SCS Research Methods in Spiritual Care 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which research design is most appropriate for exploring how patients describe the meaning of prayer during hospitalization?
- Randomized controlled trial
- Phenomenological qualitative study (Correct answer)
- Cross-sectional survey
- Meta-analysis
Correct answer: Phenomenological qualitative study
Phenomenological qualitative research captures lived experiences and subjective meaning, making it ideal for studying how patients describe prayer.
Question 2: In spiritual care research, 'bracketing' refers to:
- Excluding outlier data points from analysis
- The researcher setting aside personal assumptions to remain open to participants' experiences (Correct answer)
- Grouping participants by religious affiliation
- A statistical technique for controlling confounders
Correct answer: The researcher setting aside personal assumptions to remain open to participants' experiences
Bracketing is a qualitative technique where researchers consciously set aside their preconceptions to avoid biasing interpretation of participants' accounts.
Question 3: A chaplain researcher wants to measure changes in patients' sense of spiritual well-being before and after a chaplaincy intervention. Which design best suits this goal?
- Case study
- Pre-post quasi-experimental design (Correct answer)
- Grounded theory
- Ethnography
Correct answer: Pre-post quasi-experimental design
A pre-post design measures the same outcome at two time points to assess change attributable to an intervention.
Question 4: The FACIT-Sp scale is commonly used in spiritual care research to measure:
- Religious service attendance frequency
- Spiritual well-being in patients with chronic illness (Correct answer)
- Chaplain competency levels
- Staff burnout related to spiritual distress
Correct answer: Spiritual well-being in patients with chronic illness
The FACIT-Sp (Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy – Spiritual Well-Being) is a validated scale measuring spiritual well-being in clinical populations.
Question 5: When a researcher uses both focus groups and patient surveys in the same study, this is an example of:
- Replication
- Triangulation (Correct answer)
- Saturation
- Randomization
Correct answer: Triangulation
Triangulation uses multiple data sources or methods to enhance the credibility and completeness of findings.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes 'theoretical saturation' in qualitative spiritual care research?
- When all available literature has been reviewed
- When new participants no longer add new themes or insights (Correct answer)
- When the sample size reaches 100 participants
- When the researcher has coded all transcripts
Correct answer: When new participants no longer add new themes or insights
Theoretical saturation is reached when additional data collection yields no new categories or themes, signaling sufficient depth.
Question 7: A study examining the relationship between chaplain visit frequency and patient anxiety scores across 500 hospital records is best described as:
- Experimental
- Qualitative narrative inquiry
- Correlational quantitative research (Correct answer)
- Action research
Correct answer: Correlational quantitative research
Correlational research examines the statistical relationship between two variables without manipulating them, fitting this records-based study.
SCS Research Methods in Spiritual Care 2
Which research design is most appropriate for exploring how patients describe the meaning of prayer during hospitalization?