Research Methods Michael A Dover MSW Ph D

Research Methods Michael A. Dover, MSW, Ph. D. Assistant Professor Dept. of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work Central Michigan University

Chapter One: The Utility of Research in Social Work • OUTLINE – Introduction to Research in Social Work • Professional Competition • Knowledge Generation – Obligation to Share Knowledge – Evaluating Research – Essential Skills for a Social Worker – Evidence-based Practice • Six Steps (pages 6 -7) (Question formulation; search for evidence; critical appraisal of strong vs. weak studies; determination of which evidence-based intervention is best for your client; applying the intervention; evaluation and feedback.

Chapter 1 • Social work research seeks…(RB 5) – Practice practical knowledge to solve problems they confront. – Provide information to alleviate human suffering and promote social welfare. – Accomplish the same humanistic goals as social work practice. It is compassionate, problem-solving, and practical. • Professional Competitive Edge – Why is this important? • Social workers compete and collaborate with other professions • Social workers need the ability to critically evaluate research, a common language to discuss problems, and an understanding of the research tools involved in the evaluation of practice.

Chapter 1 • Generation of Knowledge – Ethical obligation to base our interventions on the best available scientific information. • Code of Ethics (Handout) • Obligation to share knowledge with fellow social workers about interventions that are working – Most reliable means for generating knowledge

Chapter 1 – As social workers, we have an ethical obligation to our clients and profession to base our interventions on the best available scientific information. We’ll be reading excerpts from our Code of Ethics that are related to research as we cover chapter four of the text. (Handout) – If we are doing something that is working, we have an obligation to share that information with our fellow social workers. The use of a scientific approach is the most reliable means for generating knowledge.

Critical Evaluation • Critically Evaluate Research – Scientific Soundness vs. pseudo research – One of the major objectives of the course is to prepare you to be critical consumers of research. You should be able to critically evaluate the "scientific soundness" of a research study and to distinguish it from "pseudo research. This is why the sociologists teaching SOC 300 here at CMU recommend that instructors have an assignment related to the ability to critically consume research. In this section, this is done by learning to writing an information abstract and a critical appreciation the research methods used in a quantitative and a qualitative journal article.

Critiquing Research • Critiqueing research quality: The most important thing about learning to critique research is to be able to distinguish a strong from a weak study. Few studies that make it to publication are going to be completely flawed, but if you have study A that is strong that has conclusion 1, and study B that is weak and has conclusion 2, you would presumably lean towards conclusion 1 on the basis of the strength of the methods and data used in reaching that conclusion, no? Don’t assume that because it is published it is strong. Also, don’t just rely upon the conclusion or abstract; it is important to become familiar with the tables, the appendices, and the data and other technical aspects.

Chapter 1 • Essential Skills for a social worker – Critically evaluate trends or waves that move through practice – Understand what literature is relevant to our practice – Ability to “abstract” the results in a way that makes sense and relays information to many people

Evidence-Based Practice • Evidence-based practice – using the best scientific evidence available in deciding how to intervene with individuals, families, groups or communities (RB, p. 3) – It is the “conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual” clients (RB, p. 4) (Sackett, et al. , 1997) • Will guide us in what interventions NOT to use, but also give indicators about what practice is best to use at the time

Steps of Evidence-Based Practice (RB, p. 6 -7) – Step One = Question formulation – Step Two = Search for the evidence – Step Three = Critically appraise the relevant studies • Two questions – Was treatment outcome measured in a reliable, valid, and unbiased manner? – Was the experimental or quasi-experimental research design strong enough to indicate whether it was the intervention that most plausibly explains the variations in the client outcome or something else (i. e. due to chance)? – Step Four = Determine which evidence-based intervention is most appropriate for your particular clients – Step Five = Apply the evidence-based practice – Step Six = Evaluation and feedback

Utilizing Research • Utilizing research: Although we will cover ethics in more detail later, it is important to realize there are clear ethical responsibilities to stay abreast of evidence about practice. But, there is no specific requirement (yet) that interventions be evidence based, that would be impossible, we’d have to stop practicing! That is because by and large social work today, and I would argue even aspects of medicine, are based upon interventions that haven’t been adequately researched.

Important Characteristics • There a five important characteristics which should be kept in mind by practitioners who aspire to evidence-based practice.

First…. • First, you shouldn’t assume that you are up to date on the most important and most valid practice interventions, and furthermore, the fact that there is some new, scientifically supported intervention doesn’t mean it is right for your own client. The bottom line in evidence based practice is critical thinking about practice and the goal of scientifically evaluating your own practice effectiveness, in some way shape or form.

Second… • Second, although one should consider the experience associated with past practices and respect the authority of experts and esteemed colleagues, and while should consider the traditions of an agency, ideally we should be critical thinkers. And we shouldn’t think that being a critical thinker is somehow making us less compassionate. Yes, we have to be in touch with our feelings and listen to our intuition, but the heart can lead you astray sometimes just like faulty thinking can!

Third… • Third, evidence doesn’t trump values of the client. On my website there is an article about the way in which child welfare authorities in Texas tried to force additional chemotherapy on a teenager client allegedly because the evidence showed this was required, but client selfdetermination is something we take seriously in social work. The fact that a particular intervention seems supported by evidence doesn’t mean it should be provided if it conflicts with a client’s values. Also, it is important to realize that one can’t always expect to find conclusive evidence about what interventions to use.

Fourth… • Fourth, one intervention may be effect with clients of one ethnic group and not with those of another, and often research doesn’t fully control for ethnicity. We should do everything we can to base interventions on evidence from computerized library searches, reading of journals in the library, going to meetings, visiting the Campbell collaboration website for which I’ve provided a link, etc. . (Continued)

Fourth (continued) • Fourth, one intervention may be effect with clients of one ethnic group and not with those of another, and often research doesn’t fully control for ethnicity. We should do everything we can to base interventions on evidence from computerized library searches, reading of journals in the library, going to meetings, visiting the Campbell collaboration website for which I’ve provided a link, etc. . But the reality is that most social work interventions at the present time can’t be considered evidence based. Nor can we assume that all of the literature you find in such searches is of high quality. That is exactly why we have to learn to evaluate, critique and appraise the studies that are most relevant to our practice. That’s why we have to evaluate progress towards meeting treatment goals as one important step in the process of evidence-based practice. And evidence is something we seek not only for social work practice but also in order to promote social welfare.

Fifth… • In sum, practitioners engaged in evidence based practice should be critical thinkers, should view trying to stay up to date with the evidence as a lifelong commitment, should be willing to challenge tradition and authority as guides to practice, should be particularly skeptical of new and unproven techniques with no research base, and should generally think for themselves but on the basis of logic and evidence about what their colleagues may contend is based upon practice wisdom. On the other hand, social workers can’t go it alone, it is very difficult for an individual to assess their own practice without collaboration with others. It may be that one reason agencies don’t evaluate their effectiveness is that research findings often discover that the services aren’t effective! It’s not that no interventions are effective, and it is true you can discover problems with any intervention, but one shouldn’t assume that just because an agency is established, held in high esteem, etc, that the services are effective.

Conclusion to Ch. 1 • To conclude, evidence-based practice means striving to use the best scientific evidence available in deciding how to intervene with individuals, families, groups, or communities. When we use reseasrch in this careful way, we are acting consistently with the values and mission of the profession, and failing to or refusing to consider research findings does have implications for how ethical we are as professionals.