CPCE Research & Program Evaluation 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: The ACA Code of Ethics requires counselors who conduct research to obtain informed consent that includes all of the following EXCEPT:
- The purpose and procedures of the research
- Potential risks and benefits of participation
- A guarantee that participation will improve the client's mental health (Correct answer)
- The right to withdraw without penalty
Correct answer: A guarantee that participation will improve the client's mental health
Researchers cannot guarantee therapeutic benefit; informed consent must be honest about what the research involves without making promises about outcomes.
Question 2: A counselor implements an evidence-based intervention supported by multiple randomized trials. When evaluating this intervention for her specific rural Latino population, she should FIRST consider:
- Whether the intervention was validated with populations similar to her clients (Correct answer)
- The number of peer-reviewed articles supporting the intervention
- Whether the intervention can be delivered in fewer sessions to reduce cost
- If the intervention developer endorses its use in rural settings
Correct answer: Whether the intervention was validated with populations similar to her clients
Evaluating whether an evidence-based practice was developed and validated with a comparable population is essential for determining cultural applicability.
Question 3: In qualitative research, 'bracketing' or 'epoché' refers to the researcher's effort to:
- Limit the time spent on each participant interview
- Set aside personal assumptions and biases to remain open to participant meanings (Correct answer)
- Use brackets in transcripts to denote nonverbal behaviors
- Establish predetermined categories before coding data
Correct answer: Set aside personal assumptions and biases to remain open to participant meanings
Bracketing is a phenomenological practice in which researchers consciously suspend their preconceptions to avoid biasing their interpretation of participant data.
Question 4: Which of the following best describes 'effect size' in research?
- The probability that the null hypothesis is true
- The practical magnitude of the difference or relationship found (Correct answer)
- The number of participants needed to achieve significance
- The degree to which results can be generalized to other settings
Correct answer: The practical magnitude of the difference or relationship found
Effect size quantifies the practical or clinical magnitude of a finding, independent of sample size, indicating how meaningful the result is.
Question 5: A counselor conducting action research in her school is primarily focused on:
- Publishing findings in a peer-reviewed counseling journal
- Solving a specific local problem and improving practice in her immediate context (Correct answer)
- Generating broadly generalizable theory applicable across school settings
- Comparing her school's outcomes to national counseling program benchmarks
Correct answer: Solving a specific local problem and improving practice in her immediate context
Action research is practitioner-driven inquiry aimed at understanding and improving practice within a specific local context.
Question 6: When a counselor's program evaluation reveals that a group counseling intervention for depression was effective with adult women but not with adolescent males, this difference in outcomes is called a(n):
- Main effect
- Interaction effect (Correct answer)
- Confounding variable
- Moderating variable finding
Correct answer: Interaction effect
An interaction effect occurs when the impact of an intervention differs based on the combination of two or more variables, such as age group and gender.
Question 7: A school counselor uses the MEASURE model for program evaluation. The 'E' in MEASURE stands for:
- Evaluate (Correct answer)
- Execute
- Examine
- Evidence
Correct answer: Evaluate
In the MEASURE model (Mission, Elements, Analyze, Stakeholders, Unite, Reanalyze/Evaluate), the 'E' stands for Evaluate, referring to assessing the school counseling program's impact.
CPCE Research & Program Evaluation 4
The ACA Code of Ethics requires counselors who conduct research to obtain informed consent that includes all of the following EXCEPT: