Social Work Research Methods

What is Research?

• Research is a tool for social work practitioners and scholars.
• Research is a systematic and methodological approach to creating knowledge.
• Research can improve practice outcomes and affect the well-being of an individual, agency, or other system.
• Research can address issues like intervention effectiveness and agency population characteristics.
• Measuring practice accountability and monitoring agency populations can create evidence-based practices.

Definition of Research

• Refers to systematic and objective inquiry using the scientific method.
• Research aims to solve human problems, create new knowledge, and improve social work practice.

Importance of Research in Social Work

• Informs practice, guiding effective interventions and improving client outcomes.
• Provides evidence to support systemic changes and policy development for clients.
• Contributes to the evidence base of the social work profession, building knowledge.

Evidence-Based Practice

• Combines best research evidence
• Includes social worker expertise
• Factors in client preferences.
• Encourages critical thinking and continuous learning.

Types of Research

• Quantitative research focuses on measurable data, statistics, and numerical outcomes.
• Qualitative research explores subjective experiences, meanings, and narratives.
• Mixed methods research combines qualitative and quantitative approaches for a holistic perspective.

Ethics in Research

• Core ethical principles: protect participant rights and confidentiality.
• Avoid harm and ensure voluntary participation.
• Maintain honesty and integrity in research.
• Institutional review boards (IRBs) monitor research to ensure ethical compliance.

Relevance to Social Work

• Research is central to evaluating social work programs and interventions.
• Research addresses issues like mental health, substance use, and inequality.
• Research can help to understand and respond to community needs.

Overcoming Barriers to Research

• Common challenges include a lack of confidence or knowledge about research methods and balancing research with practice demands.
• Solution: View research as an accessible tool for improving client outcomes.

Purpose of Research

• Systematic process of gaining information.
• Important because governing agencies demand evidence that programs and practices are effective.
• Evidence-based practice is practices whose efficacy is supported by evidence (research).

Ways of Knowing

• Through personal experiences.
• Through the knowledge of others (authority).
• Through tradition (myths like NL fairies, Black Cat Bad Luck, Witchcraft).
• Through the use of scientific methods (Clinical Based, e.g., Sampling).

Purpose of Social Research

• To explore social reality for its own sake or to make further research possible.
• To explain social life by providing reliable, valid, and well-documented information.
• To evaluate the status of social issues and their effects on society.
• To develop and/or test theories.
• To understand human behavior and action.
• To suggest possible solutions to social problems.

Qualitative Research

• It is used when little is known about a subject to develop a knowledge base.
• Driven by a meaningful phenomenon.
• Uses observation and interviews to gain an in-depth understanding.
• Aims at gaining a deep understanding of a specific phenomenon, rather than a surface description of a large sample of population.
• Generates data about human groups in social settings without introducing treatments or manipulating variables.
• Encourages meaning to emerge from the participants.
• Aims to get a better understanding through first-hand experience, truthful reporting, and quotations of actual conversations.

Quantitative Research

• Quantitative research mostly displays findings in numerical terms and attempts to explain the relationship between two entities (variable).
• Relevant variables are used to explain relationships.
• Uses numerical representations.
• It entails a deductive approach to the relationship between theory and research in which theory testing is prime.
• Incorporates the practices and norms of the natural science model and of positivism.
• Embodies a view of society as an external, objective reality.
• Is mainly about testing the relationships between variables.

What is Researcher Bias?

• In Qualitative Research, the researcher usually has some preconceived bias (opinion based on knowledge from his or her own experiences). It is acceptable for bias to play a role in the interpretation of events.
• In Quantitative Research, bias is the unknown or unacknowledged error created during the design of the study, in the choice of a problem to be studied, or during the interpretation of the findings.

Mixed Method Research

• There are two types of research methods: qualitative research methods and quantitative research methods; when both research methods are used, this combination is called a mixed method design.
• Using both methods one at a time is sequential and using them both at the same time.

Research Designs

• Exploratory research allows the use of observation, inquiry, and assessment to form tentative theories about what is being seen and experienced (Qualitative).
• Explanatory research looks at the correlation between two or more variables and attempts to determine if they are related (Quantitative).
• Descriptive research describes some definitive characteristics about a single issue or population and seeks to provide information about a phenomenon using descriptive language (Mixed method of both).
• Evaluative research employs systematic methodology to measure a client's process or to evaluate the effectiveness of a program or agency. (qualitative, ex. giving questionnaires)
• Single-Subject Designs is a method for evaluating an individual's progress over time that measures whether a relationship exists between an intervention and a specific outcome (Qualitative or Quantitative).

Developing Research Question

• Research questions may arise from personal experience, out of research articles or theories under study, or out of practice experience.

What is Theory?

• A statement or set of statements designed to explain a phenomenon based upon observations and experiments, often agreed upon by most experts.

Hypotheses

• Research statements about relationships between variables that are testable and can be accepted or rejected based on the findings from a study.

Strengths and Limitations of Research

• Strengths: help gain an understanding of many social problems, development of new agency policies, greater practice accountability, evidence-based treatment strategies and new knowledge.
• Limitations: conducted in small steps that are often repeated to build evidence, knowledge that research yields is confined to the questions that are asked.

What is a literature review?

• A search of published research that allows one to synthesize what is known about the topic being studied.
• Helps shape a research design by giving the researcher an overview of previous studies on a topic.

Conducting Your Search For Research Articles

• It is important to identify key words to enter into a search database, such as Social Work Abstracts or Psycinfo. Keywords are identifiers for the article and can be used as search terms.

Choosing Your Article

• Choose articles that are as closely related as possible to your subject and topic.
• Choose articles from reputable peer-reviewed journals, meaning a review of an article's content, accuracy, and methodological concerns.

Reviewing Articles

• Main parts of an Article
• Abstract- A brief summary of the research and its findings, usually no more than 250 words.
• Introduction- Establishing the purpose of the study.
• Problem Statement– An open ended statement that tells you what a study is intended to do but does not predict what the results might be.
• Independent Variable- A variable that is controlled or manipulated by the researcher.
• Dependant Variable- The variable that is predictable by another variable.
• Review of Literature-Related findings from the literature review.
• Methods-The design of the research.
• Results or Findings-Significant/important findings.
• Discussion- Implications of the results (to the field of social work, etc)

Critique Of An Article

• By critiquing the articles you review, you are building a foundation for your own research.

Organizing Your Search Results

• Index Cards (one card per reference).
• Computer Software (Word, Excel, Endnote).
• Groupings (categories of studies with similar findings).

Developing a Problem Statement or Hypothesis

• A problem statement is an open-ended inquiry that does not predict the results of the research study and can employ qualitative or quantitative designs.
• A hypothesis is generally considered a testable statement that can be confirmed or rejected, used in explanatory designs.

Compiling Your References Page

• Common format is APA style.
• Citation gives credit to the authors.
• References page is the alphabetical list of the studies cited in a summary of a literature review.

What Is Ethics?

• Conforming to the standards of conduct of a given profession or group.
• At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles, affects how people make decisions and lead their lives, what is good for individuals and society and is also described as moral philosophy.
• The set of values, standards, and principles used to determine appropriate and acceptable conduct at all stages of the research process.

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

• Conducted by the United States Public Health Service to study the effect of untreated syphilis, beginning in 1932 and lasting 40 years.
• Sample included 399 Black men with late-stage syphilis, totaling 600 men.
• Participants were offered free medical care and other incentives for their medical data but were not told that they had syphilis.
• More than 400 were not provided penicillin when it became available as a cure; many died or unknowingly transmitted the disease.

Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay

• Questionable practices carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay (eg, waterboarding).
• At Abu Ghraib prison, personnel of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency committed human rights violations against detainees.

National Research Act

• Public Law 93-348, called the National Research Act, was signed into laws on July 12th, 1974 and addresses the protection of human subjects, the Belmont report summarizes three basic ethical principles: respect for individuals, beneficence, and justice.

Respect for Individuals

• An ethical research principle according to which the autonomy of an individual is acknowledged and those with diminished autonomy are protected.
• Anonymity: the practice of not collecting any information that will identify the subject.
• Confidentiality: the assurance that a researcher provides to subjects that all information about them will remain in the hands of the investigator and that no other person outside the research process will have access to this information.
• Informed Consent: letting potential subjects know what the basic purpose of the study will be and that their participation is voluntary and obtaining their written permission to participate in the study.

Beneficence

• The obligation in research to do no harm and maximize benefits while minimizing possible harm/risk.
• Benefits: Positive values related to health or well-being that are expected, in research, to outweigh the risks.
• Risks: The possibility that psychological, physical, legal, social, or economic harm may occur, sometimes expressed in levels, such as ‘no risk’, little risk, moderate and high.
• Debriefing: the process of fully informing subjects of the nature of research when some form of deception has been employed.

Justice

• An ethical research principle regarding the fairness of distribution of benefits and risks among all individuals, to each person an equal share.

Other Considerations

• Faking Data: making up desired data or eliminating undesired data in research findings.
• Plagiarism: the unauthorized use of another person's work without properly giving them credit.
• Laundering Data: statistically manipulating the data collected to reduce errors and make the findings more accurate.
• Institutional Review Board (IRB): a committee mandated by the federal government that oversees research with human subjects and animals.

Ethical Standards of The National Association of Social Workers

• Social workers should monitor and evaluate policies, the implementation of programs, and practice interventions.
• Social workers should promote and facilitate evaluation and research to contribute to the development of knowledge.
• Social workers should critically examine and keep current with emerging knowledge relevant to social work and fully use evaluation and research evidence in their professional practice.
• Social workers engaged in evaluation or research should carefully consider possible consequences and should follow guidelines developed for the protection of evaluation and research participants.
• Social workers engaged in evaluation or research should obtain voluntary and written informs consent from participants, without any implied or actual.

How is Qualitative Research Used?

• If little or nothing is known about a subject, use methods that allow investigation of a phenomenon through researcher observation and assessment.
• Two strategies researchers use are describing the information collected (descriptive inquiry) and speculating on the information collected (speculative inquiry).
• Descriptive inquiry = create a greater understanding of issues by describing individual experiences.
• Ways include getting verbal comments from clients are to interview them individually or to hold a focus group.
• Speculative strategy to generate a theory based on common experiences using inductive research methods.

Inductive Research

• Gathering information based upon observations and quotes that is organized into common themes.

Deductive Research

• The process of reasoning that moves from a general hypothesis or theory to specific results through the use of quantitative methods.

Qualitative Research Methods

• The four common qualitative research designs are ethnography, grounded theory, phenomenology, and case study.
• Phenomenological research designs seek to understand the lived experience of those being studied.
• Grounded Theory research design that utilizes a recursive form of question and analysis. The researcher begins with a set of questions that lead to further questions; common themes are identified.
• Ethnographic research designs are centered on cultural behavior; this research design seeks to record the cultural aspects of a group.
• Case studies are a detailed analysis of a single or limited number of people or events - illustrative, exploratory, a critical instance, program effects, prospective, cumulative, or narrative.

Data Collection

• Overt observational research is used to describe the behavior of individuals or groups in their natural settings.
• Covert observational research happens when the researchers do not identify themselves as researchers, either they mix in with the subjects or they observe from a distance.
• Semi-Structured Interviews use prepared research questions that start the interview but allow additional information to be solicited.
• Structured Interviews is an interview that is limited to the research questions the researcher wants answered.

Four Observational Roles

• The complete participant is a member of the group being studied and who conceals his/her researcher role from the group to avoid disrupting normal activity.
• The participant as observer role enables the researcher to participate in the group activities as desired, yet the main role of the researcher is to collect data, and the group being studied is aware of the researcher's observation activities.
• The observer as participant role enables the researcher to participate in the group activities as desired, yet the main role of the researcher is to collect data, and the group being studied is aware of the researcher's observations activities.
• The complete observer role occurs when the researcher is completely hidden from the view while observing or when the researcher is in plain sight in a public setting, yet the public being studied is unaware of being observed.

Three Types of Observations

• In descriptive observation, one observes anything and everything, assuming he/she knows nothing. This can lead to the collection of information that may or may not be relevant to the study.
• Focused observation emphasizes observation supported by interviews, in which the participants' insights guide the researcher's decisions about what to observe.
• Selective observation is when the researcher focuses on different types of activities to help delineate the differences in those activities.

Tips for Conducting Observational Research

• Unobtrusive in dress and actions.
• Become unfamiliar with the setting before beginning to collect data.
• Keep observations short at first to keep from becoming overwhelmed.
• Be honest, but not too technical or detailed in explaining to participants.
• Use memory tools to remember information, such as looking for key words or remembering the first and last remarks in conversations.

Interviews

• The main task in interviewing is to understand the meaning of what the interviewees say, and are particularly useful for getting the story behind participants' experiences. The interviewer can pursue in depth information around the topic.
• Conversational interviews have no predetermined questions in order to remain as open and adaptable as possible to the interviewees nature and priorities.
• Using the interview guide approach ensures that the same general areas of information are collected from each interviewee. This provides more focus than the conversational approach but still allows freedom.
• Open-ended interviews ask the same open-ended questions of all interviewees, which facilitates faster interviews that can be more easily analyzed and compared.
• Fix-response interviews ask the same questions and require interviewees to choose answers from among the same set of alternatives. Useful for those not experienced in interviewing.

