Social Work Research Methods. Reginald O. York
treatment periods, but these texts do not describe the limited AB design. This idea is promoted by practicality: Most social work students do not find it feasible to measure a target behavior for a single client several times before treatment begins. The social worker typically begins to offer service in the first or second encounters with the client. They may have the opportunity to measure client behavior at the end of an assessment session that takes place before they begin the service that is being evaluated, but they are not likely to be able to measure this behavior each week for several weeks before service begins. There is a statistical measure that can be used in this situation when the client’s behavior is measured as a score (the one-sample t test). Many of the students in my research courses have employed this evaluative research design, but few have employed the traditional AB single-subject design.
A fourth distinction of this book is the use of the Internet to analyze data in a simple application. There are several practice exercises where the student analyzes data using an Internet website. They are given step-by-step instructions that they will find to be rather simple. They will be able to compose a study hypothesis, enter their data, and report whether the data supported the study hypothesis. They can also report on the study conclusions that are supported by the data analysis. This simple application of data analysis has the effect of reducing the technical mystery of statistics often encountered by social work students.
Summary
When students have completed the content of this book, they will be able to enhance their practice with the use of published research studies. They will know the extent to which the practices they choose are based on evidence. In addition, students will be able to evaluate their own practice through their own research. This means they will be able to evaluate whether their practice achieves the intended objectives using data they have collected and analyzed statistically.
In this text, students will encounter knowledge about social work research methods that is user-friendly, practical, and applied to specific tasks in the completion of research studies. They will end this experience with an enhanced appreciation of science, an understanding of the research process, knowledge of critical concepts in research, and the ability to complete an entire research study on their own.
Emphasis is placed on the application of knowledge of essential concepts, with special attention given to the evaluation of practice. The interdependence of research tasks is illustrated in several ways, such as, for example, the fact that a good definition of target behavior will guide the selection of the appropriate measurement tool. The mystery of statistics will be substantially reduced by the student’s experience with the analysis of data using a convenient Internet website using simple instructions.
This content of this text is grounded in my several decades of experience teaching research methods at more than one university and by my experience as the author of four other research texts. I have observed the experiences of more than a thousand social work students in the pursuit of knowledge about research methods. My students have taught me a lot about how best to present knowledge about this topic. I am in indebted to them for their contributions.
Acknowledgments
SAGE Publishing gratefully acknowledges the following reviewers for their kind assistance:
Kathleen Boland, Cedar Crest College
J. Mark Dyke, Associate Professor, New Mexico Highlands University
Dione Moultrie King, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Claudia L. Moreno, PhD, LMSW, Dominican College of Blauvelt
Julie Schroeder, Jackson State University
About the Author
Reginald O. York, PhD, is a professor in the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he has taught since 2005. Previously, he served on the social work faculties of East Carolina University and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He is the author of Human Service Planning (1982), Building Basic Competencies in Social Work Research (1997), Conducting Social Work Research (1998), Evaluating Human Services (2009), and Statistics for Human Service Evaluation (2017). Prior to his entry into academia, he served as a foster care social worker, a child protective services supervisor, and the director of two human service organizations. His research interests include evidence-based practice, social work education, and human service management.
Part One The Fundamentals of Science and Social Work Research
Chapter 1 Science, Research, and Social Work Practice
Chapter 2 Purposes and Processes of Social Work Research
Chapter 3 Ethics and Cultural Competence in Social Work Research
Chapter 4 Evidence-Based Practice
When you complete the content and exercises in this section of the book, you will have achieved an enhanced appreciation of science as a guide for social work. This means that you will be more likely to examine scientific evidence in the pursuit of knowledge to guide practice. You will be less likely to accept someone’s claim that the full moon makes people act differently without a comprehensive examination of this question using the principles and processes of science.
On completion of this section, you will also be more familiar with the phases of the social work research process. You will be less likely to put the cart before the horse because you will know that there is a rationale for the sequence of activities in the research process. In addition, you will understand how research can be usefully categorized according to the purpose of the study. For example, you will know that you must employ descriptive statistics if your study is descriptive in nature and inferential statistics if your study is explanatory in nature.
An appreciation of the ethics in the use of human subjects in research will be another outcome of this section for you. You will know the basic ways to ensure that you have appropriately demonstrated this appreciation in your research tasks. Furthermore, you will know more about how to incorporate culture competence in the tasks of research. Finally, you will be familiar with the nature of evidence-based practice in social work. This also means that you will have a better appreciation of what evidence can do for you in enhancing the effectiveness of your practice.
1 Science, Research, and Social Work Practice
Susan is a social work intern at a family counseling agency, where she engages in intake interviews of persons seeking the help of the counseling center. Her agency supervisor has been helpful in her efforts to improve her interviewing skills. But she realizes that being a professional social worker goes beyond intake interviewing skills. It entails knowledge of practice, social policy, and social justice. She has examined how science is different from other ways of gathering information to help with decisions. For example, she recently heard a fellow social worker say, “Things were really crazy last night at the emergency room of the hospital; it must be because there was a full moon.” When Susan questioned this social worker, she responded, “Well, I have seen this with my very own eyes; whenever there is a full moon, things get really crazy in the emergency room.” Susan realized that this social worker had witnessed “crazy” behavior when the moon was full, but what about when the moon was not full? Had this social worker ever made a note of behavior when the moon was full and when the moon was not full and compared the number of crazy incidents? Susan realized that she would be more convinced of the effect of the full moon if her colleague had seen a greater incidence of “crazy” behavior when the moon was full than when it was not. That would be using science as a way of knowing. But this was not what this social worker had done. She had only witnessed behavior during the full moon.
Susan also made a few notes about the scientific way of investigating behavior during the full moon. For example, what does this fellow social worker mean by the word “crazy”? Was she referring to the number of admissions to the emergency room, the number of