NCE Chapter 9

Research & Program Evaluation

The most valuable type of research is

the experiment, used to discover cause-and-effect relationships.

what percent of the area under the normal curve is found between the mean and z score of 1.5?

40%

If a person's Z-score is -1.5, what is their approximate IQ score, assuming a mean IQ of 100 and a standard deviation of 15 for the population?

85

A dataset of exam scores for a class of 50 students has a mean score of 75. If the standard deviation of the scores is 10, what is the approximate range within which approximately 68% of the scores fall?

65 to 85

In a normal distribution, what percentage of data points falls within one standard deviation of the mean?

68%

A test is administered to a group of students. The test has a mean score of 75, a standard deviation of 10, and a standard error of measurement (SEM) of 2.5. What does the standard error of measurement (SEM) represent in this context?

The amount of measurement error or uncertainty in individual test scores

In a class of 100 students, the scores on a recent math test are distributed as follows:

• 10 students scored between 90 and 100.

• 35 students scored between 80 and 89.

• 30 students scored between 70 and 79.

• 20 students scored between 60 and 69.

• 5 students scored below 60.

What is the approximate percentage of students who scored between 70 and 89 on the math test?

65%

A researcher is conducting a study to measure the true intelligence of a group of participants. They use a test that has a reliability coefficient of 0.90. If the observed score of a participant is 100 and the standard error of measurement is 5, what can the researcher infer about the participant's true intelligence score with 95% confidence?

The participant's true intelligence score is likely to be between 95 and 105.

A clinical psychologist is assessing the severity of depression symptoms in a patient using the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90). The patient's T-score for depression is calculated as 60. What does this T-score indicate regarding the patient's depression symptoms?

The patient's depression symptoms are above average and may be clinically significant.

In a population of adult male heights, it is known that the heights follow a normal distribution with a mean height of 175 centimeters and a standard deviation of 7 centimeters. If you randomly select an adult male from this population, what is the approximate probability that he is taller than 185 centimeters?

16

In a scientific study investigating the effectiveness of a new drug, the null hypothesis (H0) typically states:

The new drug is ineffective

In a standardized IQ test, a population has a mean IQ score of 100 with a standard deviation of 15. If an individual has an IQ score of 130, what can you infer about their performance?

IQ is above average

A researcher wants to determine if there is a significant difference in the mean test scores between two groups: Group A and Group B. Group A has a sample mean of 85 and a sample standard deviation of 10, while Group B has a sample mean of 90 and a sample standard deviation of 12. If the researcher decides to use a two-sample t-test, which of the following is the null hypothesis (H0) for the test?

There is no significant difference in the means of the two groups.

The variance is a measure of dispersion of scores around some measure of central tendency. The variance is the standard deviation squared. A popular IQ test has a standard deviation of 15. A counselor would expect if the mean IQ score is 100, then 68% of the people who take the test will score between 

85 & 115

The variance is a measure of dispersion of scores around some measure of central tendency. The variance is the standard deviation squared. A popular IQ test has a standard deviation of 15. If a person scored 122, they would fall 

(±) 2 SD of the mean

The standard deviation is the square root of the variance. A Z score of +1 would be the same as 

1 SD above the mean

Z scores are the same as standard deviations. Thus, a z score of -2.5 means 

2.5 SD below the mean

A t score is different than a z score. A z score is the same as the standard deviation (SD). A t-score, however, has a mean of 50 with every 10 points landing at a standard deviation above or below the mean. Thus, a t-score of 60 would equal +1 SD while a t-score of 40 would equal 

-1 SD

All of the following describe the analysis of covariance technique except 

It is a correlation coefficient

A counseling center is conducting a study to assess the effectiveness of three different therapeutic approaches: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Person-Centered Therapy (PCT), and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) on reducing anxiety levels in clients. The center collects pre-treatment and post-treatment anxiety scores from clients in each group. To determine if there is a significant difference in anxiety reduction among the three therapy approaches, which statistical test should the counseling center use?

One way ANOVA

A counseling center is conducting a study to examine the association between the type of counseling services offered (individual counseling, group counseling, and online counseling) and the clients' satisfaction levels (satisfied, neutral, dissatisfied). What statistical test is most appropriate for analyzing this categorical data and assessing if there is a significant relationship between counseling service type and client satisfaction

chi square test

A counseling center is conducting a research study to investigate the effects of a new therapy approach on reducing symptoms of depression. Which of the following statements represents a non-directional research hypothesis for this study?

The new therapy approach will influence symptoms of depression, but the direction of the effect is not specified."

In a normally distributed dataset, if you increase the standard deviation while keeping the mean unchanged, what will happen to the shape of the distribution?

