The social work student's research handbook / Dominique Moyse Steinberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Steinberg, Dominique Moyse.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social service--Research--Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Social service.

Social work education.

Social service--Research.

Genre:

Handbooks and manuals.

Physical Description:

xiv, 171 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Haworth Social Work Practice Press, [2004]

Summary:

The Social Work Student's Research Handbook keeps the information you need on essential classroom concepts and principles right at your fingertips. Practical and easy to use, this comprehensive handbook provides instant access to the nuts and bolts of social work research. The handbook is a perfect resource to help students integrate research into projects, theses, and dissertations, and to help practitioners refresh, review, and organize their professional processes.

Contents:

Chapter 1. Problem Formulation: What to Study 5

Chapter 2. Using the Literature 13

Part 1 The Search 14

Part 2 Writing the Review 16

Chapter 3. Working from Questions or Hypotheses 21

Hypotheses and Questions 21

The Notion of Proof 22

Null Hypothesis 23

Is Question-Driven Research Real Research? 24

Chapter 4. Variables 27

Measuring Variables 29

Chapter 5. Assumptions 35

Types of Assumptions 36

Chapter 6. Design Options 39

From Purpose to Design 40

Constructive Combinations 41

Connections Give Direction 41

Chapter 7. Exploratory Design 43

When to Use It 43

Three Common Approaches 44

Chapter 8. Descriptive Design 47

Chapter 9. Experimental Design 51

Chapter 10. Correlational Design 57

Correlation 58

Four Common Approaches 59

Chapter 11. Plausible Alternative Explanations 65

How Do They Fit In? 65

How Big a Worry Are They? 68

Chapter 12. Practice Evaluation 71

A Few Variations 74

Analysis 76

Choosing the System 76

Chapter 13. Program Evaluation 79

Applying Design Types to Program Evaluation 80

Chapter 14. Working Toward Reliability and Validity 85

A Balancing Act: Purpose and Trade-Offs 87

Working Toward Reliability: The Rubber Ruler Pitfall 88

Working Toward Validity: Reaching the Heart of the Matter 89

Chapter 15. Sampling 93

Going to the Source 94

Probability Samples: Forms and Methods 94

Nonprobability Samples: Forms and Methods 100

Chapter 16. Data Collection 105

Observation 106

Interview 107

Questionnaire 109

Chapter 17. Data Analysis: An Overview 113

Qualitative Data Analysis 113

Quantitative Data Analysis 114

The Great Debate: Qualitative versus Quantitative 116

Chapter 18. Qualitative Data Analysis: Making Sense of Words 119

Carrying Out the Analysis 122

Chapter 19. Quantitative Data Analysis: Making Sense of Descriptive Statistics 125

Common Ways to Organize Descriptive Stats 126

Three Rules of Thumb 131

What Else Is Described? 132

Chapter 20. Quantitative Data Analysis: Making Sense of Inferential Statistics 139

How to Use Inferential Statistics 140

Three Related Laws of Probability 141

The Testing Process 143

Directionality 144

Significance Testing: Possibilities for Error 145

Statistical Significance versus Meaning 147

Chapter 21. Tests of Statistical Significance 151

Choosing a Test 152

Common Tests of Group Difference 153

Common Tests of Association 154

Degrees of Freedom 156

Multivariate Analysis 156.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0789014815

OCLC:

52706607