Exam 10: Quasi-Experimental Designs and Program Evaluation

Which of the following is not one of the four questions addressed in program evaluation?

A researcher trains observers to complete checklists while observing children's behavior on the schoolyard during recess.Over the course of the study,observers become more reliable in their observations.Any effect of a treatment in this study might be confounded with an ____________ threat to internal validity.

The relationship between basic research and applied research can best be described as

How does a time series design with nonequivalent control group differ from a nonequivalent control group design? What threat to internal validity is controlled by adding a nonequivalent control group to a simple interrupted time series design?

When events that occur during the course of a study have a different effect on one group of participants than on another,the possible threat to internal validity is

A researcher was interested in determining whether more frequent breaks (i.e., "coffee breaks") in a business setting would help employees to be more productive. With the cooperation of the management, employees on one floor of the corporate offices were allowed to take a 10-minute break each hour (at any time) between 8:00 and 11:00 A.M. (for a total of 30 minutes). The comparison group comprised employees on different floors who followed the usual corporate policy of taking a 30-minute break sometime during the morning (at any time). Measures of productivity were gathered for each employee according to his or her job (e.g., number of reports written, number of sales made, etc.). A time series analysis was applied to compare the productivity of both groups of employees for six months before and after the intervention (started in July). Quite surprisingly, the productivity of both groups increased following the onset of the intervention, suggesting to the researcher that the timing of breaks makes no difference. -a graph that displays results demonstrating the hypothesized effectiveness of the intervention.

A threat to internal validity that occurs when information about the experiment is communicated between the different groups of participants is known as

In a study of the effectiveness of a treatment for depression,a psychologist assesses patients' symptoms of depression using a reliable questionnaire both before and for several months after treatment.During the same time period,the psychologist also assesses the symptoms of individuals who are randomly assigned to a waiting-list control group.The results indicate that individuals in both groups experienced a decrease in their symptoms over the 8-month time period of the study.One threat to internal validity the researcher should consider is

A researcher was interested in determining whether more frequent breaks (i.e., "coffee breaks") in a business setting would help employees to be more productive. With the cooperation of the management, employees on one floor of the corporate offices were allowed to take a 10-minute break each hour (at any time) between 8:00 and 11:00 A.M. (for a total of 30 minutes). The comparison group comprised employees on different floors who followed the usual corporate policy of taking a 30-minute break sometime during the morning (at any time). Measures of productivity were gathered for each employee according to his or her job (e.g., number of reports written, number of sales made, etc.). A time series analysis was applied to compare the productivity of both groups of employees for six months before and after the intervention (started in July). Quite surprisingly, the productivity of both groups increased following the onset of the intervention, suggesting to the researcher that the timing of breaks makes no difference. -What type of research design was used in this study?

,the most significant change needed if our society is to approach social reforms as experiments is for public officials to emphasize

Distinguish between evaluation of outcome and evaluation of efficiency as these are used in program evaluation.

Research done in natural settings,as compared to research done in laboratory settings,is more likely to emphasize

A human services agency was interested in finding out whether establishing a food distribution center in their community would be providing a service the community would use.Which of the following types of assessments in program evaluation would this agency find useful for this question?

At a large university, a group of education specialists tested the effectiveness of a new academic improvement course. Students seeking help at the university counseling center because of academic difficulties were asked to participate in this 4-week program. Only students who were judged to be deficient in reading comprehension and other study-related skills were chosen for the program. Students who sought help at the counseling center for emotional difficulties were included in the study as a comparison group. They received the usual treatment offered at the counseling center. A group of 30 students completed the academic-improvement program at the counseling center. Average test grades from the students' courses for the two groups were compared before (midterm exams) and after (final exams) the program. Analyses revealed that a statistically significant majority of the students were doing better in school after completing the academic-improvement program than before. -What major threats to internal validity are controlled by this research design?

The external validity of research done in natural settings is likely to be emphasized more when the research represents

Random assignment to conditions is used in true experiments to control which of the following threats to internal validity?

One threat to the internal validity of research that affects both true experiments and quasi-experiments is

The hallmark of a quasi-experiment is

A high school teacher conducted a test of a new approach to teaching math.Students were given a pretest when their math class began and a posttest at the end of the semester.The students' math performance increased.The teacher learned near the end of the semester,however,that in their science classes the students were using new computer software that included much of the math the teacher covered in his course.Which of the following threats to internal validity does the new computer software represent?

A clinical psychologist examined the effect of a treatment designed to reduce the amount of cigarette smoking in the day room of an inpatient psychiatric facility.His treatment consisted of a several components to maximize its potential effectiveness (e.g. ,increasing the number of available activities;giving patients responsibility for care of the unit's plants,fish,etc. ;the opportunity to exchange cigarettes for positive reinforcers).At the end of three months,his data indicated that cigarette smoking had declined significantly.Based on this,he is able to conclude that