This is the eBook of the printed book and may not include any media, website access codes, or print supplements that may come packaged with the bound book.
This highly accessible evaluation text encourages students to evaluate their practice from multiple points of view, without the use of statistics.
It encourages the client's active participation in evaluation by asking: "Are these the results you wanted in resolving your concern?" and builds on single-case design.
Table of Contents:
PART 1: OVERVIEW OF CLIENT-CENTERED EVALUATION OF PRACTICE (C-CEP) AND SINGLE-SYSTEM DESIGN (SSD)
Chapter 1: Introduction of Client-Centered Evaluation of Practice
A New Approach to Evaluating Practice
Case Study: Phillip, an obese 10-year-old boy with diabetes who just wants “to be like the other guys in my class”
Eight Steps in Evaluating Practice
Identify the client who defines the goals in the case
Select intermediary objectives and their specific targets
Identify evidence-based general practice from the literature and evaluation-informed specific practice from working with the client
Collect data in an on-going basis and plot data on graphs
Construct clear benchmarks to know when the results are (or are not) successful
Engage the client in determining if the client’s goals have been attained during intervention
Introduce a maintenance phase in which the client is in complete control of the intervention on his/her own
Analyze patterns of data to coordinate with the client’s statements
Chapter Summary
Chapter 2: Conceptualization: Naming What We See in the Client Situation
A Case Study as Introduction to Conceptualization: Ben and Kat (for Katherine) Washington
Goals: Described in terms of concepts, propositions, and theories
Objectives and Targets: The aims of our plans of action
Empirical Evidence as Bases of Plans of Action
Definitions, Operational and Conceptual: Agreeing on the terms of the plan of action
Chapter Summary
PART II: MEASUREMENT: ATTACHING NUMBERS TO WAHT WE SEE IN THE CLIENT SITUATION
Chapter 3: The Issues: Measurement Theory; Validity; Reliability; Error Messages; Sustainability
Measurement Theory: Connecting concepts to the client’s reality
Validity
Face validity
Content validity
Criterion validity
Construct validity
Client validity
Reliability
Interobserver reliability
Test-retest reliability
Alternate-forms reliability
Internal consistency
Error Messages in Measurement
Time and Sustainability
Chapter Summary
Chapter 4: Graphing: The Basics; Exceptions to the Rules
Case Study: Rick Alverez and his “walking support group”
Graphing Basics: The Rules
Graphing Exceptions to the Rule
Using Graphs to Monitor Data and Interpret Outcomes
Chapter Summary
Chapter 5: Information Retrieval: Finding General Evidence-Based Practice Information
Case Study: Finding information on self-efficacy for Rick Alverez
Evidence-based General Practice and Information-informed Specific Practice
Chapter Summary
Chapter 6: Individualized Rating Scales (IRS) and Structured Logs
Introduction to Individualized Rating Scales (IRS): Nature and construction
Introduction to Structured Logs: Nature and construction
Case Study: Mr. and Mrs. Angus Ferguson and the issue of continuing care retirement communities
Chapter Summary
Chapter 7: Behavioral Observations
The Nature of Behaviors
Case Study: Evaluating the prevention of unwanted teenage pregnancy at a school health clinic using behavioral observations
Methods of Observing Behavior in Others: Principles of seeing
Chapter Summary
Chapter 8: Standardized Rating Scales
Case Study: Mrs. Cornelia Vanderveen, an older woman in need of protective care
My (MB) Experiences in Developing and Testing a Standardized Rating Scale: The Benjamin Rose Institute Protective Care Study
Selecting a Standardized Rating Scale for Your Specific Purposes
Administering and Scoring a Standardized Rating Scale
Advantages and Disadvantages of Standardized Rating Scales
Chapter Summary
Chapter 9: Qualitative Data in Single-System Designs: Self-Monitoring
The Place of Qualitative Information in a Quantitative World: Self-monitoring
The narrative approach
Positive psychology and the strengths perspective
