Research Terms Flashcards
Measures the effect of an intervention by randomly assigning groups or individuals to either an intervention group or a control group (less common in SW practice - unethical to withhold tx from people who need it)
Randomized Controlled Trial
Commonly used in social science research - void of randomization or either subject or treatment and/or the lack of comparison groups - goal is to answer questions: does a treatment or intervention have an impact? what is the relationship between program and practice outcomes?
Quasi-Experimental Design
Research where the subject serves as their own control rather than using another individual or group
Single Subject Design
Participants asked to retrospect (look back) and try to remember what they were like at an earlier point in time (ex. ask teenagers about how they were disciplined as kids)
Retrospective Design
Collect data at a single point in time from participants of different ages
Cross-sectional Design
Same people are measured at different ages
Longitudinal Design
Combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal designs (groups of people at different ages are followed overtime)
Cross-sequential Design
The degree to which the tool measures what it claims to measure
Validity
The confidence that can be placed in the cause-and-effect relationship in a study
Internal Validity
The extent to which an effect in research can be generalized to other populations, settings, and treatment variables
External Validity
The extent to which the results of a particular test of measurement correspond to those of previously established measurement for the same construct
Concurrent Validity
Involves testing a group of subjects for a certain construct and then comparing them with results obtained at some point in the future
Predictive Validity
The overall consistency of a measure - higher reliability indicates a measure will produced statistically similar results under consistent experimental conditions
Reliability
