SCS Research Methods in Spiritual Care 4

Question 1

A hospital chaplain wants to evaluate whether a dignity therapy protocol reduces existential distress in terminally ill patients. The most rigorous design would be:

Accepted Answer

Randomized controlled trial with a control group

Answer

An RCT with a control group provides the strongest evidence of causality by randomly assigning participants to intervention or control conditions.

Question 2

Inter-rater reliability in qualitative spiritual care coding is best assessed using:

Accepted Answer

Cohen's kappa statistic

Answer

Cohen's kappa measures agreement between two raters beyond chance, making it appropriate for assessing consistency in categorical coding.

Question 3

Which concept describes the degree to which a spiritual well-being scale measures what it is intended to measure?

Accepted Answer

Validity

Answer

Validity refers to how accurately an instrument measures its intended construct, such as spiritual well-being.

Question 4

An action research approach in a hospital chaplaincy department would most likely involve:

Accepted Answer

Chaplains collaborating with staff to identify problems, implement changes, and evaluate outcomes cyclically

Answer

Action research is participatory and cyclical, involving practitioners in identifying issues and evaluating change within their own practice context.

Question 5

When a spiritual care researcher discloses their own faith background and how it may influence the study, this practice is called:

Accepted Answer

Reflexivity

Answer

Reflexivity involves the researcher's critical self-examination of how their identity, beliefs, and position may shape the research process and findings.

(SCS) Spiritual Care Specialist Practice Test

(SCS) Spiritual Care Specialist Practice Test

SCS Research Methods in Spiritual Care 4