Social Work Research
Final Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Social Work Research is an introductory course that explores the foundational principles, methodologies, and ethical considerations of conducting research within the field of social work. This course equips students with the skills to critically evaluate existing research, design basic studies, and apply quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate social problems. Emphasis is placed on the importance of evidence-based practice, data collection, analysis techniques, and the role of research in informing policy and improving practice. Students will develop the ability to use research to advocate for individuals, groups, and communities, contributing to the advancement of the social work profession.
Recommended Textbook
Empowerment Series Research Methods for Social Work 9th Edition by Allen Rubin
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Chapter 1: Why Study Research
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Q1) Which of the following is/are an aim of social work research?
A) To produce knowledge for knowledge's sake.
B) To provide practical knowledge to guide social work practice.
C) To provide information needed to alleviate human suffering and promote social welfare
D) all of the above
E) Both b and c are true
Answer: E
Q2) Some research studies get published despite having violated some of key methodological principles..
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
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Chapter 2: Evidence-Based Practice
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Q1) The evidence-based practice model
A) is used to guide social workers in taking scientific approach to practice.
B) emerged as a popular practice model in the mid 20th century.
C) reflects the long standing tendency of the vast majority of social work practitioners to use research studies to guide their practice.
D) All of the above are true.
E) Only b and c above are true.
Answer: A
Q2) "Accurate empathy" is one of the key influences on treatment outcomes.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) An evidence-based practice question should
A) incorporate client characteristics.
B) always inquire about only one specific intervention.
C) never be altered in light of the evidence emerging in one's literature search.
D) always specify at least two alternative interventions in advance.
Answer: A
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Chapter 3: Factors Influencing the Research Process
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Q1) Interpretive researchers focus on isolating and objectively measuring causes.
A)True
B)False Answer: False
Q2) The nomothetic model is inevitably probabilistic in its approach to causation. s possible.
A)True
B)False Answer: True
Q3) In reality, everything in human behavior can be explained entirely by factors we can identify.
A)True
B)False Answer: False
Q4) Researchers must choose either deductive methods or inductive methods; they cannot use both when studying the same research question.
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 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) Which of the following statements is/are true about qualitative and quantitative research methods?
A) Many studies use one or the other approach exclusively.
B) Some studies use both approaches with an equal emphasis on each.
C) Some studies use both approaches, but put more emphasis on one approach than the other.
D) All of the above.
Q3) Identify the reasons for using mixed methods.
Q4) 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.
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Q5) 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) Ethical issues are distinguished from political issues in research in that
A) ethics deals more with the substance of research.
B) politics deals more with the methods of research.
C) formal codes of accepted political conduct are not comparable to the codes of ethical conduct.
D) ethics deals more with the use of research.
Q2) Ethical obligations to one's colleagues in the scientific community
A) require that technical shortcomings and failures of the study be revealed.
B) allow the researcher to determine whether or not to report negative findings.
C) Encourage the researcher to always describe the findings as the product of a carefully preplanned analytical strategy.
D) a and b only are correct.
E) b and c only are correct.
Q3) Concealing the nature of the study from those being observed violates the norm of voluntary participation.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Choose an ethical issue presented in this chapter, create a research situation in which this issue could arise, and tell how you would handle it.
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Chapter 6: Culturally Competent Research
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Q1) 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.
Q2) Latinos who recently immigrated to the United States are likely to have the same level of acculturation as Latinos whose parents or grandparents have lived in the United States for several decades or longer
A)True
B)False
Q3) The degree of acculturation might influence which term minority group participants prefer to label their ethnicity.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Describe the steps you would take early on in designing to maximize the cultural competence of your research on a social problem among a Native American tribe living on a reservation.
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Chapter 7: Problem Formulation
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Q1) Research designs can be descriptive, explanatory, or exploratory, but never more than one.
A)True
B)False
Q2) If a researcher were conducting a study of women's attitudes toward abortion rights, the unit of analysis would be A) the individual.
B) attitudes.
C) abortion rights.
D) women's attitudes.
E) society.
