Potential topics covered on the final exam — 302 Spring 2024 –McMillen & Fu
Power and Research
Where does money for research come from?
Who has the power to propose questions and launch research studies?
What are participatory research methods and the issues they are designed to address?
What are Daftary’s suggestions for how to apply critical race theory to social science research?
Research Ethics
What is informed consent? What do researchers need to inform participants about in this process? How
to get it?
What are IRBs are and what do they do?
Qualitative Research
What can researchers do to Increase the credibility, auditability, transferability, confirmability of
qualitative findings (see Leitz and Zayas article)?
Types of qualitative inquiry?
What kinds of research questions are qualitative methods good at answering?
Semi-structured interviews, what are they? What are some dos and don’ts?
Focus groups? What are they good for? What are some issues in using them?
What are some kinds of unobtrusive research? When would you use them?
Surveys
Strengths of surveys
Independent and dependent variables in survey research
Hypotheses in survey research
Structured interview protocols – know the difference from semi-structured and unstructured.
Asking sensitive questions. Where to do that in a survey.
Sampling
Identify and name different sampling strategies
Populations, sampling frames, and samples
Measurement
Operational and conceptual definitions
Levels of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio)
Internal consistency reliability
Content validity
Face validity
Construct validity (in general) and its subtypes discriminant validity, convergent validity, predictive
validity, criterion validity
Cognitive interviewing
Researchers’ options when measures were developed on populations other than the ones you want to
study
Experimental and quasi-experimental designs
Independent variables in experiments, quasi experiments, and randomized control trials
Difference between experimental and quasi experimental studies
What threats to internal validity do experimental designs help control?
Research and null hypotheses in experimental and quasi-experimental designs
Hypothesis testing
A normal distribution
Type I and type II errors
Critical values, how they are used
What do you need to know about statistical procedures:
T tests examine differences between two means
Oneway ANOVA looks at between group variance/within group variance
Chi square looks at the size of differences between predicted values (given no differences
among categories) and actual (observed) values
Agency Work
Reasons to monitor agency metrics
Run charts
Statistical control charts – look at variation over time (know difference between these and run charts)
Some practicalities in choosing what to measure
Note: I tried to write the exam around topics that made it into lecture slides, not ones that only
appeared in our text. But our text might be a good source to find information about the research
concepts listed above, especially if you don’t find the class slide decks or your accompanying notes
helpful.
Exam items were crafted around some of the following articles assigned for this class.
Daftary, A. (2020) Critical race theory: An effective framework for social work research, Journal of Ethnic
& Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 29:6, 439-454.
Garland, E.L., Roberts-Lewis, A., Tronnier, C.D. & Graves, R. (2016). Mindfulness oriented recovery
enhancement versus CBT for co-occurring substance dependence, traumatic stress, and psychiatric
disorders. Behavior Research and Therapy, 77, 7-16.
Huang, J., Beverly, S. G., Clancy, M. M., Schreiner, M., & Sherraden, M. (2021). A long-term experiment
on Child Development Accounts: Update and impacts of SEED for Oklahoma Kids (CSD Research Report
No. 21-07). Washington University, Center for Social Development. https://doi.org/10.7936/e8mf-p262
Jayaratne, S., Croxton, T.A., & Mattison, D. (2004). A national survey of violence in the practice of social
work. Families in Society, 85, 445-452.
Leitz, C.A. & Zayas, L.E. (2010). Evaluating qualitative research for social work practitioners. Advances in
Social Work, 11, 188-202.
Mohlman, J. (2015). A community based survey of older adults’ preferences for treatment of anxiety.
Psychology and Aging, 27, 1182-1190.
Purser, G. & Hamlin, M. (2022). “Bodies in the building”: Incarceration’s long afterlife in a reentry
housing facility. Social Service Review, 96, 169-195.
Exam items were also crafted for these research articles NOT previously assigned.
Moore, J. R., Eikenberry, J., Fedina, L., & DeVylder, J. (2023). Associations between Solitary
Confinement and Psychosis Symptoms in the Postrelease Community Setting. Social Work
Research, 47(1), 7–17. https://doi-org.proxy.uchicago.edu/10.1093/swr/svac033
Sanchez, S., Jindani, F., van der Maas, M., Hagophian, S., Murray, R., & Turner, N. (2019). Acceptability of
Internet-based interventions for problem gambling: a qualitative study of focus groups with clients and
clinicians. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 19, 290-230.