Interviewing Tips

• Be familiar with the topic.
• Choose a setting with the least distraction.
• Explain the purpose of the interview and address terms of confidentiality.
• Outline the procedure of the interview, indicate how long the interview usually takes and provide contact information.
• Allow those being interviewed to clarify any questions or doubts; prepare a method for recording data.
• Use simple, easy and short questions spoken distinctly and understandably.
• Be tolerant, sensitive and patient to provocative and unconventional opinions, and avoid digressions from the topic.
• Clarify the responses to test the reliability and validity of what the interviewee says, remember the information, and provide interpretation of what is said during interviews.

Parts of Qualitative Study

• Interview questions
• Gaining access
• Selection criteria
• Ethical considerations
• Recording information
• Analysis
• Literature review
• Writing the report

Interview Questions

• The grand tour questions are large, overarching questions that identify the broad intent of research study and are based on the existing knowledge.
• These initial questions are used to generate additional questions and emergent lines of conversation called a semi-structured interview.

Gaining Access

• The issue of gaining access to subjects is particularly important when conducting qualitative studies; it is important think about how one makes gain access to a particular population

Selection Criteria

• Qualitative research is not as concerned with sample size as quantitative research, but it is important to include enough people to gain an in-depth understanding of what is being studied.

Ethical Considerations

• Important to safeguard the anonymity and confidentiality of subjects, to safeguard them, develop an informed consent form, and have the forms read and signed.

Recording Information

• Researchers decide how they will record the information after identifying the research questions to be asked and finding subjects to participate in your study. It is important to remember to protect confidentiality, regardless of the format being used.

Analysis

• The analysis is the most difficult portion of the entire qualitative research process. Compile what has been said in a word processing program, provide a paper copy of subject responses, and begin analyzing what has been said.

Lit Review

• Used to shape the qualitative study based, it can occur before and after information is collected.

Writing The Report

• The qualitative research is concerned with providing a detailed and accurate description of the subjects' experience rather than an objective and dispassionate overview of the findings.

Chapter 5: Quantitative Research Designs

• Subject research to the “so what” rule: address its value to social work.
• Researchers address what is known, the level of existing knowledge, and whether studies have been published about the relationships between variables.
• Research should be guided by what other researchers have found in a literature review.

Descriptive Research

• Research design uses descriptive language to provide information about a phenomenon.
• Uses descriptive research to obtain information concerning the current status of phenomena concerning “what exists.”
• Casual relationships exist when one variable is causing a change in the other.
• Correlational relationships exist when one variable is associated.

Development of Variables

• Variables are essential in research, requiring careful definition and measurement.
• Conceptualization refers to the process of defining what a variable means within the context of a study.

Operationalization

• Involves translating a variable into measurable indicators or factors.
• Affects how a concept is assessed in research; precise definitions enhance clarity and consistency.
• Clarity in the research question or hypothesis influences how variables are defined and measured.

Independent Variables (IV)

• Controlled or manipulated by the researcher.
• May impact changes in dependant variables.

Dependent Variables (DV)

• These are influenced by changes in independent variables.
• Represent the outcomes being measured in a study.

Control Variables

• Factors kept constant to isolate the influence of independent variables on dependent variables.
• Often demographic in nature, such as age, sex, or education level.

Measurement Levels

• Measurement scales help quantify data and are categorized into four levels: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.
• Nominal: Categorizes data without order (e.g., gender, religious affiliation).
• Ordinal: Increased detail with rank-ordered responses (e.g., levels of satisfaction).
• Interval: Numeric differences without a true zero, allowing for meaningful differences (e.g., temperature).
• Ratio: The most precise measurement, featuring a true zero (e.g., income, count of children).

Key Terms

• Reliability: Measures the consistency and stability of the measurement tool over time: test-retest, equivalent form, internal consistency.
• Validity: Indicates how well a measurement reflects the intended construct: face, content, criterion-related, concurrent, and construct validity.

Fluidity of Variables

• Variables like gender and race can be interpreted differently, reflecting cultural or personal biases.
• Acknowledge fluid definitions impact research outcomes.
• Examples include the distinction between ‘sex’ (biological) and ‘gender’ (socially constructed).

