SOWK 562 Exam Questions with Correct Answers

SOWK 562 Exam Questions with Correct Answers Nominal (Discrete) Variables - Answer-(Categorical) Has two or more categories, but no intrinsic ordering to the categories. Examples: gender, race, hair color, ice cream flavors, citizenship, marital status A purely categorical variable is one that simply allows you to assign categories, but you cannot clearly order the variables. If the variable has a clear ordering, then that variable would be an ordinal variable. Ordinal Variables - Answer-(Categorical) A measurable variable with a clear order. The order matters, but not the difference between values. Can rank values from lowest to highest. If categories are equally spaced, then the variable would be an interval variable. Examples of Level of Value: economic status: value = low, medium and high educational experience: value = elementary school, high school, some college and college graduate Meal: breakfast, lunch, dinner patient's pain: value = 1-10 GPA: value = A,B,C,D class ranking: value = 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th . . . Likert Scale Interval Variables - Answer-(Continuous) The values are continuous, ranked in order and the intervals between the values of the interval variable are equally spaced. In social work research, the most common example of interval variables are scales that are created by combining the responses to a series of ordinal-level responses. There is not a meaningful zero. For example, to measure perceptions of customers' satisfaction, you might have a questionnaire of 10 or more questions, which may include the following questions: Question 1: "How would you rate the quality of the service you received?" Question 2: "How would you rate the quality of the service provider you interacted with?" Question 3: "How would you rate the quality of the agency in general?" We assign the values 1 = poor, 2 = fair, 3 = good, and 4 = excellent. You could then take an average that would range from 1 to 4 and that would yield their "perception" score, which would be an interval variable. These scores have no "absolute" value (i.e., a score of a "4" is not twice as much as a score of a "2"), but rather have a relative value. Also, there is no meaningful way to interpret "zero" perceptions. Value can be below 0, ie., Temp = -50 degrees, Bank Account Balance Ratio Variables - Answer-(Continuous) The values are continuous, ranked in order, the intervals between the values of the interval variable are equally spaced, and has a clear definition of 0.0. When the variable equals 0.0, there is none of that variable. Ration Variable cannot have a value below 0. Variables like height, weight. # of siblings, age Likert Type Scale - Answer-A scale that has a set of intervals assumed to be equal, with extremes anchored by opposites, e.g., strongly disagree/strongly agree. (Ordinal).Respondents are asked to agree or disagree with a particular question/position (responses to a question might include strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree) Variable - Answer-An object, event, idea, feeling, time period, or any other type of category you are trying to measure. Must have at least two values. There are two types of variables-independent and dependent.