Q3) The more broadly worded the research question is, the better the research question.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Cohort studies examine how specific subpopulations change over time, but the specific set of people observed will be different at different chronological points.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: Conceptualization in Quantitative and Qualitative Inquiry
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Q1) 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.
Q2) Conceptualization and operationalization in quantitative studies are always completed prior to the start of a research project.
A)True
B)False
Q3) It is possible to have several indicators of one concept.
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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Q1) Mr. Isle has noticed that several women he considers to be very feminine wear dresses or skirts often. Therefore, he decides he will determine a woman's degree of femininity by finding out how many times she wears a skirt or a dress over a period of a month. The women who wear dresses or skirts most frequently will be considered the most feminine; those who rarely wear either will be considered the least feminine. Is Mr. Isle's method of measuring femininity reliable? Why or why not? Is his method of measuring femininity valid? Why or why not? What is the tension that often exists between the criteria of reliability and validity?
Q2) Which of the following statements is NOT true about reliability and validity in qualitative research?
A) Standardized scales whose reliability and validity are known to be high would be relied upon as the prime measures.
B) Akin to interobserver reliability in quantitative studies, one might assess whether two independent raters arrive at the same interpretation from the same mass of written qualitative field notes.
C) Reliability might be assessed by asking subjects whether the researcher's interpretations ring true and are meaningful to them.
D) Reliability has a role in qualitative research.
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Chapter 10: Constructing Measurement Instruments
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Q1) A scale that is reliable and valid in one culture might not be reliable and valid in another culture.
A)True
B)False
Q2) 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.
Q3) There are several formats for contingency questions. Give illustrations of three different formats, using examples not presented in the text. How does the format for contingency questions differ from the format used for matrix questions? Give an illustration of the latter to differentiate it from the former.
Q4) Identify measurement principles that always apply to quantitative and qualitative approaches to asking people questions. Then identify differences between the two approaches in the style of asking questions.
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Chapter 11: Causal Inference and Experimental Designs
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Q1) 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.
Q2) Which of the following is LEAST suited to providing clear evidence about a causal relationship between the independent and dependent variables?
A) Classical experimental design.
B) Solomon four-group design.
C) Posttest-only control group design.
D) One-shot case study.
Q3) The classical experiment with random assignment of participants controls for measurement bias.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Discuss how attrition can affect the validity of an experiment and describe steps to minimize attrition.
Q5) Explain what is meant by internal and external validity.
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Chapter 12: Quasi-Experimental Designs
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Q1) Cross-sectional designs have a high degree of internal validity because they show how causal processes occur over time.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Discuss how qualitative methods can be used to try to avoid or alleviate the pitfalls identified above in essay number 2.
Q3) 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
Q4) Time-series designs with many measurement points control for statistical regression.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The best way to avoid contaminating the control condition is to locate the experimental and control conditions in the same building
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 13: Single-Case Evaluation Designs
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Q1) 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.
Q2) Discuss why it is best to have as many measurement points as possible in a single-case design.
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) Identify the major advantages and disadvantages of each of the following single-case designs:?a. AB design?b. ABAB design?c. multiple baseline design
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Chapter 14: Program Evaluation
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Q1) What steps should program evaluators take in order to foster the utilization of their studies?
Q2) If a rigorous experimental assessment of program outcome finds that a program is not effective in attaining its goals, then there is no need to evaluate the program's implementation.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What are the special problems that program evaluators encounter that other types of researchers are less likely to encounter?
Q4) 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.
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Chapter 15: Sampling
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Q1) Multistage cluster sampling is the best sampling procedure for small populations that are geographically close to one another.
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) 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.
Q4) Telephone directories are notorious for being inadequate sampling frames. Suppose the population were defined as "all telephone subscribers in the directory's service area." What criticisms could you make of the telephone directory as a sampling frame?
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Chapter 16: Survey Research
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Q1) The standardization of the data collected represents a special strength of survey research.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Random digit dialing refers to
A) drawing a random sample of telephone subscribers.
B) dialing a telephone with your eyes shut.
C) drawing a random sample of telephone numbers.
D) selecting numbers at random from the telephone directory.
Q3) Mail surveys are the only method used in studies using self-administered questionnaires.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Which of the following statements is true about online surveys?
