Introduction to Social Work Research Pre-Test
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Course
Introduction
Introduction to Social Work Research provides students with foundational knowledge and skills essential for understanding the role of research in social work practice. The course explores the scientific method, research ethics, qualitative and quantitative methods, and the practical application of research findings to address social issues. Students learn to formulate research questions, review and critique literature, collect and analyze data, and interpret results relevant to social work settings. Emphasis is placed on diverse populations, ethical considerations, and using evidence-based research to promote social justice and inform policy and practice within various communities.
Recommended Textbook Research Methods for Social Work 8th Edition by Allen Rubin
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Why Study Research
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Q1) Assume that Professor Rodgers had studied only people aged 65 or older and found that they experienced increasing levels of happiness in the last 20 years.Suppose he had concluded that people under 65 years of age also experienced increasing levels of happiness during the same time period.He would have committed
A) the error of overgeneralization.
B) the error of selective observation.
C) the error of illogical reasoning.
D) the error of inaccurate observation.
E) no error.
Answer: A
Q2) Explain what is meant by the statement,"Tradition and authority are the two-edged swords in the search for knowledge about the world."
Answer: will vary
Q3) In social work,science could best be described as A) technology
B) a method of inquiry.
C) statistics.
D) all of the above.
Answer: B
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Evidence-Based Practice
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Q1) Evidence about practice effectiveness will
A) always be conclusive.
B) sometimes indicate what actions NOT to take.
C) usually indicate what is effective with every client or situation.
D) will point toward taking an action that the client is certain to want.
Answer: B
Q2) Which of the following statements is/are true about critically appraising the quality of evidence found in the evidence-based practice search process?
A) All evidence produced by randomized clinical trials should be deemed strong evidence
B) Randomized clinical trials always reside at the top of any research hierarchy.
C) Only evidence produced by randomized clinical trials should be considered as worthy of guiding practice decisions, regardless of the nature of the decision.
D) All of the above are true.
E)None of the above is true.
Answer: E
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Chapter 3: Philosophy and Theory in Social Work Research
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Q1) The nomothetic model is inevitably probabilistic in its approach to causation.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Believing that there are only multiple subjective realities,and questioning the existence of an objective external reality,is associated with what view of reality?
A) modern.
B) premodern.
C) postmodern.
D) submodern.
Answer: C
Q3) An ideology is:
A) a paradigm that is open to questioning
B) a theory of ideas.
C) a closed system of beliefs and values.
D) None of the above.
Answer: C
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Chapter 4: Comparing Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed
Methods of Inquiry
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Q1) Provide an example of how quantitative and qualitative methods can be complimentary in the same study
Q2) If researchers wanted to find the average age of all licensed social workers in a country,they would undertake:
A) a qualitative study.
B) a quantitative study
C) a mixed-methods study.
D)None of the above.
Q3) The completion of one phase in the research process often involves the need to loop back to earlier phases.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Data analysis tends to be more time-consuming in qualitative studies than in quantitative studies.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Identify and briefly describe seven main phases in the research process.
6
Q6) Identify the reasons for using mixed methods.
Q7) Describe the contrasting emphases of quantitative and qualitative studies.
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Chapter 5: The Ethics and Politics of Social Work Research
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Q1) Which of the following statements is/are true about the dilemma involving the right to receive services versus the responsibility to evaluate service effectiveness?
A) This is not really a dilemma, since no conflict in values is involved.
B) All professionals agree that services should never be delayed, even if their effects have not yet been verified.
C)No professionals question the ethics of providing untested services, as long as we have good intentions.
D) All of the above are true.
E) None of the above is true.
Q2) Which of the following questions should be answered in an informed consenorm?
A) What will you be asked to do if you participate in this research study?
B) What are the possible discomforts and risks involved in the study?
C)What are the possible benefits of the study?
D) All of the above.
Q3) Illustrate how ethics and politics affect social work research.
Q4) Science is never influenced by political matters.
A)True
B)False
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Page 7
Chapter 6: Culturally Competent Research
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Q1) Describe the steps you would take to maximize the measurement equivalence of a study that compares the degree of caregiver burden among White,African American,Hispanic,and Asian American caregivers for relatives with Alzheimer's disease.
Q2) The best time to read about the culture of a population you seek to research is after you design your investigation.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Studies that do NOT include adequate representation from specific minority and oppressed populations in their samples are NOT generalizable to those populations.
