Quantitative Research in Social Work Test Preparation
Course Introduction
Quantitative Research in Social Work introduces students to the principles and practices of empirical research methods within the context of social work. The course covers the design, implementation, and analysis of quantitative studies aimed at understanding social phenomena, evaluating interventions, and informing policy. Students learn about sampling techniques, measurement tools, data collection procedures, and statistical analysis. Emphasis is placed on ethical considerations, the interpretation of findings, and the application of quantitative research in diverse social work settings to support evidence-based practice and improve service delivery.
Recommended Textbook
Empowerment Series Research Methods for Social Work 9th Edition by Allen Rubin
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23 Chapters
654 Verified Questions
654 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Why Study Research
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33 Verified Questions
33 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements is 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 and influence the value of the research produced in their agencies.
D) Social work practitioners should have enough research expertise to point out flaws in the studies that attack social work or the welfare policies social workers advocate.
E) Both c and d are true
Answer: E
Q2) Some research studies get published despite having violated some of key methodological principles..
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Evidence-Based Practice
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Sample Questions
Q1) The term evidence-based practice and the term evidence-based practices have the same meaning.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) Which of the following statements is/are true about evidence-based practice?
A) The studies at the top of the research hierarchy usually involve clients who are very much like those typically encountered in everyday social work practice.
B) Its proponents agree with its critics that it denigrates professional expertise and ignores client values and preferences.
C)Real-world obstacles often prevent implementing it thoroughly in everyday social work practice.
D) All of the above are true.
E) None of the above is true.
Answer: C
Q3) "Accurate empathy" is one of the key influences on treatment outcomes.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Factors Influencing the Research Process
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following best illustrates the idiographic model?
A) A study of one client, seeking to understand the causes of the client's problems and what is effective in helping the client.
B) A study of 200 clients, seeking to generalize about whether ethnicity is related to premature termination of services.
C) Quantitative studies using graphs of population trends. ion of services.
D) Studies that reject the idea of determinism. ion of services.
Answer: A
Q2) 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.
Answer: B
Q3) "African American" is a variable that has the attribute of "ethnicity."
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Comparing Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed
Methods of Inquiry
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is/are an example of a qualitative research question?
A) How does feel to be homeless?
B) How many clients receiving our agency services are homeless?
C) How effective is our agency in reducing homelessness?
D) All of the above.
Q2) Identify and briefly describe three advanced mixed-methods designs.
Q3) Identify the reasons for using mixed methods.
Q4) Compared to quantitative studies, qualitative studies are more likely to:
A) be inductive.
B) have a larger sample size.
C) use less time consuming data collection methods.
D) Ask close-ended questions.
E) All of the above.
Q5) Research procedures are more likely to be specified in advance in qualitative studies than in quantitative studies.
A)True
B)False
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Q6) Explain how one would decide whether to emphasize qualitative or quantitative research methods - or both - in a particular study.
Chapter 5: The Ethics and Politics of Social Work Research
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28 Verified Questions
28 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements is/are true about IRB panelists or support staff?
A) Most IRB staff members try to help investigators obtain timely approval for their projects.
B) Some panelists can occasionally be overzealous and insist on unreasonable requirements for investigators to meet.
C) They might delay approval of a research project until the investigator responds to certain concerns.
D) All of the above are true.
Q2) Identify five commonly recommended guidelines for attempting to avoid bias and insensitivity regarding gender or culture in a study.
Q3) If researchers find that a new intervention is not effective, it is ethically acceptable to refrain from reporting the findings.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Are there any situations in which a researcher is justified in deceiving subjects? Explain your answer.
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Page 7
Chapter 6: Culturally Competent Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Sampling with hidden and oppressed populations:
A) almost always should involve probability sampling methods.
B) should avoid using the researcher's judgment about finding potential participants.
C) often involves using snowball sampling.
D) never should combine probability and non-probability sampling methods.
Q2) Describe the steps you would take to maximize the recruitment and retention of recently immigrated substance abusing Mexican American youths and their parents in a longitudinal evaluation of the effectiveness of a family-oriented substance program in Laredo a U.S. city located on the Texas-Mexico border.
Q3) There is no foolproof recipe for ensuring that your research will be culturally competent in all respects.
A)True
B)False
Q4) It is not always easy to define who qualifies as a member of a specific ethnic minority group.
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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30 Verified Questions
30 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) 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.
Q2) In a study in which a researcher examined major U.S. newspaper editorials that dealt with the topic of public welfare, the unit of analysis was
A) public welfare.
B) major U.S. cities.
C) newspapers.
D) newspaper editorials.
