Qualitative Research in Social Work Exam Review
Course Introduction
This course introduces students to the principles and practices of qualitative research within the field of social work. Emphasizing interpretive and participatory approaches, it covers foundational aspects such as research design, data collection methods (including interviews, focus groups, and observation), coding, thematic analysis, and ethical considerations. Students will learn how to systematically explore complex social phenomena, engage with diverse populations, and critically assess the relevance and impact of qualitative findings for social work practice and policy. Through hands-on projects and critical readings, participants develop the skills necessary to design, conduct, and present qualitative research relevant to social work contexts.
Recommended Textbook
Research Methods for Social Work 8th Edition by Allen Rubin
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Chapter 1: Why Study Research
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Q1) Researchers employing the scientific method should be open to the pursuit of evidence that disconfirms their conclusions.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Legitimate ex posacto hypothesizing requires additional research.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Which of the following statements is are true about the scientific method?
A) Some things are NOT open to question.
B) Good studies need NOT be replicated.
C) All knowledge is considered provisional.
D)All of the above are true.
E)None of the above is true.
Answer: C
Q4) 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
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Chapter 2: Evidence-Based Practice
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Q1) Practitioners engaged in evidence-based practice will
A) be critical thinkers.
B) track down evidence as an ongoing lifelong part of their practice.
C) question things that are based on tradition or authority.
D) think for themselves as to the logic and evidence supporting what others may convey as practice wisdom.
E) All of the above.
Answer: E
Q2) Which of the following statements is/are true about where a study is ranked on an EBP research hierarchy?
A) Randomized clinical trials are always ranked the highest.
B) How high or low a type of study is ranked depends on the nature and purpose of the EBP question.
C) Surveys are ranked near the bottom on all hierarchies.
D) None of the above.
Answer: B
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Chapter 3: Philosophy and Theory in Social Work Research
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Q1) Which of the following statements is are not true about social work practice models?
A) Some models expand over time, encompassing new areas of research findings and theory.
B) Distinctions between some models can become blurred over time.
C) One's orientation to a practice model can influence the way one chooses to conduct a research study.
D) All of the above are true.
E) None of the above is true.
Answer: D
Q2) Some researchers can have vested interests in finding certain results.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Social work practice models are mutually exclusive; that is,they do not overlap.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 4: Comparing Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed
Methods of Inquiry
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Q1) Which of the following designs signifies a mixed-methods study that emphasizes qualitative methods but with quantitative methods being implemented first?
A) QUALITATIVE quantitative.
B) quantitative QUALITATIVE.
C) QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE.
D)quantitative qualitative.
Q2) Which of the following statements is/are true about subjectivity in social work research?
A) It should be minimized in all studies, regardless of the research question.
B) It should be avoided in mixed methods studies, only.
C) Subjective inquiry can be complimentary with objective inquiry.
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) Describe the contrasting emphases of quantitative and qualitative studies.
Q5) Identify the reasons for using mixed methods.
Q6) Identify and briefly describe seven main phases in the research process.
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Chapter 5: The Ethics and Politics of Social Work Research
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Q1) Certificates of confidentiality are used because police or other authorities mighorce disclosure of participants' identities in research data.
A)True
B)False
Q2) 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.
Q3) Identify five commonly recommended guidelines for attempting to avoid bias and insensitivity regarding gender or culture in a study.
Q4) Illustrate how ethics and politics affect social work research.
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Chapter 6: Culturally Competent Research
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Q1) 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
Q2) 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.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Compensation for participants in research should
A) be as large as your budget permits.
B) be large enough to provide an incentive yet not so large that it becomes coercive.
C) always be in the form of money.
D) never be in the form of money.
E)a and c.
Q4) It is not always easy to define who qualifies as a member of a specific ethnic minority group.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 7: Problem Formulation
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Sample Questions
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) Unlike social work practice,social work research seeks to advance knowledge jusor knowledge's sake.
A)True
B)False
Q3) If researchers wanted to find the average age of all licensed social workers in a country,they would undertake:
A) a descriptive study.
B) a trend study
C) a cohort study.
D)an exploratory study.
E) an explanatory study.
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Chapter 8: Conceptualization in Quantitative and Qualitative Inquiry
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Q1) Construct a hypothesis predicting that a particular intervention will be effective regarding a particular long-term outcome.Then identify a mediating variable and a moderating variable that could be assessed in testing the hypothesis.Explain why one variable is the mediating variable and the other is the moderating one.
Q2) Discuss how the quantitative and qualitative perspectives on operational definitions differ.
Q3) 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.
Q4) Which of the following statements is true about choosing an existing scale as an operational definition of self-esteem for children to complete before and after an intervention?
A) The longer the scale, the better.
B) A scale that has been shown to be reliable and valid for adults would be a good choice.
C) The scale should be sensitive to change over time.
D) The scale exemplifies a direct observable.
