Research and Program Evaluation

Question 1

The most valuable type of research is

Answer 1

the experiment, used to discover cause-and-effect relationships.

Question 2

Experiments emphasize parsimony, which means

Answer 2

interpreting the results in the simplest way.

Question 3

Occam’s Razor suggests that experimenters

Answer 3

interpret the results in the simplest manner.

Question 4

A counselor educator is running an experiment to test a new form of counseling. Unbeknownst to the experimenter one of the clients in the study is secretly seeing a gestalt therapist. This experiment

Answer 4

is confounded/flawed.

Question 5

Nondirective is to person-centered as

Answer 5

parsimony is to Occam’s Razor.

Question 6

An experiment is said to be confounded when

Answer 6

undesirable variables are not kept out of the experiment.

Question 7

In experimental terminology IV stands for ________ and DV stands for ________.

Answer 7

independent variable; dependent variable

Question 8

A professor of counselor education hypothesized that biofeedback training could reduce anxiety and improve the average score on written board exams. If this professor decides to conduct a formal experiment the IV will be the ________, and the DV will be the ________.

Answer 8

biofeedback; board exam score

Question 9

Experimenters should always abide by a code of ethics. The variable you manipulate/control in an experiment is the

Answer 9

IV or independent variable.

Question 10

In order for the professor of counselor education (see question 708) to conduct an experiment regarding his hypothesis he will need a(n) ________ and a(n) ________.

Answer 10

control group; experimental group

Question 11

In order for the professor of counselor education to conduct the experiment suggested in question 708 the experimental group would need to receive

Answer 11

a and b.

Question 12

Hypothesis testing is most closely related to the work of

Answer 12

R. A. Fisher

Question 13

The null hypothesis suggests that there will not be a significant difference between the experimental group which received the IV and the control group which did not. Thus, if the experiment in question 708 was conducted, the null hypothesis would suggest that

Answer 13

biofeedback will not improve the board exam scores.

Question 14

The hunch is known as the experimental or alternative hypothesis. The experimental hypothesis suggests that a difference will be evident between the control group and the experimental group (i.e., the group receiving the IV). Thus, if the experiment in question 708 were conducted, the experimental hypothesis would suggest that

Answer 14

the biofeedback would raise board scores.

Question 15

From a purely statistical standpoint, in order to compare a control group (which does not receive the IV or experimental manipulation) to the experimental group the researcher will need

Answer 15

a test of significance.

Question 16

When you see the letter P in relation to a test of significance it means

Answer 16

probability.

Question 17

In the social sciences the accepted probability level is usually

Answer 17

.05 or less

Question 18

P = .05 really means that

Answer 18

there is only a 5% chance that the difference between the control group and the experimental groups is due to chance factors.

Question 19

P = .05 really means that

Answer 19

differences truly exist; the experimenter will obtain the same results 95 times out of 100.

Question 20

The study that would best rule out chance factors would have a significance level of P =

Answer 20

.001.

Question 21

Type I and Type II errors are called ________ and ________ respectively.

Answer 21

alpha; beta

Question 22

A Type I error occurs when

Answer 22

you reject null when it is true.

Question 23

A Type II error

Answer 23

is also called a beta error.
means you accept null when it is false.

Question 24

Assume the experiment in question 708 is conducted. The results indicate that the biofeedback helped raise written board exam scores but in reality this is not the case. The researcher has made a

Answer 24

Type I error.

Question 25

A counselor educator decides to increase the sample size in her experiment. This will

Answer 25

reduce Type I and Type II errors.

Question 26

If a researcher changes the significance level from .05 to .001, then

Answer 26

alpha errors decrease; however, beta errors increase.

Question 27

A counselor believes that clients who receive assertiveness training will ask more questions in counseling classes. An experimental group receives assertiveness training while a control group does not. In order to test for significant differences between the groups the counselor should utilize

Answer 27

the student’s t test.

