Social Work Research Methods. Reginald O. York
neglect and abuse, provision of case management services to client families, and referral of clients to needed services.The adult mental health program of Oak Hill Behavioral Health provides psychotherapy to adults for the purpose of improving their mental health and promoting their self-sufficiency.
3 The question you have selected for your analysis
4 What you found with regard to your question
5 What you would recommend for the agency to improve its program evaluation information
Practice Exercise 2: Evaluating an Intervention
You will select a group of clients with a common target behavior and answer a set of questions to report on some selected information that would guide the evaluation of a human service intervention designed to address this target behavior.
Competencies Demonstrated by Practice Exercise 2
1 The ability to identify a target behavior that is treated by a given intervention that will be evaluated
2 The ability to identify a human service intervention that will be evaluated with regard to outcomes for the target behavior that is being treated
3 The ability to identify an outcome objective that fits the evaluation of a given intervention for a given target behavior
4 The ability to identify a piece of data that would be relevant to a given outcome objective in the evaluation of a given human service intervention
Activities for Practice Exercise 2
1 Identify a human service intervention (service) that you would like to evaluate. Be prepared to describe the activities of this intervention.Examples: (a) A support group for victims of rape, (b) tutoring services for at-risk middle school students, and (c) therapy for persons who are depressed.
2 Identify the target behavior that is addressed by the above human service intervention.Examples: (a) Feelings of social support, (b) grades in school, and (c) depression.
3 Identify an outcome objective for the above intervention with regard to the above target behavior.Examples: (a) To enhance feelings of social support, (b) to improve grades in school, and (c) to reduce depression.
4 Identify a piece of data (information) that could be used to evaluate whether the above intervention has been effective with regard to the achievement of the above outcome objective.Examples: (a) Improvement in scores on a social support scale from the beginning of the service period to the end, (b) grades in school for the grade term of the period of the service compared with the grades in school for the previous grade term, and (c) improvement in scores on a scale of depression taken both before and after the therapy was given.
What You Will Report From Practice Exercise 2
1 A brief description of your selected human service intervention
2 A brief description of your selected target behavior
3 The outcome objective that should be evaluated
4 The piece of data that could be used to measure the effectiveness of the selected intervention with regard to the selected target behavior
Chapter Review
Chapter Key Learnings
1 Human service research can be categorized in several ways. Three of these ways that were examined in this chapter were purpose, scope, and basic approach to measurement.
2 Human service research can be classified with regard to purpose. One purpose is description, where precise measurement is critical. Another purpose is explanation, where two or more variables are measured and compared to test whether one explains the other. A third purpose is evaluation, where client outcome is measured. A final purpose is exploration, which makes good use of qualitative measurement because it is an examination of a phenomenon that is not well known.
3 A manner of characterizing evaluative research is its scope. This type of research can be classified as program evaluation or intervention evaluation. Program evaluation is broader in scope and may include several intervention evaluations; the latter is given greater emphasis in this book.
4 The general type of measurement is a third way to characterize human service research. When you measure variables in a quantitative manner, you will give each study subject either a category to fit into or a number that indicates the numerical value it represents on a concept to be measured. When you measure variables in a qualitative way, you ask the study subjects to give you words to analyze.
5 When you engage in program evaluations, you may ask questions such as the following: (a) Were appropriate clients offered service? (b) Were good standards of service implemented? (c) Did the clients achieve the objectives of the service?
6 The evaluation of the intervention tends to focus on client outcome for a single client or a group of clients.
7 The research process was presented as having four basic phases: (1) articulation of the research question and the knowledge base that guides it, (2) determination of the methods that will be used to select a study sample and measure the study variables, (3) collection and analysis of data, and (4) drawing the study conclusions.
8 The nature of scientific inquiry necessitates the systematic examination of human phenomena through a step-by-step process where each phase naturally leads to the next. You do not, for example, decide how you are going to measure the study variables before you articulate the study question and examine an appropriate knowledge base.
9 From the knowledge base, you can better understand the phenomena of your study through theories or conceptual frameworks. From this understanding, you will be in a better position to measure your study variables and to predict your study results.
10 From the report on your study methods, we can learn about the extent to which the results of the study can be generalized to a population of people who were not in the study. We can also learn about the confidence we can have that you have measured your study variables accurately.
11 If you are conducting an evaluative study, you will determine the research design. This design instructs you on the procedures for the collection of your data on client outcome. It helps you answer the following question: Did the treatment cause the measured client gain? Some designs do a better job of answering this question than others.
12 A critical issue in data analysis is statistical significance, which addresses the issue of chance. If your data can easily be explained by chance, you cannot rely on them to give you the truth.
Chapter Discussion Questions
1 Present three research questions below, one that is descriptive, one that is explanatory, and one that is evaluative.Descriptive research questionExplanatory research questionEvaluative research question
2 What general purpose for research (descriptive, explanatory, evaluative, or exploratory) do you find most suited to your own interests or professional development?
3 What is the form of qualitative data? What about quantitative data?Qualitative dataQuantitative data
4 What is a research question that is in the category of a program evaluation? What is a research question that is in the category of the evaluation of an intervention?Program evaluationEvaluation of an intervention
5 What is the general category (descriptive, explanatory, or evaluative) of research that is the focus of most of the data that your agency collects and reports?
Chapter Test
1 Suppose you collect data on the following variables for your current clients: age, gender, marital status. You report such data as the mean age,