Test Bank for Applied Social Research
11th Edition by Hilton, Fawson, Sullivan, DeJong
ISBN: 9780826163554
CHAPTER 1
RESEARCH
IN THE HUMAN SERVICES
1. How can properly conducted practice interventions inform research about human behavior?
*A. Practitioners can evaluate the effectiveness of their inventions in carefully controlled settings that parallel research.
B. Practitioners test theories of human behavior when working with challenging clients.
C. Practitioners use several different interventions and then determine which are most popular among clients.
D Practitioners and researchers form teams to design new programs.
RATIONALE: A. A is the best answer because it stresses the importance of controlled settings in determining associations between interventions and outcomes.
2. Why is there a need for human services providers to be knowledgeable about research?
*A. Providers need to be able to critically evaluate research procedures to decide whether research findings should be introduced into practice.
B. Providers must present annually at conferences.
C. Researchers rely on providers to recruit research subjects.
D. Research requires advanced training, which can be impressive to clients
RATIONALE: A. A is the best answer because the purpose of human services research should be to create more effective and efficient services.
3. Descriptive research
*A involves the attempt to discover facts or describe reality.
B. utilizes randomized observations to answer questions about human services.
C. is easy to disprove because it is not controlled.
D is conducted by agencies in order to quantitatively assess their effectiveness.
RATIONALE: A. A is the best answer because descriptive research is about describing reality and not testing hypotheses pertaining to potential impacts of an intervention.
4. Evaluation research
*A. systematically evaluates or monitors programs and clinical practices using scientific methods.
B. scores human services agencies using a national standardized scale.
C. is conducted by researchers looking to criticize human services.
D focuses on making projections about what may occur in the future or in other settings.
RATIONALE: A. A is the best answer because this is the definition of evaluation research. The other responses describe types of evaluations.
5. Four categories of social research are
*A. descriptive, predictive, explanative, and evaluative
B. scientific, empirical, descriptive, and qualitative.
C. descriptive, visual, assessment, and quantitative.
D. predictive, evaluative, descriptive, and empirical
RATIONALE: A. A is the best answer because these are the four types of research as described in the “Goals of Research” section of Chapter 1.
6. Empirical data refer to
*A information or facts about the world that are based on sensory experiences.
B. research collected about human services agencies to inform policy.
C. research based on philosophy and speculation.
D the hierarchy of scientific methods employed in academia.
RATIONALE: A. A is the best answer because this is the definition of empirical research as described in Chapter 1. Empirical data are based on information that can be seen, felt, smelled, heard, or tasted.
7. Evidence-based practice is
*A. a process for making decisions in which practitioners integrate the best research evidence available with their practice expertise and client background.
B. the complex statistical analysis done on the observations of thousands of people in a highly controlled experimental study.
C the interventions used by researchers when they visit human services agencies.
D. a large and complex body of knowledge about human social and psychological behavior.
RATIONALE: A. A is the best answer to this question because evidence-based practice should be thought of as a process and not just a desired goal.
8. Which of the following statements about diversity are true?
A. Has a powerful influence on people and social life.
B Can lead to disproportional suffering due to poverty, inequality, or discrimination.
C Human services practice focuses on alleviating disproportionality in diverse groups.
*D. All of the above.
RATIONALE: D. D is the best answer because diversity has profound impacts on human behavior, human services, and social research.
9. The first step in conducting social research is
A. evidence-based practice.
*B. problem formulation.
C interviewing clients
D developing a hypothesis
RATIONALE: B. B is the best answer because this is the first step in the research process as described in Chapter 1. Also, research cannot proceed until a researcher has a clear understanding of the problems she wants to study.
10. What do researchers learn during data analysis?
*A. Whether their ideas are confirmed or refuted by empirical evidence.
B Whether they will be able to publish the results of their study.
C If practitioners are doing their jobs properly
D. All of the above.
RATIONALE: A. A is the best answer because it describes the outcome of data analysis, which is the confirmation or refutation of hypotheses.