Social Work Research & Evaluation 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which ethical principle in research requires that participation must be voluntary and informed?
- Beneficence
- Informed consent (Correct answer)
- Justice
- Non-maleficence
Correct answer: Informed consent
Informed consent in research requires that participants voluntarily agree to participate after receiving full information about the study's purpose, risks, and their rights.
Question 2: A 'needs assessment' in social work evaluation is primarily used to:
- Measure program outcomes
- Identify gaps between current conditions and desired services in a community (Correct answer)
- Evaluate practitioner performance
- Audit agency finances
Correct answer: Identify gaps between current conditions and desired services in a community
A needs assessment systematically identifies unmet needs and service gaps within a community or population to inform program planning.
Question 3: Which statistical concept indicates the probability that study results occurred by chance?
- Effect size
- Confidence interval
- p-value (Correct answer)
- Correlation coefficient
Correct answer: p-value
The p-value (probability value) indicates the probability that observed results occurred by chance alone; a p-value ≤ 0.05 is typically considered statistically significant.
Question 4: Single-subject design (also called single-system design) is commonly used in social work to:
- Study large populations
- Monitor the progress and outcomes of individual clients over time (Correct answer)
- Conduct randomized trials
- Survey community needs
Correct answer: Monitor the progress and outcomes of individual clients over time
Single-subject design tracks an individual client's behavior or outcomes across baseline and intervention phases to assess the impact of treatment.
Question 5: In evidence-based practice, a 'systematic review' is best described as:
- A single clinical trial
- A comprehensive synthesis of all available research on a specific question using rigorous methods (Correct answer)
- An expert opinion paper
- A case study compilation
Correct answer: A comprehensive synthesis of all available research on a specific question using rigorous methods
A systematic review uses explicit, replicable methods to identify, appraise, and synthesize all relevant studies on a defined research question.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes 'validity' in research measurement?
- Consistency of results across repeated measurements
- The degree to which an instrument measures what it claims to measure (Correct answer)
- The sample size of the study
- The statistical significance of findings
Correct answer: The degree to which an instrument measures what it claims to measure
Validity refers to the accuracy of a measurement tool—whether it truly captures the concept it is designed to measure.
Social Work Research & Evaluation 2
Which ethical principle in research requires that participation must be voluntary and informed?