A)True
B)False
Q4) There is no foolproof recipe for ensuring that your research will be culturally competent in all respects.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Explain the difference between linguistic,conceptual and metric equivalence.
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Chapter 7: Problem Formulation
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Q1) Which of the following statements is TRUE about social work research as compared to social scientific research in disciplines like sociology and psychology?
A) It is more likely to deal with practical problems and decisions confronting social welfare agencies.
B) It is less likely to be applied.
C) It is more likely to emphasize theory.
D)Theory plays no role in social work research
Q2) Descriptive studies do NOT
A) study relationships between variables.
B) tell why something occurred.
C) use operational definitions.
D)use concepts.
E) Descriptive studies DO all of these.
Q3) Which of the following statements is true about the literature review?
A)It should be put off until the research question has been sharpened.
B)It is a prime source for selecting a research question to begin with.
C)It should be done exclusively in the library, not online.
D)It should be limited to social work journal articles.
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Chapter 8: Conceptualization in Quantitative and Qualitative Inquiry
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Q1) A study tests the hypothesis that the provision of social work intervention will reduce the school dropout rate.Iinds that social work intervention reduces the dropout rate only of children whose families are experiencing high levels of family stress.In this study,what type of variable is "level of family stress"?
A) independent variable.
B) dependent variable.
C) moderating variable.
D) It could be an independent or dependent variable; it depends on whether it is stated first or second in the hypothesis.
Q2) A nominal definition
A) is a statement of the essential nature of some entity.
B) is a statement detailing what will be involved in measuring some entity.
C) is a statement that allows us to observe some entity.
D) is a statement that assigns a definition to a concept.
Q3) Some operational definitions of a particular variable can be more valid than other operational definitions of the same variable.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: Measurement
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Q1) Professor Lum asked respondents,"How old are you?" Later in the interview Lum asked,"What is your date of birth?" This illustrates that Lum was interested in the ________ of the measurement.
A) face validity
B) validity
C) precision
D) reliability
Q2) Professor Myth asked respondents whether or not they had ever been divorced.One year later Professor Myth asked respondents the same question.Myth found that with repeated applications of the measure different responses were obtained for the same subject.This means that the measuring instrument was
A) unreliable.
B) invalid.
C) unreliable or the value on the variable had changed.
D) lacking in face validity.
Q3) Validity refers to the link between the operational and conceptual definitions. A)True
B)False
Q4) Describe how qualitative studies attempt to deal with reliability and validity.
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Chapter 10: Constructing Measurement Instruments
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Q1) 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) None of these answers are true.
Q2) The length of a question can influence how effectively the respondent will answer. A)True
B)False
Q3) Always include at least one item in an index for which all respondents give the same answer.
A)True B)False
Q4) Identify acceptable options for handling missing data in an index or scale.
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Chapter 11: Causal Inference and Experimental Designs
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Q1) The effectiveness of randomization in experimentation is affected by the number of participants involved.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Briefly describe how a study would be particularly vulnerable to the threat of statistical regression.
Q3) What differentiates experimental from pre-experimental designs? Give an illustration of a situation in which an experimental design would be preferred and one in which a pre-experimental design would be preferred.
Q4) Which of the following statement best describes the criteria for inferring or causality?
A) A relationship must exist between variables.
B) One variable must precede the other in time.
C) A third variable did not cause the changes observed in the first two variables.
D) A relationship must exist between two variables, with the cause preceding the effect in time, and the relationship cannot be explained away by the influence of a third variable.
Q5) Explain what is meant by internal and external validity.
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Chapter 12: Quasi-Experimental Designs
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Q1) It is safe to assume that agency staff members who initially approve of an experiment will remain in close compliance with its research protocol throughout the study.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Quasi-experiments using nonequivalent comparison groups without random assignment can be credible,assuming that the comparability of the experimental and comparison groups is plausible-especially if the researcher provides substantial evidence of that comparability.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which of the following is/are NOT a characteristic of a cross-sectional study?
A) It is conducted at only one point in time.
B) It can be exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory.
C) It concentrates on the changes that take place within a specific sample over a period of time.
D) It provides a means for studying a large variation in the population at the same point in time.
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Chapter 13: Single-Case Evaluation Designs
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Q1) Which of the following approaches would be least obtrusive in regard to measuring the impact of the above group work intervention on school performance?
A) Obtain grade, attendance, and conduct data from school records.
B) Observe the student's in-class behavior yourself.
C) With the client's permission, obtain videotapes of the child's in-class behavior.