A New Idea in Single-System Evaluation: Global assessment
Case Study: Problems for Ahmed Beddin, a religious man in a foreign culture
Chapter Summary
Chapter 10: Measurement Cautions
Case Study: Measuring outcomes in a women’s support group
Unobtrusive and Non-reactive Measures
Archival records
Behavioral observations
Unobtrusive observations
Physical traces
Measuring the Impact of the Physical Environment on Client Concerns
Ethical Issues (Socio-cultural, Gender, Orientation, Status Issues)
Chapter Summary
PART III: EVALUATION BASICS: BASELINES, DESIGNS, ANALYSES, AND DECISION MAKING
Chapter 11: Baselining and the Beginning of Evaluated Practice
Case Study: Bullying in the school
Baselining: Great possibilities
Concurrent Baselining: Possibility fulfilled
Reconstructed Baseline: The best we can do under the circumstances
Patterns among Baselines in Multiple Graphs
A World without Baselines: The emperor’s new clothes
Chapter Summary
Chapter 12: AB*M** Design
Purpose
On Your Mark
Some History of the Case Study
Logical Changes to Provide Scientific Grounds of Practice
Get Set
AB designs
Strengths of AB designs
Limitations of AB designs
Go: AB*M** designs
Case Study Using an AB*M** Design: Jesse, the runner
Chapter Summary
Chapter 13: Advanced Designs
Introduction to Simplicity in Talking about Complex Subjects
ABA Design
M added to ABA Design: The ABAM Design
ABAB and ABABM Designs
Multiple Baseline Designs
Multiple Baseline Designs with Maintenance Phases
The BAB and BABM Designs: Emergency designs
Other Advanced Designs
The changing intensity design
The alternating intervention design
Multiple target design, a fake advanced design: Careful, but keep using M
Chapter Summary
Chapter 14: Analysis of Data: A Systemic and Holistic Approach
~ Martin Bloom, Kimberly J. Vannest, John L. Davis, and Preston A. Britner
Overview of Six Methods of Analysis
Method #1) Analysis Involving Targets: From the client’s perspective
Method #2) Client Analysis of Goal Attainment: From the client’s perspective
Method # 3) Trend Analysis: What graphed data patterns have to tell us about the course of an intervention
Method #4) Analysis Using Non-overlapping Data between Baseline and Intervention: Standing back in order to get closer to underlying abstract entities
Method #5) Statistical Analysis
Method #6) Sustained Time Analysis: The test of time
Chapter Summary
Chapter 15: Decision Making
What is Decision Making?
Case Study: The family repercussions of military deployment
Chapter Summary
About the Author :
Martin Bloom has been developing ideas about, and methods for, single-system designs for many years. He has a Ph.D. in social psychology (University of Michigan) and a Certificate in Social Study [social work] (University of Edinburgh, Scotland), and has taught in several schools of social work in the United States, and lectured abroad on evaluation and primary prevention in Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, and England. He has retired recently, only to continue research and writing in evaluation and primary prevention, while also becoming an exhibiting artist. He is married (for 52 years) and has two sons and three grandchildren.
Preston A. Britner is an Associate Professor of Human Development & Family Studies at the University of Connecticut, and he holds joint appointments in Educational Psychology and the Ph.D. program in Public Health. He earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Virginia. Prof. Britner is Co-Chair of UConn’s Public Engagement Forum, which coordinates the University’s service, outreach, and engagement efforts. He is a Teaching Fellow, the highest teaching distinction at UConn. He is Editor Emeritus for The Journal of Primary Prevention and serves on a variety of editorial boards and university, state, and national boards and committees. He has published in the areas of child-parent relationships, mentoring, child maltreatment prevention, and social policy affecting families. Prof. Britner is currently serving on the American Psychological Association’s Committee on Children, Youth, and Families and is a Fellow of APA. He is married (for fewer than 52 years) and has a daughter and two sons.