Page 10
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Chapter 9: Measurement
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Q1) Factorial validity refers to how many different constructs a scale measures and whether the number of constructs and the items comprising those constructs are what the researcher intends.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Some child-welfare workers observe children playing with anatomically correct dolls to help them assess whether those children have been sexually abused.If a child simulates sexual acts with the dolls,it is viewed as evidence that the child may be a victim of sexual abuse.What are some sources of systematic and random measurement error in this approach to assessment? How could the reliability and validity of this assessment procedure be gauged?
Q3) The use of several different research methods to test the same finding is called triangulation.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Face validity is a form of empirical validity.
A)True
B)False
Q5) 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) The questionnaire item "Which is not a serious problem in the U.S.today,anomie or the socialization of the young?" violates which of the following guidelines?
A) Avoid double-barreled questions.
B) Avoid short items.
C) Avoid leading the respondent.
D) Avoid meaningful questions.
E) Avoid negative items.
Q2) The length of a question can influence how effectively the respondent will answer.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Asking respondents if they have any children before asking them about the ages of their children is an example of:
A) a contingency question.
B) a double-barreled question.
C) a biased question.
D) a negative item.
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) Pre-experimental designs
A) are insufficienor drawing causal inferences.
B) control for most sources of internal invalidity.
C) control for most sources of external invalidity.
D) are excellenor drawing causal inferences.
Q2) The effectiveness of randomization in experimentation is affected by the number of participants involved.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Suppose a case management program is established to reduce rehospitalization rates in a hospital and that those rates drop dramatically once the new program is established.We can conclude that:
A) research has demonstrated an effective approach to practice.
B) causality cannot be inferred because time order was not established.
C) another event occurring during the time of the study might explain away the change.
D) the absence of covariation threatens the internal validity of any causal inferences.
Q4) Explain what is meant by internal and external validity.
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Chapter 12: Quasi-Experimental Designs
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Q1) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of cross-sectional studies and the case control design.
Q2) After the delivery of their baby,new parents in hospital A were given a poison-control test.While at the hospital they attended a training session on poison control.At the end of a week,they were given the poison-control test again.After the delivery of their baby,new parents in hospital B were given the poison-control test.One week later they were given the test again.What kind of design is being used?
A) pretest-posttest control group:
B) time series.
C) nonequivalent comparison group:
D) cross-sectional design.
E)multiple time-series.
Q3) Nonequivalent comparison groups designs can be strengthened by A)using multiple pretests or switching replications.
B)using smaller sample sizes .
C)using no pretests
D)using replication without switching.
Q4) Identify and explain four practical pitfalls commonly encountered when carrying out experiments and quasi-experiments in social agencies.
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Chapter 13: Single-Case Evaluation Designs
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Sample Questions
Q1) Most social work target problems or goals cannot be defined in operational terms.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Target problems can be quantified in terms of their
A) frequency, only.
B) duration, only.
C) magnitude, only.
D) frequency, duration, and/or magnitude
Q3) In single-case experiments,increasing the number of measurement points:
A) makes it more difficult to identify precipitating conditions during assessment.
B) makes it harder to change the intervention plan at the point at which no progress is occurring.
C) increases our ability to pinpoint unlikely coincidences and therefore infer what is causing changes in the dependent variable.
D) lessens internal validity.
Q4) Discuss why it is best to have as many measurement points as possible in a single-case design.
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Chapter 14: Program Evaluation
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Q1) One criticism of goal attainment evaluations deals with the often fuzzy link between program mission statements and operational indicators of program outcome.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following statements is true about evaluation for program planning?
A) A prime advantage of the key informants approach to needs assessment is that the information comes directly from the target population.
B) It makes a difference whether we define needs in normative terms or in terms of demand.
C) Feasibility problems are the prime disadvantage of the community forum approach to needs assessment.
D) A prime disadvantage of the social indicators approach to needs assessment is its obtrusiveness.
Q3) What steps should program evaluators take in order to foster the utilization of their studies?
Q4) Discuss and provide an example of the value of the value of qualitative approaches to program evaluation.
Q5) Describe the impact managed care has had on program evaluation.
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Chapter 15: Sampling
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Q1) 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?
Q2) Generalizing about how male batterers view women based on a sample of male batterers is an example of gender bias in sampling.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A sampling interval of 10 was used to select a sample from a population of 5,000.How many elements are to be in the sample?
A) 10
B) 50
C) 500
D) 100
E) 1,000
Q4) Selecting a sample that the researcher believes will yield the most comprehensive understanding of a subject based on the researcher's knowledge of the population is employing purposive or judgmental sampling.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 16: Survey Research
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Q1) Assume that the following would be reasonable conversational questions/statements based on a respondent's previous statement about preferring to live on the streets.Which is a good probe?
A) "In what way is living on the streets better?"
B) "How is living on the streets better?"
C) "Tell me more about why living on the streets is better."
D) "How do you mean living on the streets is better?"
Q2) 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.
