MSW Social Work Research and Policy 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which sampling method would be MOST appropriate to ensure that a study on social work services includes proportional representation of racial and ethnic subgroups?
- Simple random sampling
- Convenience sampling
- Stratified random sampling (Correct answer)
- Snowball sampling
Correct answer: Stratified random sampling
Stratified random sampling divides the population into subgroups (strata) and samples proportionally from each, ensuring adequate representation of all racial and ethnic groups.
Question 2: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule primarily governs which aspect of social work practice?
- Mandatory reporting obligations for child abuse
- Protection and confidential handling of individually identifiable health information (Correct answer)
- Informed consent requirements for clinical trials
- Licensure reciprocity between states
Correct answer: Protection and confidential handling of individually identifiable health information
HIPAA's Privacy Rule establishes national standards for protecting individuals' medical records and other personally identifiable health information held by covered entities.
Question 3: A researcher uses member checking in a qualitative study. What is the primary purpose of this technique?
- To calculate inter-rater reliability coefficients
- To verify that interpretations accurately reflect participants' experiences (Correct answer)
- To randomize which participants receive follow-up interviews
- To blind the analyst to participant demographics
Correct answer: To verify that interpretations accurately reflect participants' experiences
Member checking involves sharing preliminary findings with participants to confirm that the researcher's interpretations accurately represent their experiences, enhancing trustworthiness.
Question 4: The 'iron triangle' in U.S. federal policymaking refers to the stable relationship among which three entities?
- Executive, legislative, and judicial branches
- Congressional committees, federal agencies, and interest groups (Correct answer)
- President, Speaker, and Senate Majority Leader
- CBO, GAO, and OMB
Correct answer: Congressional committees, federal agencies, and interest groups
The iron triangle describes the mutually reinforcing relationships among congressional subcommittees, executive agencies, and organized interest groups that shape policy in specific domains.
Question 5: Which measure of central tendency is MOST appropriate when a dataset contains extreme outliers, such as income data in a community sample?
- Mean
- Mode
- Median (Correct answer)
- Range
Correct answer: Median
The median is preferred for skewed distributions with outliers because it is not influenced by extreme values, unlike the mean.
Question 6: In cost-benefit analysis of social programs, 'opportunity cost' refers to which concept?
- The direct financial cost of program administration
- The value of the next best alternative use of the resources invested (Correct answer)
- The cost of outreach and recruitment for the program
- The monetary value of participant time spent in treatment
Correct answer: The value of the next best alternative use of the resources invested
Opportunity cost represents what society forgoes by allocating resources to one program instead of the next best alternative use.
Question 7: Which federal law established the mandate for 'reasonable efforts' to prevent removal of children from their families and to reunify families after removal?
- Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA)
- Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA)
- Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (Correct answer)
- Family First Prevention Services Act
Correct answer: Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980
The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-272) introduced the 'reasonable efforts' requirement to prevent unnecessary family separation and promote reunification.
MSW Social Work Research and Policy 3
Which sampling method would be MOST appropriate to ensure that a study on social work services includes proportional representation of racial and ethnic subgroups?