HHS 460 Research Methods in Health & Human Services WK5-A

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1.3 THE PLAN OF THE BOOK

This first chapter has discussed the extent to which research is fundamental to the delivery of human services. The remainder of the book discusses how research is applied to the human services. Chapters 2 through 6 present some of the important issues that underlie research, including the role of hypotheses and theories, and ethical problems that researchers are likely to confront. We also address the issue of how to formulate a research problem and select a scientifically sound sample on which observations will be made.

With Chapter 7 , we begin the first of five chapters on specific research methods. Chapter 7 covers survey research, which is a widely used data-collection technique based on obtaining people's responses to questions. In Chapter 8 , we discuss the use of available data in research. Though not used as commonly as surveys, available data can be helpful to human service researchers. For example, the records kept by prisons, hospitals, or social service agencies would fall into the category of available data that could be used for research. Chapter 9 presents field research and observational methods, which involve the direct observation of people's behavior, often in the natural settings where people lead their everyday lives. This also is a common research technique in the human services, because human service practitioners typically make observations of the everyday lives of clients during the course of intervention. In Chapter 10 , we discuss experiments, which are research techniques designed to assess the effect of one factor on another. Although human service providers only occasionally may conduct conventional experiments, they often are in a position to carry out single-system research, the topic of Chapter 11 . Single-system research involves assessing the impact of some factors on the feelings or actions of a client, and it derives its basic logic from the experimental designs discussed in Chapter 10 .

The remaining six chapters focus on issues that may have to be addressed irrespective of which specific research method is used in a particular study. Evaluation research, discussed in Chapter 12 , refers to assessing how well a particular policy, program, or practice achieves its goals. This has become an increasingly important element in the human services, and evaluation researchers often use some—or all—of the five research techniques discussed in the preceding chapters. In Chapter 13 , we analyze how to develop indices and scales, which are measuring devices that derive a single composite score from a number of other scores that measure something of interest. Chapters 14 through 16 offer an introduction to data analysis or what to do with numerical and non-numerical data once they are collected. Chapter 17 is an introduction to the grant-seeking process, or how to find financial support for research, including how to write grant proposals and research reports.

RESEARCH IN PRACTICE 1.2    Practice Effectiveness: Practice Competencies and Social Research

The evidence-based approach described in this chapter has been embraced by many fields, including medicine, nursing, psychology, and social work. As this approach to practice has evolved over the decades, the professional organizations in these fields have identified the core competencies that professional practitioners in these fields should possess, and they have established means of assessing how well students have learned these competencies. In social work, for example, the Council on Social Work Education (2008) developed a set of standards that are used to evaluate college programs in social work. The CSWE Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EP) delineate 10 core competencies that students should develop as part of their education. Some of these competencies have to do with social research and research-related skills and activities. One of the goals of this book is to demonstrate the ways in which research is an integral part of these competencies. This will further promote the major themes of this book, namely that there are significant parallels and linkages between social research and human service practice.

We will focus on the six competencies that, in our judgment, have the most direct parallels and linkages to research. They are presented here, with a brief description of how and where they are addressed in this book and with their identifying number (EP number) in the CSWE Educational Policy list.

1. [Ethics] An obligation to engage in ethical human service practice (EP 2.1.2). An entire chapter in this book ( Chapter 3 ) is devoted to ethics in research, and every subsequent chapter has a boxed feature titled “Eye on Ethics” that explores ethical issues relating to the topic of each chapter.

2. [Critical Thinking] Use of critical thinking in professional human service work (EP 2.1.3). Every chapter ends with a section titled “Review and Critical Thinking” in which one section (“Critical Thinking”) explores how the research process discussed in that chapter can assist in the development of critical thinking skills.

3. [Diversity] The engagement of diversity and difference in research and practice (EP 2.1.4). Most chapters have a section titled “Diversity and Research” in which we discuss how various dimensions of diversity and difference may influence the research process, and the uses to which research results may be put.