Question 28

The researcher in question 727 now attempts a more complex experiment. One group receives no assertiveness training, a second group receives four assertiveness training sessions, and a third receives six sessions. The statistic of choice would be the

Answer 28

ANOVA.

Question 29

If the researcher in the previous question utilized two IVs then the statistic of choice would be the

Answer 29

two-way ANOVA or MANOVA.

Question 30

To complete a t test you would consult a tabled value of t. In order to see if significant differences exist in an ANOVA you would consult

Answer 30

a table for F values.

Question 31

Which level of significance would best rule out chance factors?

Answer 31

.001

Question 32

When a researcher uses correlation, then there is no direct manipulation of the IV. A researcher might ask, for example, how IQ correlates with the incidence of panic disorder. Again, nothing is manipulated; just measured. In cases such as this a correlation coefficient will reveal

Answer 32

the relationship between IQ and panic disorder.

Question 33

If data indicate that students who study a lot get very high scores on state counselor licensing exams, then the correlation between study time and LPC exam scores would be

Answer 33

positive.

Question 34

Which of the following would most likely yield a perfect correlation of 1.00?

Answer 34

Length in inches and length in centimeters.

Question 35

A good guess would be that if you would correlate the length of CACREP graduates’ baby toes with their CPCE scores the result would be

Answer 35

close to 0.00.

Question 36

Dr. X discovered that the correlation between therapists who hold NCC status and therapists who practice systematic desensitization is .90. A student who perused Dr. X’s research told his fellow students that Dr. X had discovered that attaining NCC status causes therapists to become behaviorally oriented. The student is incorrect because

Answer 36

correlation does not imply causal.

Question 37

Behaviorists often utilize N = 1, which is called intensive experimental design. The first step in this approach would be to

Answer 37

take a baseline measure.

Question 38

In a new study the clients do not know whether they are receiving an experimental treatment for depression or whether they are simply part of the control group. This is, nevertheless, known to the researcher. Thus, this is a

Answer 38

single-blind study.

Question 39

A large study at a major university gave an experimental group of clients a new type of therapy that was intended to ameliorate test anxiety. The control group did not receive the new therapy. Neither the clients nor the researchers knew which students received the new treatment. This was a

Answer 39

double-blind study.

Question 40

Experimental is to cause and effect as correlational is to

Answer 40

degree of relationship

Question 41

In a normal curve the mean, the median, and the mode all fall precisely in the middle of the curve. From a graphical standpoint the so-called normal or Gaussian curve (named after the astronomer/mathematician K. F. Gauss) looks like

Answer 41

a symmetrical bell.

Question 42

The most common measures of central tendency are the mean, the median, and the mode. The mode is

Answer 42

the most frequently occurring score and the least-important measure of central tendency.

Question 43

A bimodal distribution has two modes (i.e., most frequently occurring scores). Graphically, this looks roughly like

Answer 43

a camel’s back with two humps.

Question 44

In a basic curve or so-called frequency polygon the point of maximum concentration is the

Answer 44

mode.

Question 45

The most useful measure of central tendency is the

Answer 45

mean, often abbreviated by an X with a bar over it.

Question 46

In a career counseling session an electrical engineer mentions three jobs he has held. The first paid $10 per hour, the second paid $30 per hour, and the third paid a higher rate of $50 per hour. The counselor responds that the client is averaging $30 per hour. The counselor is using

Answer 46

the mean.

Question 47

From a mathematical standpoint, the mean is merely the sum of the scores divided by the number of scores. The mean is misleading when

Answer 47

the distribution is skewed.

there are extreme scores.

Question 48

When a distribution of scores is not distributed normally, statisticians call it

Answer 48

a skewed distribution.

Question 49

The median is

Answer 49

the middle score when the data are arranged from highest to lowest.

Question 50

In a new experiment, a counselor educator wants to ferret out the effects of more than one IV. She will use a ________ design.

Answer 50

factorial