A) A main disadvantage pertains to the likelihood of underrepresentation of the poor and the elderly.
B) They are more costly and time consuming for the researcher than mailed surveys.
C) They should never be mixed with postal surveys.
D) Avoid setting a deadline for participation.
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Chapter 17: Analyzing Existing Data: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
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Q1) Unobtrusive measures reduce the impact of the data collection on the phenomena being studied.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Describe a study for which the secondary analysis of existing data is the appropriate research method. What source would you use? What problems might you encounter and how would you resolve them?
Q3) Standard probability sampling techniques should NOT be used in content analysis.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Professor Perlman was interested in comparing two textbooks to determine whether one used more sexist language than the other. Perlman counted the number of times a gender reference appeared in each book. Perlman was doing
A) latent content coding.
B) manifest content coding.
C) quota sampling.
D) qualitative research.
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Chapter 18: Qualitative Research: General Principles
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Q1) The qualitative researcher
A) usually approaches the task with precisely defined hypotheses to be tested.
B) typically studies only those processes that can be predicted in advance.
C) makes initial observations, develops tentative conclusions that suggest further observation, and revises the conclusions.
D) never attempts to increase objectivity
E) all of the above.
Q2) In comparison to quantitative research methods, what are the major strengths and weaknesses of qualitative research methods?
Q3) In qualitative research, the formulation of theoretical propositions, the observation of empirical events, and the evaluation of theory are typically all part of the same ongoing process.
A)True
B)False
Q4) 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
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Chapter 19: Qualitative Research: Specific Methods
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Q1) Establishing rapport in qualitative field research involves using active listening skills taught in some basic social work practice classes.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Although there are no clear guidelines to follow, what ethical considerations should a researcher consider when choosing which role to assume in the field?
Q3) It is possible to assume both the emic and etic perspectives in the same research study
A)True
B)False
Q4) 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
Q5) How does qualitative interviewing differ from quantitative survey interviewing?
Q6) Select a research topic. Describe how a complete participant, a participant-as-observer, an observer-as-participant, and a complete observer might study that subject.
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Chapter 20: Qualitative Data Analysis
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Q1) Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A) Concept mapping is appropriate for qualitative analysis only.
B) Concept mapping can be used for either quantitative or qualitative analysis.
C) Concept mapping is appropriate for quantitative analysis only.
D) Computers cannot be used for qualitative research.
Q2) In the Lofland's terms, Professor Lip, from the prior question, was interested in examining which of the following ways of looking for patterns?
A) Frequencies
B) Magnitudes
C) Causes
D) Consequences
E) Processes
Q3) Identify at last one way that computer programs analyze qualitative data.
Q4) The utility of case-oriented analysis is the fact that one case canmake theory.
A)True
B)False
Q5) 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.
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Chapter 21: Descriptive Data Analysis
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Q1) A codebook is a guide for locating variables and interpreting entries in one's data file.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following statements is true concerning the codebook?
A) The variables in this codebook are male, female, and concentration.
B) Gender has been coded so that the categories are mutually exclusive and exhaustive.
C) Concentration has been coded so that the categories are mutually exclusive and exhaustive.
D) None of these statements is true.
Q3) Grouped data are created through the combination of attributes of a variable.
A)True
B)False
Q4) 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.
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Chapter 22: Inferential Data Analysis
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Q1) Explain Type I and Type 11 errors, when they are risked, and what can be done to reduce their risks.
Q2) If a Cohen's d effect size exceeds .6, the finding is statistically significant.
A)True B)False
Q3) Explain what is meant by "chance as a rival hypothesis.
Q4) 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?
Q5) The term "clinical significance" means the same thing as "substantive significance. A)True B)False
Q6) Statistical power analysis deals with the probability of avoiding Type I errors. A)True B)False
Q7) Explain the difference between statistical significance, relationship strength, and substantive significance.
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Chapter 23: 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) Describe how qualitative research reports often differ from quantitative ones.
Q3) Reports of qualitative research studies tend to be shorter than reports of quantitative studies.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The way research reports should be written depends on the type of audience for which they are intended.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Discuss the characteristics that distinguish weak from strong literature reviews in research proposals and research reports.
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