Deck 6: Investigating the Field

Question 1

What is reflexive critique and how is it applied in action-research?

A) The researcher reflects in-depth on a problem and then critiques its impact on her clients.
B) The researcher systematically critiques the artwork produced in a session to reflect on how to be a more effective therapist.
C) The researcher studies her own behaviors and their outcomes and then systematically tests her hypotheses to produce change.
D) The researcher studies the behaviors of clients and uses the critique format to systematically help them reflect on how to make changes in their lives.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Explain the difference between espoused theory and theory-in-use.

Answer 2

Espoused theory is what therapists think is guiding their behaviors, whereas theory-in-use is the theory guiding their practice based on their actual behaviors in a particular situation.

Question 3

Using the template "when I am in 'x' situation, I usually do 'y' in order to 'x'…", Joe reports that in his art therapy program for adolescents with anorexia he usually has the girls do body tracings followed writing words about themselves on different parts of the body tracing. He does this because he has found that the activity helps the girls connect their feelings with their bodies. What "theory-in-use" might his treatment strategy reflect?

A) Art therapy is a visual-perceptual modality that can help correct distortions of thinking and feeling.
B) Art therapy is a psychoanalytic therapy that can help anorexic girls work through family issues that may have led to the development of the disease.
C) Art therapy offers rehabilitative treatment to help anorexic girls recover their motor control that was weakened by the disease.
D) Art therapy offers a phenomenological-existential approach to anorexia by helping clients encounter their feelings about mortality and perfection.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

An art therapist wants to understand why attendance has dropped off in his pain management art therapy group. What might be the dialectic operating in the situation that he could examine in action-research?

A) Patients may have a conflict due to the frequency and timing of their medical appointments.
B) Patients may expect art therapy to help decrease their physical pain but fear getting in touch with emotional pain.
C) Patients may prefer a less physical modality to help them manage their pain.
D) Patients may have a conflict with either the therapist or the other patients in the group.

Question 5

An art therapist has a client with aphasia who learned to use magazine collage as a primary means of communication. Would her research study be approached as an intrinsic case or an instrumental case? Why?

Question 6

An art therapist is interested in learning in how clients who have aphasia can utilize art therapy to communicate. Would the research be approached as an intrinsic or instrumental case study? Why?

Question 7

What are 8 basic steps in conducting case research?

Question 8

An art therapist conducts an in-depth case study with an adolescent client in recovery from substance abuse who has created a visual life review in art therapy. Individual, in-depth interviews produce intense reflections on how drug use has affected the client's family life. What specific strategy could the researcher use to improve the case's "substantive significance"?

A) Review the case with peers in group supervision to obtain other perspectives that may be more objective
B) Review the significance of the visual life review in the client's life to substantiate the researcher's own assessment
C) Review the case with a supervisor to check for possible effects of countertransference and to offer an expert's perspective on substance abuse
D) Review the case with the client's parent to substantiate the client's life review and account of the drug abuse

Question 9

Define triangulation and list four different kinds.

Question 10

What is ethnography and its purpose as a research methodology?

Question 11

Which of the following art therapy practice concerns could be studied best by using an ethnographic approach?

A) The means by which an art therapy program could improve patient satisfaction
B) Ethical procedures for exhibiting client art in a museum-based art therapy program
C) Treatment outcomes for an ethnic minority adolescent client
D) Art therapy program structures to address the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals

Question 12

How might an art therapist study the cultural meaning of a client's transition from a group home to independent living?

A) Obtain in-depth understanding of the client's culture by immersing oneself in the daily life of the group home.
B) In addition to the client, honor the stories and artwork of all the clients who are making the transition to independent living.
C) In addition to the client, interview members of the client's cultural group for insights into the values and expectations that independence may bring.
D) Ask the client to describe his or her experience from an insider's perspective.

Question 13

What is meant by an "etic" perspective and what is one critical problem some people have with it in ethnographic research?

A) Etic is the perspective held by insiders, which sometimes is seen as privileging powerful members of the culture being studied at the expense of other members.
B) Etic is the perspective held by insiders, which sometimes is seen as producing a biased account because members tend to want to put their culture in the best possible light.
C) Etic is the perspective held by outsiders, which sometimes is seen as a more accurate and in-depth reflection on the culture than members can perceive themselves.
D) Etic is the perspective held by outsiders, which sometimes is seen as privileging the power of the researcher over the members of the culture being studied.

Question 14

What is popular education in participatory action research?

A) Community-based learning that is popular among its members
B) Integrated learning that is inclusive to professionals
C) Education that empowers the people through consciousness-raising
D) Community programs that provide local funding for research

Question 15

An art therapist is interested in conducting participatory action research with a group of women handcrafters in a marginalized community. Which of the following questions fails to orient the research toward empowerment?

A) How can I help the women understand the importance of using better materials in their crafts?
B) As a researcher involved in their community, what length of time and commitment can I make to the women?
C) How will the women view the results of the study and their participation in it?
D) Have the women increased their capacity to produce an income for their families if that is their main concern?

Question 16

How might a recent hate crime in the community affect the progress of a participatory action research study?

A) Participants may want to create a mural together.
B) Trust in outsider facilitators may need to be renegotiated.
C) Research goals may not address community participation any longer.
D) Participants may expect greater roles diffusion.

Question 17

Which of the following ethical issues is a particular concern for researchers conducting an ethnographic study or PAR?

A) Attention to insider and outsider perspectives on power, agency, and control
B) The effect of the control group on the outcomes of the study
C) Confidentiality when bringing the research results back to the therapist's own reference groups
D) Subjectivity in the data collection, due to the cultural differences being studied

Question 18

What is your most pressing clinical problem? Create an art image of it and then consider how action-research could be used to address it. Identify the steps and apply them to the problem.

Question 19

Apply the template "I wish to study a person who…in order to…because" to a clinical situation and then reframe it as a question that identifies the main research problem or issue.

Question 20

What is the relationship between action-research and quantitative research that show outcomes effectiveness?

Question 21

Do you agree that every art therapy session can be seen as a trans-cultural encounter? Why or why not?

Question 22

Create an ethnographic interview template with a focus on the cultural dimensions of time and space, actors, activities, and events for the following scenario: a client's conflict with his parents about marrying someone they have chosen for him whom he has never met.

Question 23

Create an artwork in response to a challenge in art therapy practice. With a critical artist's eye, identify how you could improve the artwork. Reflect on how the strategies you chose might parallel strategies for responding to the practice challenge you identified.

Question 24

Identify a "unit of analysis" for a case study. Create a series of portraits of the case or cases from different perspectives (therapist, client, community, family, other staff, culture, etc.).