D) Interview the child.
Q2) The term research reactivity means that
A) at least some client improvement can be attributed to the impact of the research.
B) the research was effective in depicting desired results.
C) there is a strong social-desirability bias in measurement.
D) a generalization of effects occurred.
Q3) Which of the following statements is/are true about ambiguities in the visual significance of single-case design outcomes?
A) They can be reduced by unobtrusive measurement.
B) They can be reduced by replication.
C) They are caused by transforming auto-correlated data.
D) Nothing can be done to reduce the ambiguities.
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Chapter 14: Program Evaluation
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Q1) A major disadvantage of the community forum approach to needs assessment is the representativeness of the opinions expressed.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following statements is true about the goal attainment model of program evaluation?
A) It emphasizes qualitative methods and deemphasizes experimental and quasi-experimental designs.
B) One problem is thaormal goals are often stated in grandiose and vague terms.
C) No more than one operational indicator of success should be measured.
D) Cost-effectiveness analysis and cost-benefit analysis both attempt to monetize program outcomes.
Q3) What are the advantages and disadvantages of evaluating program outcome and efficiency,as compared to monitoring program implementation?
Q4) What are the special problems that program evaluators encounter that other types of researchers are less likely to encounter?
Q5) Describe the impact managed care has had on program evaluation.
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Chapter 15: Sampling
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Q1) It is very conceivable that samples of the same size drawn from the same population using simple random sampling may not have exactly the same statistics.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What is the basic logic of probability sampling? How do such concepts as homogeneity,heterogeneity,sampling bias,representativeness,and probability of selection fit into this logic?
Q3) Compare probability designs with nonprobability designs.Identify the kinds of sampling designs available within each of these major categories.Explain a situation in which it would be more appropriate to use probability sampling and one in which nonprobability sampling would be preferred.
Q4) Which of the following statements is true about probability samples?
A) They avoid conscious and unconscious sampling bias.
B) They do NOT permit the estimation of the accuracy or representativeness of the sample.
C) They are perfectly representative of the population from which they are drawn.
D) They are more risky than non-probability samples.
E) a and b only are correct.
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Chapter 16: Survey Research
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Q1) A response rate of at least 50 percent guarantees the absence of any response bias.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Describe three research questions for which survey research is an appropriate technique of observation.Explain whether these three topics are better suited to an interview or a mailed questionnaire and why.
Q3) The primary function of the probe is to
A) loosen up the respondent.
B) get the correct answer from the respondent.
C) get the respondent to answer a question more fully.
D) indicate an understanding and interest in the respondent.
Q4) Which of the following statements is true about mailed surveys?
A) Cover letters should be avoided so as to save costs and reduce the amount of material the respondent must read.
B) Response rates are considered good only if they exceed 80%.
C) Follow-up mailings are essential.
D) The survey should usually take between 30 and 60 minutes for the respondent to complete.
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Chapter 17: Analyzing Existing Data: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
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Q1) Which of the following is NOT illustrative of unobtrusive observations?
A) Examining the floor tiles at a museum to determine which exhibits are the most popular.
B) Examining the number of beer cans in the university garbage collections to determine beer consumption patterns.
C) Examining the wear on the tires of squad cars to determine the extent of police patrols.
D) Interviews.
Q2) In comparison to coding the manifest content of communication,coding the latent content
A) has a disadvantage in terms of validity.
B) has an advantage in terms of reliability.
C) is better designed for tapping the underlying meaning of communications.
D) has an advantage in terms of specificity.
Q3) Which of the following statements is true about utilizing official records for data?
A) The reliability of the data is guaranteed.
B) The validity of the data is guaranteed.
C) The accuracy of the data is guaranteed.
D) Neither the reliability, validity or accuracy of the data is guaranteed.
Page 19
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Chapter 18: Qualitative Research: General Principles
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Q1) 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.
Q2) When qualitative studies involve observing people in their natural environment,ethical issues are less likely to be a concern than in other types of research.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The naturalism paradigm discourages the use of ethnography.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Prolonged engagement is discouraged in qualitative research be4cause it increases the risk of reactivity and respondent bias.
A)True
B)False
Q5) In comparison to quantitative research methods,what are the major strengths and weaknesses of qualitative research methods?
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Chapter 19: Qualitative Research: Specific Methods
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Q1) Which of the following statements is/are true about the interview guide approach?
A) It uses an outline of interview topics and issues to cover.
