External
Scientific Inquiry in Social Work
As an introductory textbook for social work students studying research methods, this book guides students through the process of creating a research project. Students learn how to discover a researchable topic that is interesting to them, examine scholarly literature, formulate a proper research question, design a quantitative or qualitative study to answer their question, carry out the design, interpret quantitative or qualitative results, and disseminate their findings to audiences.
- Author
- Matthew DeCarlo
- Publisher
- Radford University
- Source
- LibreTexts
- License
- CC BY-NC-SA
- Language
- EN
- Category
- Basic Sciences
Contents· 79 sections
- 01: Introduction to Research
- 1.01: How do social workers know what to do
- 1.02: Science and social work
- 1.03: Why should we care
- 1.04: Understanding research
- 02: Beginning a Research Project
- 2.01: Getting started
- 2.02: Sources of information
- 2.03: Finding literature
- 03: Reading and Evaluating Literature
- 3.01: Reading an empirical journal article
- 3.02: Evaluating sources
- 3.03: Refining your question
- 04: Conducting a Literature Review
- 4.01: What is a literature review
- 4.02: Synthesizing literature
- 4.03: Writing the literature review
- 05: Ethics in Social Work Research
- 5.01: Research on humans
- 5.02: Specific ethical issues to consider
- 5.03: Ethics at micro meso and macro levels
- 5.04: The practice of science versus the uses of science
- 06: Linking Methods with Theory
- 6.01: Micro meso and macro approaches
- 6.02: Paradigms theories and how they shape a researchers approach
- 6.03: Inductive and deductive reasoning
- 07: Design and causality
- 7.01: Types of research
- 7.02: Causal relationships
- 7.03: Unit of analysis and unit of observation
- 7.04: Mixed Methods
- 08: Creating and refining a research question
- 8.01: Empirical versus ethical questions
- 8.02: Writing a good research question
- 8.03: Quantitative research questions
- 8.04: Qualitative research questions
- 8.05: Feasibility and importance
- 8.06: Matching question and design
- 09: Defining and measuring concepts
- 9.01: Measurement
- 9.02: Conceptualization
- 9.03: Operationalization
- 9.04: Measurement quality
- 9.05: Complexities in quantitative measurement
- 10: Sampling
- 10.01: Basic concepts of sampling
- 10.02: Sampling in qualitative research
- 10.03: Sampling in quantitative research
- 10.04: A word of caution- Questions to ask about samples
- 11: Survey Research
- 11.01: Survey research- What is it and when should it be used
- 11.02: Strengths and weaknesses of survey research
- 11.03: Types of surveys
- 11.04: Designing effective questions and questionnaires
- 12: Experimental Design
- 12.01: Experimental design- What is it and when should it be used
- 12.02: Pre-experimental and quasi-experimental design
- 12.03: The logic of experimental design
- 12.04: Analyzing quantitative data
- 13: Interviews and Focus Groups
- 13.01: Interview research- What is it and when should it be used
- 13.02: Qualitative interview techniques
- 13.03: Issues to consider for all interview types
- 13.04: Focus groups
- 13.05: Analyzing qualitative data
- 14: Unobtrusive Research
- 14.01: Unobtrusive research- What is it and when should it be used
- 14.02: Strengths and weaknesses of unobtrusive research
- 14.03: Unobtrusive data collected by you
- 14.04: Secondary data analysis
- 14.05: Reliability in unobtrusive research
- 15: Real-world Research
- 15.01: Evaluation research
- 15.02: Single-subjects design
- 15.03: Action research
- 16: Reporting Research
- 16.01: What to share and why we share
- 16.02: Disseminating your findings
- 16.03: The uniqueness of the social work perspective on science