4. [Research & Practice] Use of research-informed practice and practice-informed research (EP 2.1.6). This is an underlying, general theme of this whole book, and we will explicitly address it in many places.

5. [Policy Practice] Engage in policy practice to deliver effective social work services (EP 2.1.8). One of the focal areas used in this book is “policy planning and development,” so some of the Research in Practice sections will be devoted to showing how research is used to shape and evaluate human service policies. Also, Chapter 12 is on program evaluation, which is an integral part of policy planning and development.

6. [Evidence-Based Evaluation] Utilize evidence-based interventions and evaluate intervention effects (EP 2.1.10). Three of the focal areas (“assessment of client functioning,” “program evaluation,” and “practice effectiveness evaluation”) address these issues directly, so many of the Research in Practice sections focus on this. Also, Chapter 11 , Single-System Designs, is devoted to the assessment of individual clients and interventions.

Computers and various forms of electronic technologies have now become an integral part of the research process. In recognition of this, we have included in most chapters an insert titled “Information Technology in Research.” Each of these inserts describes a particular research use of computer or information technology relevant to the topic of that chapter. In addition, a feature titled “Exploring the Internet” appears in each chapter; through exercises, this feature shows you how to use the Internet for a variety of research purposes.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN RESEARCH Digital Technology and Research in the Human Services

The computer, probably more than any other single invention, stands as a symbol of technological progress in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Computers now pervade all areas of society, including the human services. A few decades ago, computer applications in the human services were limited to accounting and bureaucratic record keeping. In the field of research, computers were used mostly to store data and conduct statistical analysis on that data. By the twenty-first century, however, information technologies (IT) or computer-mediated communications technologies (CMCT) have become an integral part of virtually all social life and human service activities and taken us far beyond these traditional uses of computer technology (Rafferty & Steyaert, 2009).

In later chapters, we will describe electronic technologies that can run statistical tests, assist in interviewing respondents, help select a sample to use in data collection, and accomplish a host of other activities related directly to research fundamentals. Information technologies have also become an integral part of the literature review process through electronic database searches, which are available through libraries as well as directly on the Internet. Computers also help in report preparation as word processors, and graphic display programs have become essential in producing charts and figures to communicate the findings of research. In addition, such CMCTs as cell phones, iPods, PDAs, and cloud computing are rapidly changing the way we do research. All these technologies need to be understood for two reasons: first, these technologies are integral tools in the research process. Second, their capabilities and impact on social life force us to adapt the research process to conduct valid and reliable research.

CMCTs also are rapidly entering use for human service practice tasks. For example, digital technologies and cloud computing can now be used to assess client states, provide measures of client improvements over time, access help in establishing AIDS and teen pregnancy prevention programs, and find agency assistance in conducting evaluations of programs (Card & Kuhn, 2006; Rafferty & Steyaert, 2009).

With creativity, these service delivery applications can be harnessed to make applied research easier and more feasible. This service base also increases the possibilities for making use of research in practice. Our discussion of information technologies and computer applications illustrates a central theme of this book—namely, that there are important linkages between social research and human service practice, and that the imaginative application of digital technology is another way of forging this linkage.

Good information about the uses of digital technologies in human service research can be found in the Journal of Technology in Human Services ( http://wweb.uta.edu/faculty/schoech/cussn/jths/default.htm ) and Social Science Computer Review ( http://hcl.chass.ncsu.edu/sscore/sscore.htm ). To promote this theme, many chapters in this book have a section titled “Information Technology in Research.” The goal is to educate you regarding the many ways in which modern information technologies impact the field of social research today and to stimulate your thinking about ways of using this technology to link practice with research.

Each chapter ends with a section titled “Review and Critical Thinking,” which provides the student with a variety of ways to review the material covered in the chapter. The book ends with two appendices. The first is a guide to using the library for research in the human services. Effective use of library resources is an essential step in most research projects. The second presents ways of generating and using tables of random numbers, which have many uses in research and are discussed in several chapters.

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