Deck 6: Conducting Research That Describes People: What Are the Traits That Describe the Good Manager

Question 1

What is an advantage of recording age in actual years rather than categories of years in an information system?

A) You can report age in a manner that is required by ethical standards.
B) You can report the mean age.
C) You can report the proportion of persons with an age in a certain category.
D) You can report age in a manner that is required by federal standards.

Answer 1

You can report the mean age.

Question 2

What are the purposes of social work research, according to the text?

A) qualitative, quantitative, comprehensive
B) qualitative and quantitative
C) descriptive, mutually exclusive, exhaustive, and comprehensive
D) descriptive, explanatory, evaluative, and exploratory

Answer 2

descriptive, explanatory, evaluative, and exploratory

Question 3

Which of the following statements is true about types of research?

A) Descriptive research is designed to explain variables by examining their relationships.
B) Explanatory research is designed to describe people in regard to characteristics like age, gender, and race.
C) Evaluative research is designed to evaluate whether social work services have been successful in achieving their objectives.
D) Exploratory research is designed to apply ethical standards to social work research.

Answer 3

Evaluative research is designed to evaluate whether social work services have been successful in achieving their objectives.

Question 4

Which research question represents descriptive research?

A) What are the characteristics of our clients in regard to age, gender, race, and family structure?
B) Have our clients in the support group been found to have improved in their feelings of social support?
C) Is gender related to salary when organizational position level is controlled?
D) Is income level a predictor of client gain in our tutoring program?

Question 5

Which research question poses the greatest difficulty in defining the variable to measure and developing a tool for measuring that variable?

A) Is gender a predictor of salary?
B) Are the clients of our tutoring service obtaining better grades after the completion of our tutoring service than before?
C) What is the dropout rate for our clients in the tutoring service?
D) Are the students in our university more politically conservative than politically liberal?

Question 6

When you have measured your study variables in a qualitative manner, you will see ______

A) numbers like 25 and 89
B) words
C) numbers of people placed into categories such as male and female
D) dichotomous categories like male and female, younger or older

Question 7

What type of study is more likely to use qualitative measurement?

A) descriptive
B) explanatory
C) evaluative
D) exploratory

Question 8

What types of studies are more likely to be designed to test a hypothesis?

A) descriptive and qualitative
B) explanatory and evaluative
C) exploratory and comprehensive
D) exploratory and qualitative

Question 9

Which one of these questions is the least clear in regard to identifying what needs to be measured in a study?

A) Do people know about the full moon?
B) What are the characteristics of our clients in regard to income, whether there is a parent living in the home, and age?
C) Does age predict whether a client will fail to show up for an appointment?
D) What proportion of the students in our university voted in the last presidential election?

Question 10

The study methods phase of research for the descriptive study will include information on the ______.

A) research question being pursued such as "What are the characteristics of our clients?"
B) statistical analysis of data showing whether the hypothesis was supported
C) conclusions that were supported by the study results
D) study sample, the variables being measured, and the tools used to measure study variables

Question 11

The credibility of your measurement tool (e.g., the Beck Depression Inventory) is determined by the extent it has ______.

A) passed the test of reliability and quality
B) passed the test of validity and comprehensiveness
C) passed the test of reliability and the test of validity
D) failed to pass the tests of reliability or validity

Question 12

Reliability in measurement refers to ______.

A) relevance
B) consistency
C) accuracy
D) knowledge

Question 13

In descriptive research, your sample is comprised of the ______.

A) person from whom you collected data for your study
B) group of people from whom you selected the people to be asked to participate in your study
C) group of people who represent your target population
D) group of people who are representative of the target population

Question 14

When you say you can generalize your findings, either on a logical basis or a scientific basis, you are saying that ______.

A) you do not know what you would find if you repeated this study with another group of people
B) your results from a repeated study would be exactly the same (e.g., mean scores, p values, etc.) as the results of the study you completed
C) you expect that you would find similar results if you repeated this study with another sample selected from the study population on the same basis as was done for this study
D) you have used a random sample

Question 15

You can generalize the study findings from your sample to your population on a scientific basis if you have a ______ sample.

A) convenience
B) random
C) purposive
D) snowball

Question 16

If you use a question from a questionnaire that identifies a person as either male or female, you have a variable that is measured at what level?

A) interval
B) nominal
C) ordinal
D) ratio

Question 17

Which of the following is an example of a descriptive statistic?

A) the value of p in the testing of a study hypothesis
B) the value of t in the testing of a study hypothesis
C) the proportion of people who are female
D) the value of $\chi^{2}$

Question 18

You can compute the mean for a variable measured at what level?

A) nominal
B) ordinal
C) interval
D) qualitative

Question 19

In descriptive research, conclusions are drawn from the ______.

A) hypothesis that was tested
B) wisdom drawn from the literature review
C) informed opinions of the researcher
D) data that were analyzed

Question 20

Suppose you measured the concept of sex-role stereotype about management by asking a group of people to select 8 items that best described the good manager from a list of 16 items. One half of these 16 items had been found to represent the male stereotype and one half had been found to represent the female stereotype. You measured the variable of sex-role stereotype by summing the male-stereotyped items selected by the respondent. At what level have you measured the variable of sex-role stereotype?

A) nominal
B) ordinal
C) interval
D) qualitative

Question 21

When you conduct descriptive research, you are examining the relationship between two or more variables.

Question 22

If you use a random sample, you can generalize your findings from your sample to your study population on a scientific basis.

Question 23

The nominal level of measurement is a higher level of measurement than the interval level.

Question 24

The median is the midpoint value in a set of values laid out in numerical order.

Question 25

The standard deviation is the same as the mean.

Question 26

Descriptive research has the purpose of describing people (or things) one variable at a time rather than examining the relationships between variables.

Question 27

When you employ qualitative measurement, you typically have a number that represents the variable.

Question 28

You typically predict the outcome when you engage in descriptive research, but you do not when you engage in explanatory research.

Question 29

In Phase 3 (data collection and analysis) of descriptive research, you engage in the analysis of data using descriptive statistics rather than inferential statistics.

Question 30

You can generalize your study findings to your study population on a scientific basis if you employ a convenience sample.

Question 31

When you examine data statistically, how many variables do you examine at one time in the descriptive study? Is this different for the explanatory type of study? Explain.

Question 32

Do you have a study hypothesis when you conduct a descriptive study? Do you have one when you conduct an explanatory study? Explain.

Question 33

Explain whether you can have reliability if you do not have validity, or validity without having reliability.

Question 34

Explain why you are more likely to see qualitative measurement, rather than quantitative measurement, in an exploratory study than a study that is descriptive, explanatory, or evaluative.

Question 35

Suppose that someone reported on a study with the following summary:
This study had the purpose of describing people who are victims of domestic violence. It discovered that victims of family violence were found in various social classes, various races, and various sections of the nation. It was concluded that family violence is not restricted to social class, race, or geography.
Information from what phase of the research process is missing from this description? Is it Phase 1 (the research question and knowledge base), Phase 2 (the methods used to conduct the study), Phase 3 (data collection and analysis), or Phase 4 (drawing conclusions)?