The distribution will become wider and flatter

In a study examining the relationship between hours spent studying per week and exam scores, the calculated correlation coefficient is 0.481. What does this correlation coefficient value suggest about the relationship between study hours and exam scores?

moderate positive linear relationship

______ refers to whether the DVs were truly influenced by the experimental IVs or whether other factors had an impact

Internal Validity

_____ refers to whether the experimental research results can be generalized to larger populations (ex: other people, settings, or conditions)

External validity

a nonparametric statistical measure that tests whether a distribution differs significantly from an expected theoretical distribution

the chi square

Experiments emphasize parsimony, which means

interpreting the results in the simplest way.

Occam’s Razor suggests that experimenters

interpret the results in the simplest manner.

A counselor educator is running an experiment to test a new form of counseling. Unbeknownst to the experimenter one of the clients in the study is secretly seeing a gestalt therapist. This experiment

is confounded/flawed.

Nondirective is to person-centered as

parsimony is to Occam’s Razor. (think: synonyms)

An experiment is said to be confounded (or contaminated) when

undesirable variables are not kept out of the experiment.

In experimental terminology IV stands for ________ and DV stands for ________.

independent variable; dependent variable

Variable that the researcher manipulates

Independent variable (IV)

Variable that expresses the outcome or data

dependent variable (DV)

A professor of counselor education hypothesized that biofeedback training could reduce anxiety and improve the average score on written board exams. If this professor decides to conduct a formal experiment the IV will be the ________, and the DV will be the ________.

biofeedback; board exam score

Experimenters should always abide by a code of ethics. The variable you manipulate/control in an experiment is the

IV or independent variable.

In order for the professor of counselor education (see question 708) to conduct an experiment regarding his hypothesis he will need a(n) ________ and a(n) ________.

control group; experimental group

The control group does not receive the ___ The experimental group receives the ____

IV; IV

In order for the professor of counselor education to conduct the experiment suggested in question 708 the experimental group would need to receive

the manipulated IV & the biofeedback training

Hypothesis testing is most closely related to the work of

R. A. Fisher.

The null hypothesis suggests that there will not be a significant difference between the experimental group which received the IV and the control group which did not. Thus, if the experiment in question 708 was conducted, the null hypothesis would suggest that

biofeedback will not improve the board exam scores.

The hunch is known as the experimental or alternative hypothesis. The experimental hypothesis suggests that a difference will be evident between the control group and the experimental group (i.e., the group receiving the IV). Thus, if the experiment in question 708 were conducted, the experimental hypothesis would suggest that

the biofeedback would raise board scores.

From a purely statistical standpoint, in order to compare a control group (which does not receive the IV or experimental manipulation) to the experimental group the researcher will need

a test of significance.

describes data (e.g., the mean, the median, or the mode). In order to compare two groups, “inferential statistics,” which infer something about the population, are necessary.

descriptive statistics

a descriptive statistic that tells the counselor what percentage of the cases fell below a certain level. Hence, if Joe’s score puts him at the 50th percentile, then 50% of the people had raw scores lower than his particular score

percentile rank

When a research study uses different subjects for each condition, some exams refer to the study as a “________.” If the same subjects are employed (e.g., such as in repeated measures) your exam could refer to it as a _____

between subjects design; within subjects design

When you see the letter P in relation to a test of significance it means

probability

In the social sciences the accepted probability level is usually

.05 or less.

P = .05 really means that

there is only a 5% chance that the difference between the control group and the experimental groups is due to chance factors.

P = .05 really means that

differences truly exist; the experimenter will obtain the same results 95 times out of 100.

The study that would best rule out chance factors would have a significance level of P =

.001.

Type I and Type II errors are called ________ and ________ respectively.

alpha; beta

A Type ______ error (alpha error) occurs when a researcher rejects the null hypothesis

when it is true

I

A Type ____ error (beta error) occurs when you accept null when it is false

II

A Type I error occurs when

you reject null when it is true.

A Type II error

is also called a beta error and means you accept null when it is false.

Assume the experiment in question 708 is conducted. The results indicate that the biofeedback helped raise written board exam scores but in reality this is not the case. The researcher has made a

Type I error.

A counselor educator decides to increase the sample size in her experiment. This will

reduce Type I and Type II errors.

If a researcher changes the significance level from .05 to .001, then

alpha errors decrease; however, beta errors increase.

A counselor believes that clients who receive assertiveness training will ask more questions in counseling classes. An experimental group receives assertiveness training while a control group does not. In order to test for significant differences between the groups the counselor should utilize

the student’s t test.

The researcher in question 727 now attempts a more complex experiment. One group receives no assertiveness training, a second group receives four assertiveness training sessions, and a third receives six sessions. The statistic of choice would be the

ANOVA

If the researcher in the previous question utilized two IVs then the statistic of choice would be the

two-way ANOVA or MANOVA.

To complete a t test you would consult a tabled value of t. In order to see if significant differences exist in an ANOVA you would consult

a table for F values.

