Deck 9: Is the Intervention Effective

Question 1

A key component of any program evaluation is the review of a program to see how the program helped clients. In the outcomes stage, which of the following tools should an evaluator consider using to determine the effectiveness of a program?

A) Goal Attainment Scale, Client Satisfaction, Target Problem Scale
B) Client satisfaction, Cost-benefit Analysis, Summary Scale
C) Goal Attainment Scale, Target Problem Scale, Sequencing Blocks
D) Participants, Stakeholders, Social Workers

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Outcomes should ultimately focus on clients and on not staff interventions. If an auditor were to review a program for effectiveness, which of the following goals is most appropriately focused on the client outcomes?

A) Sally will be assisted with developing coping skills
B) Sally will contact crisis services when she needs additional support
C) Sally will be contacted every week to monitor status and level of change
D) Sally will have access to medication management services

Answer 2

B

Question 3

According to the text, Martin and Kettner (1996) offer seven criteria for determining whether an outcomes measure is adequate or acceptable. The outcome measure criteria that refers to whether the outcome measure reflects what it is supposed to measure and whether it does so accurately is the _____________ criteria.

A) Reliability
B) Precision
C) Cost
D) Validity

Answer 3

D

Question 4

In social work research it may be difficult to study causal relationships. Codes of ethics and professional values tend to make it difficult to withhold treatments, which in-turn makes it difficult to form control groups in research. Which item is not a condition that must be met for claiming a causal relationship?

A) Independent variable precedes the dependent variable in time
B) Measures are reliable
C) Statistical association between the independent and dependent variable
D) Statistical association is due to the independent variable and not an extraneous variable(s)

Question 5

A program evaluator wants to conduct a time series design for assessing the effectiveness of a program designed to serve those with eating disorders. The evaluator is currently obtaining baseline measurements in the form of daily caloric intakes for a research participant. It is the hope that the interventions help the research participants maintain healthy nutritional habits. What type of research methodology is a time series design?

A) Pre-experimental
B) Quasi-experimental
C) Experimental
D) Cross-sectional

Question 6

A researcher is planning to use an ABAB single systems design to evaluate a program that serves adolescents. More specifically, the researcher is interested to see if the program helps reduce amounts of anxiety after 30 days. What do the A and B phases stand for in a single systems design?

A) A = Intervention phase; B = Outcome phase
B) A = Baseline phase; B = Outcome phase
C) A = Intervention point; B = Baseline point
D) A = Baseline phase; B = Intervention phase

Question 7

An instructor of a Social Work Research Methods course presents a lecture on the limitations of group research designs. She states that some research designs allow for causal inferences, others shed light on correlations, and some designs are used to describe social phenomena. Which group design has a weakness of not including a comparison or control group?

A) One-group pretest/posttest design
B) Time series design
C) Pretest/posttest comparison group design
D) Pretest/posttest control group design

Question 8

Juan plans to measure the outcomes for a substance abuse treatment program. The outcomes are defined as the percentage of clients who refrain 100% from illicit drugs and alcohol use at 3, 6, 9, and 12 month intervals. Juan is confident in the measures because they are consistent. What term indicates that a measure has internal consistency?

A) Precision
B) Usefulness
C) Reliability
D) Validity

Question 9

Today, social work interventions are inclined to be evidence-based practices. Funders, administrators, and clients expect to see evidence that the programs and practices used are representative of "best-practices," or have empirical support for being effective. What is an operational definition for evidence-based practices?

A) Practices that have a lengthy history of being implemented
B) Interventions that approximate causal relationships to client outcomes
C) Interventions that approximate exploratory or descriptive links to client outcomes
D) Interventions that a practitioner is comfortable implementing

Question 10

Group designs can be valuable to evaluations, particularly if the goals of the evaluation are to explain, predict, or claim causal inferences. Many of these methodologies involve using either control or comparison groups. What makes these two groups different?

A) Diversity of demographics
B) Validity and Reliability
C) Size
D) Random assignment