Q3) The standardization of the data collected represents a special strength of survey research.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Give a comparative analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of survey research.
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Chapter 17: Analyzing Existing Data: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
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Q1) Manifest coding has the advantage of tapping underlying meanings,while reliability is an advantage of latent coding.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Historical and comparative data analysis often is influenced by a particular theoretical paradigm.
A)True
B)False
Q3) 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.
Q4) As a mode of observation,content analysis is essentially an operation of coding.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 18: Qualitative Research: General Principles
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Q1) In comparison to quantitative research methods,what are the major strengths and weaknesses of qualitative research methods?
Q2) An advantage of qualitative research is that
A) it enables the researcher to draw conclusions about the population.
B) the researcher can control the variables under study.
C) social life can be studied in a natural setting.
D) hypotheses can be rigorously tested.
Q3) According to contemporary positivist standards,which of the following strategies is NOT recommended for enhancing the rigor of qualitative studies?
A) Prolonged engagement.
B) Triangulation.
C) Negative case analysis.
D) Leaving a paper trail for auditing.
E) evoking actions by participants to effect desired change.
Q4) Prolonged engagement is discouraged in qualitative research be4cause it increases the risk of reactivity and respondent bias.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 19: Qualitative Research: Specific Methods
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Q1) An example of the participant-as-observer includes
A) joining a sorority or fraternity to study initiation rituals without revealing your identity as a researcher.
B) telling people you're a spy to find out how they react.
C) telling a motorcycle gang that you are a researcher and would like to ride with them for a year to understand their interaction patterns.
D) being a newspaper reporter who interviews union workers to learn about recent strike efforts.
Q2) Group conformity or groupthink is a potential disadvantage of focus groups.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Establishing rapport in qualitative field research involves using active listening skills taught in some basic social work practice classes.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Although there are no clear guidelines to follow,what ethical considerations should a researcher consider when choosing which role to assume in the field?
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Chapter 20: Qualitative Data Analysis
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Q1) 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 case-oriented or variable-oriented analysis.
Q2) Describe how coding,memoing,and concept mapping are used in qualitative analysis.
Q3) Concept mapping is appropriate for both qualitative and quantitative analysis.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Data collection,analysis,and theory are more intimately intertwined in qualitative analysis than in quantitative analysis.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The utility of case-oriented analysis is the fact that one case can make theory.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Identify at last one way that computer programs analyze qualitative data.
Page 22
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Chapter 21: Quantitative Data Analysis
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Sample Questions
Q1) No detail is lost when using an ungrouped frequency distribution.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Half the cases are above the median and half the cases are below the median.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What is a codebook? Construct a codebook for the following questionnaire items:
(a) Gender
( ) male
( ) female
(b) Age at last birthday?
(c) How many brothers and sisters do you have? (Count only those who are now alive.Include stepbrothers and stepsisters and children adopted by your parents.)
(d) What is your marital status?
( ) married
( ) widowed
( ) divorced
( ) separated
( ) never married
Q4) 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) When a finding is statistically significant:
A)alternative explanations other than the independent variable are not plausible.
B)a strong relationship has been observed.
C)it is an importaninding.
D)its meaning depends on the rigor of the research methods.
Q2) Which of the following hypotheses assumes that there is no relationship between two variables?
A)Research
B)Null
C)Alternate
D)Secondary
E)Substantive
Q3) Explain Type I and Type 11 errors,when they are risked,and what can be done to reduce their risks.
Q4) If a result is statistically significant,it is also substantively significant.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 23: Inferential Data Analysis
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Q1) If your probability of a Type Il error is .30,then your statistical power is:
A).30
B).05
C).70
D).80
Q2) A researcher conducts 20 tests of statistical significance,one for each independent variable,wita.05 significance level.Only one test yields a probability value that is not greater than .05.What can we infer about the latter test?
A) The probability of committing a Type I error in rejecting the null hypothesis is .05.
B) It is a statistically significant predictor of the dependent variable.
C) Because so many tests were conducted, the probability of committing a Type I error is greater than .05.
D) Because so many tests were conducted, the probability of committing a Type I error is much smaller than .001.
Q3) Describe the controversy regarding statistical significance testing with population data.
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Chapter 24: Writing Research Proposals and Reports
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Q1) The sampling section of a research proposal should
A) identify any inclusion or exclusion criteria to be used.
B) address issues associated with sample attrition and refusal to participate.
C) include a statistical power analysis.
D)indicate why it will be feasible to obtain the needed sample size.
E) do all of these.
Q2) 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
Q3) Which of the following is true abouinding a funding source for a research proposal?
A) Find a funding source for which your research question is a priority.
B) Using the internet is a poor way to find potential funding sources.
C) Examining recently issued requests for proposals should be avoided.
D) Avoid government sources.
Q4) Discuss how the guidelines for writing a research proposal will vary depending on the proposal's purpose.
Q5) Describe how qualitative research reports often differ from quantitative ones.
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