Question 1

If a client has experienced the target behavior for more than a year, history should be considered a major threat to internal validity.

Accepted Answer

History as a threat to internal validity refers to external events that occur during the study and might affect the outcome, not the duration the behavior has been present before the study begins.

Question 2

The length of time the client has experienced the target behavior is an important determinant of whether we should consider maturation a threat to internal validity that should be of special concern.

Accepted Answer

The length of time the client has experienced the target behavior is crucial in determining the potential impact of maturation on internal validity, as longer periods may allow for more natural developmental changes that could influence the behavior independently of the intervention.

Question 3

A group research design is only used when your clients are being given a group treatment (e.g., a support group); it is not appropriate for a group of clients being treated individually for a given target behavior using a common measurement tool.

Accepted Answer

Group research design can be used to study the effects of individual treatments on a group of clients using a common measurement tool, not just for treatments administered in a group setting.

Question 4

The posttest-only control group research design controls for maturation and history as threats to internal validity.

Accepted Answer

The posttest-only control group design involves randomly assigning participants to either the experimental group or the control group and measuring the outcome of interest only after the intervention. This design inherently controls for maturation and history because any such effects should be equally distributed across the groups due to random assignment, thus not systematically biasing the comparison of outcomes between the experimental and control groups.

Question 5

According to the book, we should focus our attention on identifying those threats to internal validity that should be of special concern in our specific situation, rather than all threats to internal validity.

Accepted Answer

The book emphasizes the importance of focusing on specific threats to internal validity that are most relevant to the particular study or situation, rather than attempting to address all possible threats, which allows for a more targeted and effective approach to ensuring the validity of the research findings.

Question 6

The better your research design, the better you are able to claim that your data cannot be explained by chance.

Accepted Answer

The answer of The better your research design, the better...

Question 7

The comparison group design is better than the one-group pretest-posttest design at controlling for maturation as a threat to internal validity because the gain on the measured behavior for the comparison group is an indicator of the effect of normal growth over time.

Accepted Answer

The comparison group design includes a control or comparison group that does not receive the intervention, allowing researchers to account for changes that occur over time (maturation) by comparing the differences between the experimental group and the comparison group. This helps in isolating the effect of the intervention from natural developmental changes, making it more effective at controlling for maturation as a threat to internal validity than the one-group pretest-posttest design, which lacks this comparison mechanism.

Question 8

There are three conditions for determining causation in research: (1) there must be a relationship between the cause and the effect; (2) a change in the cause must precede a change in the effect in time order; and (3) you must rule out other causes of the effect.

Accepted Answer

These are indeed the three basic criteria used in research to establish a causal relationship between variables: correlation, time order (cause precedes effect), and the elimination of alternative explanations.

Question 9

Statistical regression as threat to internal validity refers to the fact that extreme scores for a scale (i.e., very high or very low scores) tend naturally to move toward the mean with repeated measurements; thus, it would not make sense to take only the clients with the extremely low pretest scores as your clients for an evaluation study and employ the one-group pretest-posttest design.

Accepted Answer

Statistical regression is a threat to internal validity because it suggests that individuals with extreme scores on their first measurement will likely score closer to the mean on subsequent measurements. This natural tendency can falsely suggest an intervention effect in a one-group pretest-posttest design, especially if only individuals with extreme scores are selected.

Question 10

When you fail to view your evaluation of practice as having any of the common threats to internal validity, you do not need to discuss this in your report of your study.

Accepted Answer

Even if you believe your evaluation of practice does not have any common threats to internal validity, it is important to discuss this in your report. Addressing potential threats to internal validity and explaining why they are not applicable or have been mitigated enhances the credibility and rigor of your study.

Question 11

Answer the following four questions: 
(1) What is maturation as a threat to internal validity? 
(2) What is history as a threat? 
(3) Does the one-group pretest-posttest research design control for maturation as a threat to internal validity? 
(4) Explain why or how your answer to Question 3 is true or false.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Answer the following four questions: 
(1) What...

Question 12

Suppose you need to evaluate your practice where you are treating a group of 12 victims of violent crimes. These clients were victimized at some time in the past 3 months and they are experiencing anxiety as a result, and you will measure anxiety as one means of evaluating the success of your service. You are providing a group treatment intervention where you will meet with your 12 clients once per week for a period of 6 months. You have four questions to answer: 
(1) What are the two criteria for selecting a research design that you should answer? 
(2) How do you answer these two questions in this situation? 
(3) What research design do you think would be feasible in the typical practice situation where you faced this situation? 
(4) Does this design control for the threats that should be of special concern?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Suppose you need to evaluate your practice...

Question 13

The measurement structure of the group research design that is labeled the posttest-only research design is that a single group of clients are measured on the target behavior only at the end of the treatment period. Describe the measurement structure of each of these research designs: (1) the one-group pretest-posttest design, (2) the comparison group design, and (3) the alternative treatment design.

Accepted Answer

The answer of The measurement structure of the group research...

Question 14

Illustrate how you might evaluate your own practice using a group research design by answering each of the following questions: 
(1) What is the target behavior that you will measure? 
(2) What research design will you employ?
(3) What threats to internal validity do you believe should be of special concern in this situation, and why do you believe this threat should be of special concern? 
(4) Does your chosen research design control for the threats of special concern (If there are no threats, just say so as your answer to this question)?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Illustrate how you might evaluate your own...

Question 15

One way of classifying various group research designs is to place them into the categories of (1) preexperimental designs, (2) quasi-experimental designs, and (3) experimental designs. Describe the distinction between these categories of research designs and give one example of each type.

Accepted Answer

The answer of One way of classifying various group research...

Quiz 14: Selecting a Research Design for a Group Evaluation Study