E) welfare recipients.
Q3) Which of the following is/are true regarding the feasibility of social work research studies?
A) Fiscal costs are rarely underestimated.
B) Agency staff members may resist research studies.
C) Unexpected obstacles rarely take up much time.
D) Ethical issues rarely require that the research be reformulated.
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Page 9
Chapter 8: Conceptualization in Quantitative and Qualitative Inquiry
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Sample Questions
Q1) Concepts are mental images that summarize collections of seemingly related observations and experiences.
A)True
B)False
Q2) To elicit valid information, your scale should be sufficiently long to take at least an hour to complete.
A)True
B)False
Q3) If we study whether motivational interviewing is effective in treating substance abuse by the mechanism of increasing the likelihood that clients will complete substance abuse treatment programs, then whether clients complete such programs is our mediating variable.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Examining police records of the number of arrests for domestic violence is an example of the use of self-report as a source of data for an operational definition.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: Measurement
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Sample Questions
Q1) The tendency of people to answer questions through a filter that will convey a favorable impression is called
A) the acquiescent response set.
B) social desirability bias.
C) cultural bias.
D) random error.
Q2) The tendency to give a favorable impression of oneself is an example of random error.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Reliability involves
A) whether a particular technique applied repeatedly to the same object would yield the same results each time.
B) ensuring accuracy.
C) ensuring that your measure measures what you think it should measure.
D) ensuring precision,
Q4) Given a scale to measure family risk of child abuse or neglect, contrast a way to measure the criterion-related validity of the scale with a way to measure that scale's construct validity.
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Chapter 10: Constructing Measurement Instruments
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Sample Questions
Q1) 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.
Q2) Which of the following statements is/are INCORRECT?
A) Closed-ended questions should limit respondents to three or four choices.
B) Closed-ended questions should have response categories that are mutually exclusive and exhaustive.
C) Closed-ended questions should provide uniformity of response.
D) Closed-ended questions should cover the range of likely responses.
Q3) The following exemplifies a proper way to ask a question: "Are you satisfied with this textbook and with your research instructor's teaching style?"
A)True
B)False
Q4) Identify acceptable options for handling missing data in an index or scale.
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12
Chapter 11: Causal Inference and Experimental Designs
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Sample Questions
Q1) The problem of external validity refers to the generalizability of results.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The effectiveness of randomization in experimentation is affected by the number of participants involved.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Studies that assign subjects to intervention groups on the basis of their extreme scores are vulnerable to regression toward the mean.
A)True
B)False
Q4) If we can establish that variable X comes before variable Q in time, then we can say:
A) variable X is a cause of variable Q.
B) variable X is not a cause of variable Q.
C) variable Q is a cause of variable X.
D) variable Q is not a cause of variable X.
Q5) Briefly describe how a study would be particularly vulnerable to the threat of statistical regression.
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Chapter 12: Quasi-Experimental Designs
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Sample Questions
Q1) Explain why the validity of quasi-experimental designs is strengthened by using multiple pretests, switching replications, and selecting a comparison group as similar as possible to the experimental group:
Q2) 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) they use random assignment.
Q3) Time-series designs with many measurement points control for maturation. A)True
B)False
Q4) 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
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14
Chapter 13: Single-Case Evaluation Designs
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Sample Questions
Q1) Identify three qualitative methods that can be incorporated in single-case evaluation, and discuss the function of each method.
Q2) Suppose you instruct a couple to have a typical conversation while you observe them in your office. This would be an example of
A) unobtrusive observation.
B) research reactivity.
C) obtrusive observation.
D) interval recording.
Q3) B and B+ designs have value in the evidence-based practice process despite lacking a baseline phase.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Target problems can be quantified in terms of their A) frequency, only.
B) duration, only.
C) magnitude, only.
D) frequency, duration, and/or magnitude
Q5) 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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30 Verified Questions
30 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements is true about monitoring program implementation?
A) If an outcome evaluation is well designed, there is no need to monitor program implementation.
B) Some programs have unsuccessful outcomes simply because they are not implemented properly.
C) If we find that a program has not been implemented properly, all the more reason to evaluate its outcome.
D) Whereas process evaluations are usually applied when evaluating outcome, experiments are most typically associated with monitoring program implementation.
Q2) Agency staff members who initially approve of a program evaluation design may nevertheless fail to comply closely with its research protocol throughout the study.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Discuss and provide an example of the value of qualitative approaches to program evaluation.
Q4) Describe the impact managed care has had on program evaluation.