Which level of significance would best rule out chance factors?

.001

When a researcher uses correlation, then there is no direct manipulation of the IV. A researcher might ask, for example, how IQ correlates with the incidence of panic disorder. Again, nothing is manipulated; just measured. In cases such as this a correlation coefficient will reveal

the relationship between IQ and panic disorder.

A statistic that indicates the degree or magnitude of relationship between two variables is known as _______ and is often abbreviated using a lower-case r.

correlation coefficient

If data indicate that students who study a lot get very high scores on state counselor licensing exams, then the correlation between study time and LPC exam scores would be

postive

A ______ correlation is evident when both variables change in the same direction. A _____ correlation is evident when the variables are inversely associated; one goes up and the other goes down

postive; negative

_________ indicates that one variable is continuous (i.e., measured using an interval scale) while the other is dichotomous.

biserial correlation

Which of the following would most likely yield a perfect correlation of 1.00?

Length in inches and length in centimeters.

A good guess would be that if you would correlate the length of CACREP graduates’ baby toes with their CPCE scores the result would be

close to 0.00.

Dr. X discovered that the correlation between therapists who hold NCC status and therapists who practice systematic desensitization is .90. A student who perused Dr. X’s research told his fellow students that Dr. X had discovered that attaining NCC status causes therapists to become behaviorally oriented. The student is incorrect because

correlation does not imply causal.

Behaviorists often utilize N = 1, which is called intensive experimental design. The first step in this approach would be to

take a baseline measure.

In a new study the clients do not know whether they are receiving an experimental treatment for depression or whether they are simply part of the control group. This is, nevertheless, known to the researcher. Thus, this is a

single-blind study.

A large study at a major university gave an experimental group of clients a new type of therapy that was intended to ameliorate test anxiety. The control group did not receive the new therapy. Neither the clients nor the researchers knew which students received the new treatment. This was a

double-blind study.

Experimental is to cause and effect as correlational is to

degree of relationship.

______ is a descriptive statistic which indicates the degree of “linear relationship” between two variables.

correlation coefficient

In a normal curve the mean, the median, and the mode all fall precisely in the middle of the curve. From a graphical standpoint the so-called normal or Gaussian curve (named after the astronomer/mathematician K. F. Gauss) looks like

a symmetrical bell.

The most common measures of central tendency are the mean, the median, and the mode. The mode is

the most frequently occurring score and the least-important measure of central tendency.

and the highest point on the curve

A bimodal distribution has two modes (i.e., most frequently occurring scores). Graphically, this looks roughly like

a camel’s back with two humps.

In a basic curve or so-called frequency polygon the point of maximum concentration is the

mode

The most useful measure of central tendency is the

mean, often abbreviated by an X with a bar over it.

In a career counseling session an electrical engineer mentions three jobs he has held. The first paid $10 per hour, the second paid $30 per hour, and the third paid a higher rate of $50 per hour. The counselor responds that the client is averaging $30 per hour. The counselor is using

the mean

From a mathematical standpoint, the mean is merely the sum of the scores divided by the number of scores. The mean is misleading when

the distribution is skewed and there are extreme scores

When a distribution of scores is not distributed normally, statisticians call it

a skewed distribution.

The median is

the middle score when the data are arranged from highest to lowest.

In a new experiment, a counselor educator wants to ferret out the effects of more than one IV. She will use a ________ design.

factorial

In a ______ experiment, several experimental variables are investigated and interactions can be noted. Therefore they include two or more IVs. Sometimes the IVs in a _____ design are called levels. 

factorial

Regardless of the shape, the ________ will always be the high point when a distribution is displayed graphically

mode

A group of first-semester graduate students in counseling took an experimental counseling exam that was much more difficult than the NCE. All of the students scored very low. A distribution of their scores would

be positively skewed

Nine of the world’s finest counselor educators are given an elementary exam on counseling theory. Needless to say, all of them scored extremely high. The distribution of scores would most likely be

negatively skewed.

Billy received an 82 on his college math final. This is Billy’s raw score on the test. A raw score simply refers to the number of items correctly answered. A raw score is expressed in the units by which it was originally obtained. The raw score is not altered mathematically. Billy’s raw score indicates that

more information is obviously necessary.

A distribution with class intervals can be graphically displayed via a bar graph also called a

histogram

When a horizontal line is drawn under a frequency distribution it is known as

the x axis.

The x axis is used to plot the IV scores. The x axis could also be called the _______ on your exam.

abscissa

The y axis is used to plot the frequency of the DVs. The y axis could also be called the ______ on your exam.

ordinate

If a distribution is bimodal, then there is a good chance that

the researcher is working with two distinct populations.

If an experiment can be replicated by others with almost identical findings, then the experiment is

said to be reliable