Social Work Research Methods: From Conceptualization to Dissemination

Social Work Research Methods is a stand alone "how-to" social research text that covers conceptualization, design, implementation, data management, and statistical analysis with comprehensively detailed examples.   It provides students with everything they need to learn about social science research, and how complete a research project from start to finish.  In addition, the text's research process is covered sequentially, in a straightforward “how-to” format.  It discusses values and ethics, conceptualization, design, familiarization with key computer programs (Microsoft Excel, SAS, SPSS and NVIVO), analyses, implementation and dissemination.  It is also written in a tone that is intentionally light-hearted to increase student interest and comfort level by addressing often overlooked aspects of conducting research (e.g. data management, IRB clearance, and grant development) in detail.    Key highlights of the text include five example research projects. These example projects are presented in their entirety; including how the researchers chose their areas of interest, how they executed their literature reviews (annotated citation lists are given), and how they designed, implemented, and disseminated (poster, article, agency report, or PowerPoint presentation) their work.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents Chapter 1:  Introduction             Section 1:  Definitions             Section 2:  The Ethics of Social Science             Section 3:  The Process of Doing Social Science             Section 4:  The Role of Theory   Chapter 2:  Values and Ethics             Section 1:   Definitions             Section 2:   Personal Values and Research             Section 3:   Examples From History:  Harm to Human Subjects             Section 4:   Examples From History:  Other Issues             Section 5:   Professional Codes of Ethics:  Human Subjects             Section 6:   Professional Codes of Ethics:  Other Issues   Chapter 3:  Specification             Section 1:   Specification             Section 2:  Your Area of Interest             Section 3:  The Initial Literature Review             Section 4:  Reviewing the Field             Section 5:  Understanding Your Literature             Section 6:  Your Conceptual Framework             Section 7:  Formalizing and Presenting Your Conceptual Framework   Chapter 4:  Design             Section 1: Specifying your Aims, Question and Hypotheses             Section 2: Seven Key Dimensions of Research Design                 Section 2.1: Purpose                 Section 2.2: Causality and Control                 Section 2.3: Subjects and Sampling                 Section 2.4: Assignment of Subjects to Different Groups or Conditions                 Section 2.5: Investigator Manipulation                 Section 2.6: Timeframe                 Section 2.7: Data Type             Section 3: Internal Validity and Research Design             Section 4: Finalizing the Design             Section 5: True Experimental Designs in Detail             Section 6: Quasi-Experimental Designs in Detail             Section 7: Nonexperimental Designs in Detail             Section 8: Human Subjects, IRB’s and Ethics             Section 9: Summary of Key Design Products       Chapter 5:  Measurement             Section 1:  Measureent and Data Type             Section 2:  Reliability and Validity             Section 3:  Administration of Instruments             Section 4:  Structure of Instruments             Section 5:  Choosing a Measure   Chapter 6:  Qualitative Research             Section 1:  Qualitative Research Defined             Section 2:  Paradigms and Frameworks in Qualitative Research             Section 3:  Collecting Data in Qualitative Research             Section 4:  Analysis in Qualitative Research   Chapter 7:  Clinical Multisubject Research             Section 1:  Introduction             Section 2:  Needs Assessment and Caseload Analysis             Section 3:  Program Monitoring             Section 4:  Outcome Evaluation     Chapter 8:  Clinical Single-Subject Research             Section 1:  Why Study Individuals in Your Practice?             Section 2:  Review of Key Terms in Single Subject Designs             Section 3:  Treatment Goals and Outcomes             Section 4:  Choosing a Way to Measure Outcomes Section 4.1:  Outcomes as Observed Behaviors Section 4.2:  Asking the Client or Someone Else (Finding and Using Existing Measures) Section 4.3:  Asking the Client or Someone Else (Creating Measures) Section 4.4:  Checking the Record (Administrative, Archival or Similar Data)             Section 5:  Choosing and Implementing a Design Section 5.1:  The Basic Quasi-Experimental Approach (A  B) Section 5.2:  Quasi-Experimental Approaches with Follow-up (A  B  A) Section 5.3:  Multiple-Baseline Models (A  B  A  B) Section 5.4:  Multiple-Intervention Models (A  B  C) Section 5.5:  Combined Intervention Models (A  B  B+C)             Section 6:  Timeframes             Section 7:  Analysis, Interpretation and Dissemination   Chapter 9:  Design Examples             Section 1: Kathy             Section 2: Maria             Section 3: Abigail             Section 4: Yuan             Section 5: John   Chapter 10: Computers in Social Science Research             Section 1: Spreadsheets (Excel)             Section 2: Statstical Analyis Software (SPSS)             Section 3: Statistical Analyis Software (SAS)             Section 4: Qualitative Analysis Software (NVivo)   Chapter 11: Implementation             Section 1: Pilot Studies:  Bridging Design and Full-Scale Implementation             Section 2  Implementation Tasks                 Section 2.1:  Getting Ready                 Section 2.2:  Getting Agreements with Partners                 Section 2.3:  Getting Access to Your Sample                 Section 2.4:  Obtaining Human Subjects Clearance                 Section 2.5:  Obtaining Funding                 Section 2.6:  Getting Materials Ready                 Section 2.7:  Getting Personnel                 Section 2.8:  Formalizing Data Collection (Codebooks)                 Section 2.9: Training Personnel             Section 3  Monitoring The Process                 Section 3.1:  Monitoring Data Collection                 Section 3.2:  Monitoring Contamination                 Section 3.3:  Monitoring Fidelity                 Section 3.4:  Monitoring Other Potential Problems             Section 4:  Data Management                 Section 4.1:  Data Procurement                  Section 4.2:  Transferring Data to an Electronic Format                 Section 4.3:  Creating New Variables   Chapter 12:  Implementation Examples             Section 1: Kathy             Section 2: Maria             Section 3: Abigail             Section 4: Yuan             Section 5: John   Chapter 13:  Quantitative Analysis             Section 1:  Important Terms             Section 2:  Checking Your Data             Section 3:  Univariate Statistics             Section 4:  How We Explore Data and Test Hypotheses             Section 5:  Basic Statistical Tests                 Section 5.1:  Tests of Association                 Section 5.11:  Bivariate Categorical Tests                   Section 5.12:  Correlation                 Section 5.2:  Tests of Difference                 Section 5.21:  T-Tests                   Section 5.22:  One-Way ANOVA                   Section 5.11:  Factorial ANOVA or Two-Way ANOVA               Section 6:  An Introduction to Regression   Chapter 14: Moving On in Quantitative Analysis             Section 1: Advanced Applications of Correlation:  Multiple Regression             Section 2: Principal Components Analysis Section 3: ANCOVA & MANOVA: Combining Ideas of Regression and ANOVA             Section 4: Introduction to Advanced Categorical Analyses Section 5: Logistic Regression             Section 6: Controlling For Time             Section 7: Categorical Time to Event Analyses             Section 8: Special Issues                 Section 5.1:  Clustering of Observations                 Section 5.2:  Correlations Over Time                   Section 5.21:  Complex Data Sets, GIS and Other Analytic Needs     Chapter 15  Analysis Examples             Section 1: Kathy             Section 2: Maria             Section 3: Abigail             Section 4: Yuan             Section 5: John   Chapter 16:  Interpretation & Dissemination             Section 1:  Four Components of Scientific Reporting             Section 2:  Different Audiences             Section 3:  Different Types of Products             Section 4:  Practical Advice for Getting Presentations and Articles Accepted   Appendix:  Grant Examples Foundation Grant Example NSF Grant Example