B) It is the most highly structured approach to qualitative interviewing.
C) It is the least structured approach to qualitative interviewing.
D) It relieves interviewers of the need to be completely familiar with its contents before beginning any interviews.
Q2) Using the life-history method,researchers ask open-ended questions to discover how participants in a study understand the significant events and meanings in their own lives.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which of the following statements is true about the emic and etic perspectives?
A) They both emphasize maintaining your objectivity.
B) They both deemphasize maintaining your objectivity
C) You must adopt one perspective or the other, rather than try to adopt both postures.
D) It is difficult, yet possible, to assume both the emic and the etic perspectives.
Q4) How does qualitative interviewing differ from quantitative survey interviewing?
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Chapter 20: Qualitative Data Analysis
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Q1) If a researcher examined Jeremy's story from the prior question and then looked at other people "like" Jeremy in order to develop a theory about job loss and veterans,the researcher would be
A) using inductive reasoning.
B) using a cross-case method approach.
C) developing grounded theory.
D) using inductive reasoning and a cross-method approach and developing grounded theory.
Q2) Qualitative data analysis may be undertaken for A) descriptive purposes, only
B) the construction of an ethnography, only.
C) explanatory purposes, only.
D) descriptive or explanatory purposes, or the construction of an ethnography.
Q3) Define what is meant by variable-oriented analysis and what is meant by case-oriented analysis.Give an example of a research project in which you would use variable-oriented analysis and one where you would use case-oriented analysis.
Q4) Describe how coding,memoing,and concept mapping are used in qualitative analysis.
Q5) Identify at last one way that computer programs analyze qualitative data.
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Chapter 21: Quantitative Data Analysis
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Q1) The mean or median can be used to describe the central tendency of the variable "ethnicity."
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following measures of central tendency can be used at any level of measurement?
A) Mean
B) Mode
C) Median
D) Standard deviation
Q3) The following is an acceptable coding scheme for the variable "religion": 1=Protestant,2=Catholic,3=Jewish,9=Not reported.
A)True
B)False
Q4) A measure of dispersion describes
A) where the data are clustered.
B) which data are the most important.
C) how spread out the data are.
D) the central tendency.
Q5) What is the purpose of data cleaning? How is it done?
Page 23
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Chapter 22: Inferential Data Analysis
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Q1) A .05 level of significance means that A)there is only a 5% chance that the statistic's value could be obtained as a result of sampling errors only.
B) one is 50% certain that the sample value is representative of the population.
C) there is only a 5% chance that the variables tested are not independent.
D) the results can be accepted because the sampling error is only 5%.
E) the level of confidence is only 5%.
Q2) The number needed to treat calculation bears upon the practical value of the risk ratio
A)True B)False
Q3) How would you interpret a finding from an experiment in which a costly and time-consuming intervention to reduce school dropout had a statistically significant outcome with a Cohen's d effect size of .20? What if the effect size were .80,but the outcome were not statistically significant due to a low sample size?
Q4) The more statistically significant a finding,the less likely it is to be explained away by extraneous variables or design flaws.
A)True B)False
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Chapter 23: Inferential Data Analysis
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Q1) If two correlated variables each have a bivariate correlation of .25 with a third variable,then the multiple correlation of the three variables combined will be .50.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Chi-square should be used to test the significance of relationships between the ratio level variables.
A)True B)False
Q3) Describe the controversy regarding statistical significance testing with population data.
Q4) A rigorous and trustworthy meta-analysis worthy of guiding evidence-based practice decisions should:
A) include published studies, only.
B) be transparent about potential conflicts of interest.
C) calculate one mean effect size based on all included studies, regardless of their methodological strengths or weaknesses.
D) avoid calculating the overall level of statistical significance.
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Chapter 24: Writing Research Proposals and Reports
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Q1) Before you start writing a research proposal,it is often a good idea to:
A) disregard the expectations of the funding source.
B) try to develop a relationship with a liaison staff member at the funding source.
C) write a very lengthy concept paper detailing preliminary idea.
D) refrain from looking at proposals that have previously been funded by the source you are considering.
Q2) The way research reports should be written depends on the type of audience for which they are intended.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Even if you have already revised your research report and are satisfied with it,you should ask your colleagues to read it and criticize it - and then,based on their criticism,you should revise it yet again.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Describe how qualitative research reports often differ from quantitative ones.
Q5) Discuss the characteristics that distinguish weak from strong literature reviews in research proposals and research reports.
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