Research Methods for Social Work - Softcover

Cournoyer, David E.; Klein, Waldo C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0205287417 ISBN 13: 9780205287413

Publisher: Pearson, 1999

Synopsis

This new social work research methods text is written by an anthropologist and a social worker who have team-taught social work research methods courses at the University of Connecticut for many years. The book incorporates the lively and interesting ways of teaching research methods developed in that partnership.

The text emphasizes understanding the “big ideas” behind research methods such as reliability and validity, ruling out plausible alternatives, grounded knowledge, and maintenance of epistemic relationships between generalization and data. The authors draw examples from their own research and that of others to illustrate research methods. This approach helps students to understand that research is a vital part of social work practice, and helps them make the direct connection between research knowledge and working with people.

About this title

From the Author

An author comments on his new book.
This new social work research methods text is written by an anthropologist and a social worker who have team-taught social work research methods courses at the University of Connecticut for the past five years.

Our goal was to create a short book that will produce scientifically sophisticated thinkers with a good grasp of the reasons why science is important. We try to do that with short direct exposition rather than the lengthy ramblings of some of the classic texts in this field. We designed the book to help readers understand the "big ideas" behind critical scientific thinking and how these relate to the profession of social work.

The "biggest" big idea of the book is that scientific methods are intended as antidotes to logical fallacies and errors that are common in casual thought. Scientific thinking is important to social workers to avoid being taken in by frauds, deceptions, propaganda and wishful thinking that may harm clients.

Some of the other big ideas that readers will encounter include: the cultural nature of all knowledge, how all data collection strategies can be reduced to three types of observation and two styles of response coding. We show that all data analysis is really done to serve only three functions: to transform raw information into "mind friendly" forms, to look for patterns, or to test for generalizability. Some other big ideas include the proposal that all hypothesis testing really reduces to ruling out plausible alternatives, and that representativeness not randomness is the goal of sampling. We include chapters on ethics and program evaluation to help the reader keep in mind that respect for clients is the reason why science is for social work.

David E. Cournoyer

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0205287417
• ISBN 13: 9780205287413
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 274