QUESTION 1

1. Bethany and Shatrisse are counselors in a summer camp for foster children. The directors of the camp are concerned about increases in bullying behavior during recreational time. Bethany and Shatrisse propose a token reinforcement strategy in which children will be rewarded intermittently when they exhibit pro-social behavior. The camp directors instead favor a plan in which bullying will be punished by a time-out when it occurs, but Bethany and Shatrisse are convinced that they can turn things around with their plan of rewarding positive behavior. The directors pride themselves on using evidence-based practices, so they agree to allow Bethany and Shatrisse to test their idea of doing daily counts of bullying behavior for four weeks. During Week 1, no tokens will be given. During Week 2, tokens for pro-social behavior will be given. During Weeks 3 and 4, this pattern will be repeated. Bethany and Shatrisse will graph the number of bullying incidents each week and expect to see dramatic reductions during Weeks 2 and 4 (the token weeks). The directors agree that if the plan works and these differences are seen, the token economy will become a part of the camp’s regular treatment procedures. What kind of research design are Bethany and Shatrisse employing?A.A single-case outcome design.B.A one-group, post-test-only design.C.A single system (or single case) research design used for formative evaluation.D.A mixed-methods design with graphs.

10 points   

QUESTION 2

1. Troy is a counselor at an agency across town; his agency treats juvenile sex offenders. Troy has designed a counseling intervention that he believes will result in fewer reoffenses within one month of treatment. His agency wants to test his intervention and obtain some preliminary data before applying for a grant that would fully fund his intervention at all their sites. Troy wants to set up an experiment to see whether his intervention works, so he compares the number of postintervention offenses that occur in a group of juveniles who got his intervention (group A) with the number of offenses that occur in a group of juveniles who are on a waiting list (group B). Which of the following is true?A.Both groups are experimental groups.B.Both groups are control groups.C.Group A is the experimental group; Group B is the control group.D.Group A is the control group; Group B is the experimental group.

10 points   

QUESTION 3

1. A summative program evaluation would answer which of the following questions?A.What need does the program fill?B.Are the clients getting better?C.How effective are the staff members?D.Is the program serving the population it was intending to serve?

10 points   

QUESTION 4

1. You are asked to prepare an evaluation plan for a nonprofit director whose stakeholders want comprehensive information about how their counseling program for homeless women is making a difference. You suggest using a brief symptom inventory questionnaire at intake and at discharge, and interviews at discharge asking clients to describe how the program met (or did not meet) their most important needs. You will be implementing:A.A mixed-methods design.B.A quantitative design.C.A summative evaluation design.D.A qualitative design.

10 points   

QUESTION 5

1. The Great Improvements Counseling Agency directors have noticed that a handful of their counselors have clients who experience rapid progress in reducing their addictive behaviors. They have asked if you would be willing to “shadow” these counselors and make notes about their typical behaviors with sessions with clients, in hopes of training all their counselors to do these things. In this study, these exemplary counselors are:A.Key informants.B.Participant observers.C.Gatekeepers.D.Stakeholders.

10 points   

QUESTION 6

1. Miguel and Brent work in a program that provides support groups for fathers who have overcome drug addictions and are seeking reunification with their children. Over the years, they have seen some amazing successes. They would like to learn more about what these successful fathers found most helpful, so they obtain permission to conduct in-depth interviews with these fathers. Miguel and Brent will be conducting a:A.Process evaluation study with administrative interviews.B.Quantitative study with time series design.C.Qualitative study with convenience sampling.D.Qualitative study with deviant case sampling.

10 points   

QUESTION 7

1. Clarissa has proposed a new idea to her supervisor: She believes that adding mindfulness meditation training to her agency’s usual counseling program (TAU) will result in clients with social phobia having greater reductions in anxiety symptoms after six weeks. She also believes, based on her review of the literature, that the effect of the usual program plus mindfulness training (TAU + ) will be more powerful for the female clients than for the male clients. Clarissa’s supervisor agrees to let her test this idea. In Clarissa’s experience, what is the dependent variable?A.Gender.B.Type of treatment (TAU or TAU +).C.Anxiety symptoms.D.Number of weeks of treatment (six).

10 points   

QUESTION 8

1. Kara has been invited to be on a small committee tasked with reviewing applications for an outstanding counseling program award in her state. One application she reviews displays gains in client satisfaction in exit surveys over the past three years but does not have data about whether clients have reduced symptoms or have attained target outcomes. Kara sets the application in the “no award” pile, because:A.Client satisfaction studies tend to yield highly positive evaluations but give no information about the efficacy of the counseling.B.Clients’ satisfaction is not a measure of whether their counseling needs were met.C.All of the above are true.D.Clients who are not happy with services tend to drop out, so only satisfied clients are given exit surveys.

10 points   

QUESTION 9

1. Maria is a counselor at an inpatient facility, and she has been asked by her supervisor to plan an evaluation of a new group technique for helping chronically, severely depressed clients. Typical treatment involves clients attending daily individual counseling sessions, plus group sessions three times each week (“treatment as usual” or TAU). The new technique involves having a family member attend relational therapy (RT) sessions with the client once a week in addition to TAU activities. Maria expects that after six weeks, the clients receiving TAU + RT will score lower on a depression inventory than clients receiving only TAU. When Maria plans her statistical tests, what will the dependent variable be?A.TAU + RT.B.Scores on the depression inventory.C.Gender.D.TAU.

10 points   

QUESTION 10

1. Focus groups are often very helpful when evaluators need information about whether counseling or psycho-educational materials will make sense to individuals from cultures who will be served by the intervention. This type of evaluation is called:A.Effectiveness evaluation.B.Efficacy evaluation.C.Summative evaluation.D.Formative evaluation.

10 points   

QUESTION 11

1. You are conducting a program evaluation for Middle Valley Counseling Center. Middle Valley is a diverse community populated by two racial groups. The center’s clients are from both of these groups in approximately equal numbers. Community stakeholders want to answer the question of whether both of these racial groups benefit equally from the center’s counseling programs. Your analysis of the outcome data will include ___________ as the independent variable.A.Two racial groups.B.Counseling outcomes.C.Socio-economic status.D.Client neighborhood.

10 points   

QUESTION 12

1. Jin works in a private practice with a counselor who specializes in treating teens with anxiety. Jin’s supervisor, Dr. Katz, has asked him to regularly assess his clients in order to track and report whether they are improving in response to treatment. Jin gives each of his clients a brief anxiety scale every other week, tracks his clients’ scores on a graph, and shares this data with Dr. Katz in weekly supervision meetings. What kind of research design is Jin using?A.Single system (or single case) research design.B.Outcome evaluation design.C.Client group research design.D.Quasi-experimental research design.

10 points