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Page 16
Chapter 15: Sampling
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Sample Questions
Q1) In qualitative research, the informants selected should usually be somewhat typical of the groups being studied.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Every kth element in a list is chosen for inclusion in the sample in
A) simple random sampling.
B) systematic sampling.
C) disproportionate sampling.
D) cluster sampling.
E) stratified sampling.
Q3) 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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17
Chapter 16: Survey Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) 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.
Q2) Surveys are excellent devices to measure social action.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The standardization of the data collected represents a special strength of survey research.
A)True
B)False
Q4) A prime advantage of online surveys is the representativeness of respondents.
A)True
B)False
Q5) When asking questionnaire items, the interviewer should
A) ask every question even if the respondent has apparently answered it already. B) skip questions that the respondent cannot answer and return to them at the end of the interview.
C) react to a question after the respondent has answered to show interest
D) give help on difficult questions.
E) summarize the respondent's answers so that they are more meaningful answers.
Page 18
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Chapter 17: Analyzing Existing Data: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
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Sample Questions
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) 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.
Q3) Standard probability sampling techniques should NOT be used in content analysis.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 18: Qualitative Research: General Principles
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Sample Questions
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) The naturalism paradigm discourages the use of ethnography.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In comparison to quantitative research methods, what are the major strengths and weaknesses of qualitative research methods?
Q4) Grounded theory emphasizes inductive processes, but can incorporate deductive processes.
A)True
B)False
Q5) 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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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements is/are true about focus groups?
A) The larger the number of participants, the better.
B) The group dynamics may bring out information that may not have emerged in individual interviews.
C) Representativeness is a common strength of this method.
D) The data that emerge are likely to be less voluminous and more systematic than structured survey data.
Q2) Group conformity or groupthink is a potential disadvantage of focus groups.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The qualitative researcher in the role of participant-as-observer participates fully with the group under study but does not disclose his or her role as researcher.
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?
Q5) Explain what is meant by reflexivity and why it is a key part of qualitative research.
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Page 21
Chapter 20: Qualitative Data Analysis
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Sample Questions
Q1) Describe how coding, memoing, and concept mapping are used in qualitative analysis.
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) It is as important to identify the standardized unit for coding in qualitative analysis as it is in quantitative analysis.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Semiotics is a social science because
A) meanings are inherent in signs.
B) meanings reside in people's minds.
C) a particular sign may have a particular meaning to a particular person.
D) we have agreements about the meanings associated with particular signs.
Q5) Qualitative data processing is both a science and an art.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Identify at last one way that computer programs analyze qualitative data.
Page 22
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Chapter 21: Descriptive Data Analysis
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Sample Questions
Q1) An example of multivariate analysis would be
A) an examination of the ages of all women who are corporate executives.
B) an analysis of the relationship among age, sex, and type of nightspot frequented in a given city in the Midwest.
C) an analysis of the relationship that exists between types of undergraduate major and position held in business.
D) an analysis of the relationship between type of offense and length of prison sentence for those who had a jury trial.
Q2) It is normally distributed.
A) It is normally distributed.
B) Some people attended much more than 20 sessions.
C) Most people attended about 15 to 20 sessions.
D) More than half the sample attended exactly 10 sessions.
Q3) Given the following age distribution, the mean is 16, 31, 5, 30, 4, 3, 2
A) 2
B) 5
C) 13
D) 30
Q4) What is the purpose of data cleaning? How is it done?
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Chapter 22: Inferential Data Analysis
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Sample Questions
Q1) A researcher conducts a test of statistical significance and finds a probability of less than .05. The researcher should NOT conclude that
A) it is improbable that the observed relationship could have resulted from sampling error alone.
B) the null hypothesis was rejected.
C) there is a statistically significant relationship at the .05 level.
D) the results have important implications for social work.
Q2) Explain the difference between statistical significance, relationship strength, and substantive significance.
Q3) When using inferential statistics, we must risk either a Type I error or a Type II error, we cannot avoid risking both.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Explain what is meant by "chance as a rival hypothesis.
Q5) The more statistically significant a finding, the less likely it isto be explained away by extraneous variables or design flaws.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 23: Writing Research Proposals and Reports
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Sample Questions
Q1) 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
Q2) Reports of qualitative research studies tend to be shorter than reports of quantitative studies.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which of the following statements is/are TRUE about writing research proposals?
A) It is important to know the funding source's priorities before preparing your proposal.
B) The literature review section should be as extensive as possible, citing minute details of every study ever done on your topic.
C) Research proposals for qualitative studies do not differ from research proposals for quantitative studies.
D) All of these are true.
Q4) Describe how qualitative research reports often differ from quantitative ones.
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