CBMT Research and Evidence-Based Practice 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A music therapist reads a study reporting a Cohen's d of 0.80. How is this effect size generally interpreted?
- Small effect
- Medium effect
- Large effect (Correct answer)
- Negligible effect
Correct answer: Large effect
By Cohen's conventions, d = 0.20 is small, d = 0.50 is medium, and d = 0.80 or above is considered a large effect size.
Question 2: In research ethics, what is 'informed consent' primarily designed to protect?
- The researcher's institutional reputation
- Participant autonomy and right to voluntary participation with full disclosure (Correct answer)
- The validity of the study's findings
- The therapist's liability in clinical settings
Correct answer: Participant autonomy and right to voluntary participation with full disclosure
Informed consent protects participant autonomy by ensuring individuals voluntarily agree to participate after receiving complete, understandable information about the study.
Question 3: Which of the following is an example of a DEPENDENT variable in a music therapy research study?
- The type of music therapy intervention used
- The number of sessions per week
- The client's pain level measured before and after sessions (Correct answer)
- The therapist's level of training
Correct answer: The client's pain level measured before and after sessions
The dependent variable is the outcome measured in a study—in this case, the client's pain level that is expected to change in response to the intervention.
Question 4: A music therapist is conducting a needs assessment before implementing a new program in a hospital. Which of the following data sources would be MOST useful?
- Published meta-analyses on music therapy outcomes
- Staff interviews, patient records, and community demographics (Correct answer)
- Case studies from other countries with different healthcare systems
- The therapist's personal clinical preferences
Correct answer: Staff interviews, patient records, and community demographics
A needs assessment draws on multiple local sources—staff input, patient data, and demographics—to identify gaps and guide program development in a specific context.
Question 5: What is 'inter-rater reliability' and why is it important in research?
- Agreement between a researcher's pre- and post-test scores; ensures longitudinal consistency
- Consistency of ratings between two or more independent observers; ensures objectivity of measurement (Correct answer)
- The degree to which a test measures what it claims to measure
- The stability of a measurement over repeated administrations
Correct answer: Consistency of ratings between two or more independent observers; ensures objectivity of measurement
Inter-rater reliability measures the degree of agreement between independent raters, ensuring that observations are not biased by a single researcher's subjectivity.
Question 6: In music therapy program evaluation, what does 'formative evaluation' focus on?
- Summarizing overall program outcomes at the end of the program
- Ongoing monitoring and improvement of a program while it is still in progress (Correct answer)
- Comparing one program's outcomes to those of similar programs nationally
- Assessing the cost-effectiveness of a completed program
Correct answer: Ongoing monitoring and improvement of a program while it is still in progress
Formative evaluation occurs during program implementation to provide feedback that can improve the program while it is still running.
Question 7: Which sampling method involves selecting every nth person from a complete list of the population?
- Convenience sampling
- Purposive sampling
- Systematic random sampling (Correct answer)
- Snowball sampling
Correct answer: Systematic random sampling
Systematic random sampling selects participants at regular intervals (every nth person) from an ordered list, providing a straightforward way to achieve representativeness.
CBMT Research and Evidence-Based Practice 3
A music therapist reads a study reporting a Cohen's d of 0.80.
How is this effect size generally interpreted?