NCE Research and Evaluation 2

Question 1

A researcher finds a correlation of r = -0.75 between hours of sleep and self-reported anxiety scores. This finding means:

Accepted Answer

There is a strong negative relationship between sleep and anxiety

Answer

A correlation of -0.75 indicates a strong negative (inverse) relationship: as sleep increases, anxiety tends to decrease. However, correlation does not establish causation.

Question 2

Which type of research design is BEST suited to establishing cause-and-effect relationships?

Accepted Answer

True experimental design with random assignment

Answer

True experimental designs with random assignment to conditions allow researchers to control extraneous variables and make causal inferences, because random assignment equalizes groups on known and unknown confounds.

Question 3

In counseling outcome research, a 'control group' serves which primary purpose?

Accepted Answer

To serve as a comparison point against which treatment effects can be evaluated

Answer

The control group does not receive the experimental treatment and provides a baseline comparison. Differences between the treatment and control groups, after random assignment, can be attributed to the treatment.

Question 4

Which measure of central tendency is MOST resistant to the influence of extreme outlier scores?

Accepted Answer

Median

Answer

The median (the middle value when data are ordered) is resistant to outliers because it depends only on rank order, not the magnitude of extreme values. The mean is highly sensitive to outliers.

Question 5

A researcher uses a p-value threshold of 0.05 to determine statistical significance. This means:

Accepted Answer

There is a 5% probability of obtaining results this extreme if the null hypothesis is true

Answer

A p-value of 0.05 means there is a 5% probability of observing results at least as extreme as those obtained if the null hypothesis is actually true (i.e., a 5% Type I error rate).

NCE Exam Practice Test

NCE Exam Practice Test

NCE Research and Evaluation 2