Question 1

Pam is interested in exploring the nature of the relationships between children and staff at a residential treatment program. She identifies a facility and the facility's administrators agree that she can use face-to-face surveys with staff, including mental health technicians, clinicians, and psychiatrists. Pam decides to conduct in-depth interviews with three different types of staff members to find out about their relationships with the children. What type of analysis will she conduct?

Accepted Answer

Pam will conduct case studies, as she is conducting in-depth interviews with three different types of staff members to understand the relationships between children and staff at a residential treatment program.

Question 2

An evaluator has significant interest in examining the legislative processes that led to the mental health deinstitutionalization movement. He researches multiple transcripts on the legislative debates that occurred in the 1950's and 1960's. The goal of the data analysis is to better understand the legislative discourse patterns that occurred over this twenty-year period. What type of data analysis is the most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Theme analysis is the most appropriate method for analyzing the legislative debates over a twenty-year period. Theme analysis focuses on identifying recurring patterns or themes in a large data set, which would be useful in understanding the legislative discourse patterns that occurred over time. Interview schedule is not appropriate for analyzing legislative debates, as it is a method of collecting data through interviews with individuals. Case study is not appropriate because it focuses on analyzing a single case or entity, whereas the evaluator is interested in analyzing the discourse patterns over a period of time. Multivariate analysis is not appropriate for this context because it is a statistical technique used to analyze multiple variables, which is not applicable in this scenario.

Question 3

Terrence is a lead investigator for a qualitative project focused on exploring how technology impacts the efficacy of a parenting program. He is shocked that over 500 caregivers respond to the open-ended questions. Which type of data analysis is most appropriate for the analysis of these responses?

Accepted Answer

With over 500 open-ended responses, condensing the responses into general categories would be the most appropriate data analysis method. This will allow Terrence to identify common themes and patterns in the data without being overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of responses. Case studies and measures of central tendency would not be appropriate for analyzing qualitative data, and descriptive statistics are not likely to be useful with open-ended responses.

Question 4

Clinical observations at a child guidance center indicate that three interventions hold promise for helping autistic children. The three interventions are behavioral, behavioral coupled with family systems, and behavioral coupled with psychoeducation. However, evidence-based practice dictates that the three interventions be tested to determine which is the most effective. How can a researcher compare the differences among the three interventions using a statistical test?

Accepted Answer

ANOVA (analysis of variance) is the most appropriate statistical test for comparing the means of three or more independent groups. It can determine if there are significant differences among the three interventions in terms of effectiveness. T-tests are used for comparing the means of two groups, measures of central tendency describe the middle or average of a set of data, and measures of variability describe the spread or dispersion of the data.

Question 5

Bill runs a psychoeducational group for individuals who have been admitted to a residential facility. He wants to evaluate the group intervention and therefore administers a quantitative questionnaire to the 12 group members. The responses to one question result in a mean score of 20, and the standard deviation is 6. How can this standard deviation be interpreted?

Accepted Answer

The standard deviation is a measure of how much the responses vary from the mean, and it is a standardized measure that allows for comparisons across different measures. It does not indicate whether the variation is clinically significant or statistically significant. Therefore, option A and B are incorrect. Also, the given information does not provide any evidence that the average score for the measure is 14, so option D is incorrect.

Question 6

A consistent finding in criminology literature is that there is an association between race and type of arrest (e.g. robbery, assault, homicide, etc.). This finding is reviewed by the criminal justice department at a university. Some believe that theses results are due to institutional discrimination, while others believe that it depends on the demographic characteristics of an area. What statisitc can test a hypothesis that states there is an association between race and type of arrest?

Accepted Answer

A chi-square test can be used to test the hypothesis that there is an association between two categorical variables, such as race (a categorical variable) and type of arrest (also a categorical variable). The results can help determine if there is a significant association between the two variables, and if so, the strength and direction of this association. Standard deviation, t-tests, and tests of variance are not appropriate for testing this type of hypothesis.

Question 7

Hospice programs provide crucial services for individuals with terminal illnesses and their families. Two divergent staffing paradigms are implemented in hospice programs. The first paradigm uses only masters-level providers, while the second primarily uses bachelor-level providers with a masters-level supervisor. Researchers are interested in determining if there are differences between the paradigms in terms of client satisfaction. Which type of data analysis can measure differences between two groups?

Accepted Answer

A t-test is a statistical analysis used to compare the means of two groups. In this case, the researchers are interested in comparing client satisfaction between two groups (hospice programs with only masters-level providers versus programs with mainly bachelor-level providers and a masters-level supervisor). A t-test would be an appropriate analysis to determine if there are significant differences in client satisfaction between the two groups. ANOVA could also be used if there are more than two groups being compared, but in this case, there are only two. Correlation and descriptive statistics are not appropriate for comparing differences between two groups.

Question 8

Program evaluators are trying to gain knowledge into the cognitive distortions of sexual offenders. They expect that there will be a "norm" of cognitive distortions, but what is emerging is a substantial amount of variability. What appears are that some offenders distort their intentions, some distort the interests in their victims, and some have distortions about the concepts of love and intimacy. What is the name of the type of descriptive statistics that illustrates how much responses vary from the "norm?"

Accepted Answer

Measures of variability (such as range, standard deviation, and variance) illustrate how much responses vary from the "norm," which is central tendency (measures such as mean, median, and mode). Therefore, choice A is the correct answer as it refers to the specific type of descriptive statistics that illustrates variability.

Question 9

Alicia wants to test the associations between SES and education for program recepients. One of the variables that approximates SES is household income. She designates family income as representing income per year and the variable has values of 1 = $0 to $25,000, 2 = $25, 001 to $50,000, 3 = $50,001 to $80,000, 4 = $80,001 to $100,000, and 5 = above $100,000. What is the level of measurement of the variable household income?

Accepted Answer

Household income is an example of an ordinal level of measurement because the categories have a meaningful order, but the difference between categories is not necessarily equal (e.g. the difference between $0-$25,000 and $25,001-$50,000 is not equivalent to the difference between $50,001-$80,000 and $80,001-$100,000).

Question 10

Measures of variability are important for quantitative analysis because the measures determine the extent to which scores of a value vary or disperse from measures of central tendency. For instance, a group program recepients may take a test and the scores may be 75, 82, 84, 88, and 93. Thus the range in scores is from 75 to 93, which places the mean score at 84.4%. Which statistic is not a measure of variability?

Accepted Answer

Mean is a measure of central tendency and not a measure of variability. Standard deviation, range, and variance are all measures of variability.

Quiz 10: Analyzing Evaluation Data

Terrence is a lead investigator for a qualitative project focused on exploring how technology impacts the efficacy of a parenting program. He is shocked that over 500 caregivers respond to the open-ended questions. Which type of data analysis is most appropriate for the analysis of these responses?