding level of social
adjustment with a chronically mentally ill client discharged to live with his family.
What is the most appropriate inference for future interventions with similar clients?
a. Just provide the family education.
b. Provide all three interventions in the same order.
c. Replicate the study to assess possible order effects.
d. none of these.
EBP questions can ask:
a. . What intervention has the most likelihood of success?
b. What factors best predict desirable or undesirable outcomes?
c. What type of assessment tool should be used?
d. All of these.
In contrast to interviews, self-administered questionnaires have the advantage of
a. being more effective in dealing with complicated issues.
b. producing fewer incomplete questions.
c. dealing with the context of social life.
d. handling sensitive issues more effectively.
In comparison to surveys, qualitative research is
a. more subjective and more generalizable.
b. less subjective and more generalizable.
c. more subjective and less generalizable.
d. less subjective and less generalizable.
Which of the following can be a purpose of program evaluation?
a. To assess program success.
b. To assess problems in program implementation.
c. To obtain information needed in program planning.
d. All of these.
Culturally competent research involves awareness of the ways in which cultural factors
could influence
a. what we investigate.
b. how we investigate.
c. how we interpret our findings.
d. all of these.
Scientific evidence should be based on
a. observations gathered in ways that seek to reduce the influence of researcher biases.
b. systematic and comprehensive observations.
c. a large and diverse sample of observations.
d. All of these.
Which of the following statements is/are true about informal conversational interviews?
a. They are often unplanned and unanticipated.
b. They are the most close-ended form of interviewing.
c. They require the use of a structured measurement instrument.
d. Because they are informal, there is less need to be concerned about how questions are
worded.
e. All of these.
Which of the following illustrates the use of the inductive method?
a. hypothesis, observations, accept or reject hypothesis.
b. observations, pattern finding, and generalizations.
c. theory, hypothesis, observations, generalizations.
d. theory, observations, and generalizations.
e. generalizations, theory, and observations.
Coding refers to:
a. the assignment of a number or numeral to the attributes of a variable.
b. the assignment of a row in a data matrix to each questionnaire item.
c. the assignment of a number or numeral to each questionnaire item.
d. transferring variables to the computer.
e. the assignment of a variable to a computer column.
Professor Jenner was interested in using Census Bureau data to examine the trend in
unemployment rates in the United States. However, Jenner’s definition of
unemployment did not match the one used by the Census Bureau. Jenner was dealing
with the issue of
a. reliability.
b. validity.
c. the ecological fallacy.
d. ideal types.
e. verstehen.
Grounded theory emphasizes inductive processes, but can incorporate deductive
processes.
In qualitative inquiry, purposive sampling can be used to select deviant cases as well as
representative cases.
An interview guide is a highly structured approach for conducting quantitative
interviews.
The following answer categories about gender are exhaustive and mutually exclusive:
Male ________ Female ________
The postmodern view of reality emphasizes multiple subjective realities and questions
the existence of an objective external reality.
Although cultural competence is important in social work practice, it is NOT important
in social work research.
A good way to ensure that your data analysis is culturally competent is to combine all
minority groups together as one category to compare to the majority group in the data
analysis.
One possible operational definition of patient morale in a nursing home is how happy or
optimistic patients feel.
A bivariate table is read by comparing the independent variable subgroups with one
another in terms of a given attribute of the dependent variable.
If the table were collapsed into a bivariate table with only two rows and two columns,
deleting the type of illness variable, recipients of social work services would appear to
be more likely to die in the hospital.
Feasibility should NOT be a consideration when formulating an idealistic, far-reaching
study.
The best time to read about the culture of a population you seek to research is after you
have formulated your research question.
Ethnography focuses on providing detailed, accurate descriptions of the way people in a
particular culture live and the way they interpret the meanings of things.
All evidence-based practice questions should ask about a particular intervention in
advance of the search for evidence.
The evidence-based practice model encourages practitioners to integrate scientific
evidence with their practice expertise.