Research Design and Data Collection

• Understanding variables helps define research methodologies effectively, ensuring comprehensive and accurate measurement.

Measures are critical tools for data collection

• Surveys and tests that gather information.
• Importance of using standardized measures for reliable comparisons across different populations.

Examples in Measurement

• Reliable instruments are essential to ensure research findings are valid, like the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST).

Variables

• Entities, objects, or events you want to study, or the people/things you want to talk about in your study like individuals, families, organizations or cities.
• Characteristics or features of the unit of analysis being measured, changing or varying from one unit to another.

Types Of Variables

• Independent Variable (IV): A variable that is manipulated by the researcher, that may affect change in the dependent variable.
• Dependent Variable (DV): A variable that is changed by another variable, being dependent on the independent variable.

Measures and Measurement

• Measures are numbers, values, or word labels
• Measurement is the assignment of numbers or word labels to units of analysis and variables in a way which makes sense.

Conceptualization

• Beings with conceptualization or conceptual definition.
• The abstract definition of the phenomenon we want to measure. Example: The category of neglect can be further divided into medical neglect, physical, and emotional.

Operationalizing a Variable

• Refers to how we define a concept so that it can be measured. Example: Physical abuse can be defined/operationalized as “when someone hurts a child badly enough to cause an injury, break a bone, leave a bruise, a cut.

Operationalizing Measures

• A tool tries to measure a concept such as child abuse, alcoholism, depression, self-esteem and marital satisfaction.

Discrete levels of measures

(collection of objects or individuals)

• Nominal-level variables: Variables measure items are mutually exclusive and exhaustive.
• Dichotomous variable: nominal-level variable responses choose between a group or no group.

Continuous Levels of Measure

(measurable amounts)

• Interval-level variables: variables are measured in a way that there are equal gradations between rank-ordered, mutually exclusive and exhaustive items, and they must have an absolute zero.
• Reliability- The stability and consistency of a measurement.
• Validity- How much a measurement tool measures what it is meant to measure.

Sampling Types

• Probability sampling- is a method of sampling in which everyone in the population has an equal chance of being randomly assigned to either the experimental group or the comparison group. Want a representative sample/results can be generalised.
• Simple random sampling– Generated randomly from assigned numbers.
• Systematic random sampling– nth number is selected at random at a series.
• Stratified random sampling– Method of dividing into subgroups and drawn using randomization.
• Cluster sampling– Drawing stages naturally occurring within the population.

Non-Probability Sampling

• Based on selected member.
• Convenience sampling- Rely on subjects.
• Purposive sampling- Selected based on population knowledge in mind.
• Quota sampling- Divide into categories to subjects.
• Snowball sampling– start with one, gains access to another in the same group.

Limitations of Non-Probability Sampling

• Less likely to be representative, caused by not contracting the whole population.

Quantitative data analysis

• Utilizes statistical procedures
• Count responses using statistical procedures
• Defining Descriptive & Inferential statistics
• Types: descriptive/numerical data

Descriptive Statistics

Ways of organizing, describing, and presenting manageable and understandable numerical data, that allows data to be examined quickly.

Univariable Analysis

Examination across one variable, including major characteristics (distribution, central tendencies, and dispersion), involving an individual or range depending on the study.

Measures of Central Tendency

Estimation of the center range of a distribution of values; to determine what is common and routine using estimates (Mean, Median, & Mode), of which the mean is most often used.

Measures of Dispersion

A statistical measure used to show how different the data are reported by scores to the mean.

Do responses stay close to the mean or do they fall away from what is typical, also referred to as measures of variability.

Measures of Distribution

• Frequency of as the name, implies, is the number of times a response occurs. For those who fail to attend or for members of absents.

Distributions

• Normal Distribution: The symmetrical distribution of scores around the mean, with the most scores cluster around the mean and tapering off on both sides.
• Histogram: A vertical block graph used in statistics to visually present the distribution interval or ratio-level data.
• Leptokurtosis: The shape of a distribution of scores that is tall and narrow because the majority of scores differ from the mean.
• Platykurtosis: The shape of a distribution of scores that is flat and wide because the majority of scores differ from the mean.
• Bell-shaped Curve: The distribution of scores that are symmetrically shaped around the mean and each side of the mean resembles the other.
• Skewed Distribution: A distribution of scores that produce a nonsymmetrical curve because there are more responses on the left or right side of the mean.