Deck 3: Research Hierarchies: Which Types of Research Are Best for Which Questions

Question 1

Which of the following statements is true about the term research hierarchy in EBP?

A) Tightly controlled experiments reside at the top, regardless of the EBP question.
B) Qualitative studies are the most likely to reside at the top for most EBP questions.
C) Where a type of study resides on a research hierarchy depends on the type of EBP question being asked.
D) All types of research designs are relevant to all types of EBP questions.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following statements is/are true about qualitative studies?

A) They are just as likely to employ tightly controlled, inflexible designs as are quantitative studies.
B) They tend to employ flexible designs and subjective methods-often with small samples of research participants-in seeking to generate tentative new insights, deep understandings, and theoretically rich observations.
C) They are devalued in EBP.
D) They are most applicable when we seek to determine whether a particular intervention is really the cause of a particular outcome.
E) Both b and c are true.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which of the following is an EBP question?

A) What type of play therapy is most effective with traumatized children?
B) What client and therapist characteristics best predict the quality of the therapist-client relationship?
C) What is it like to sleep in a shelter for the homeless?
D) What existing measurement instrument is the most valid for diagnosing whether a client has PTSD?
E) All of the above.

Answer 3

E

Question 4

Which of the following designs offers the best evidence to

A) A qualitative design.
B) A tightly controlled experimental design.
C) A correlational design.
D) All of the above; they are all equally valuable for this type of EBP question.

Question 5

To infer that an intervention is the real cause of a change:

A) we must make sure that the change preceded the onset of the intervention.
B) it is sufficient to know that the intervention is correlated with the change.
C) we must ascertain whether the change is correlated with the intervention, learn that it did not precede the intervention, and eliminate plausible alternative explanations for the change.
D) rely on studies that avoided the use of random assignment to treatment conditions.

Question 6

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses:

A) reside at the top of the evidentiary hierarchy for answering EBP questions about the effectiveness of interventions, programs, or policies.
B) reside below randomized experiments because they take replications into account.
C) are identical, regardless of what statistics they employ.
D ) are all unbiased and of equal quality
E) a, c, and d are all true.

Question 7

Which of the following statements is/are true about the pursuit of logic and objectivity in research?

A) Some scholars reject the pursuit of a knowable objective reality.
B) Some scholars argue that even though every individual has his or her own subjective take on social reality, it still is worth trying to minimize bias in research.
C) Some scholars have depicted the notion that just because perfect objectivity is an unattainable ideal we should therefore not even try to minimize bias in research as fashionable nonsense.
D ) Some scholars have critiqued relativism as logically self-contradictory because if all views of social reality are equally valid, then how can relativists proclaim their view as the most correct one?
E) All of the above.

Question 8

No matter the EBP question, a tightly controlled experimental design will reside atop the research hierarchy.

Question 9

EBP questions should be formulated by researchers, not by practitioners.

Question 10

All EBP questions imply making causal inferences.

Question 11

Qualitative studies tend to employ flexible designs and subjective methods.

Question 12

Different research hierarchies are needed for different types of EBP questions.

Question 13

It is possible for qualitative studies to reside at the top of a research hierarchy.

Question 14

When seeking evidence about whether a particular intervention-and not some alternative explanation-is the real cause of a particular outcome, experiments are high in the evidentiary hierarchy.

Question 15

Because of the importance of replication, systematic reviews and meta-analyses reside above experiments on the evidentiary hierarchy for EBP questions about effectiveness.

Question 16

Explain why different types of research hierarchies are needed for different types of EBP questions.

Question 17

Provide examples of four different types of EBP questions, and identify what type of studies would reside at or near the top and bottom of a research hierarchy for each. Explain your reasoning.

Question 18

Describe the relativistic philosophical objection to evidentiary hierarchies that emphasize logic and objectivity, and explain why that objection has been portrayed as fashionable nonsense.