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Social Work Research Methods
Learning by Doing
Reginald O. York
University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Los Angeles
London
New Delhi
Singapore
Washington DC
Melbourne
Copyright © 2020 by SAGE Publications, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: York, Reginald O.
Title: Social work research methods : learning by doing / Reginald O. York, University of North Carolina, Wilmington.
Description: Los Angeles : SAGE, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018043453 | ISBN 9781506387192 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Social service—Research—Methodology.
Classification: LCC HV11 .Y574 2020 | DDC 361.3072/1—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018043453
Printed in the United States of America
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
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Description of Chapters
Part 1: The Fundamentals of Science and Social Work Research
The purpose of this part is for the reader to acquire an appreciation of science as a way of knowing and as a guide to practice. It will illustrate how the scientific process works when the focus is social work practice and research. The theme of learning by doing influences the use of examples and the engagement of readers in step-by-step exercises, some of which entails the process of collecting and analyzing data in the pursuit of a research question.
Chapter 1: Science, Research, and Social Work Practice
This chapter reviews the nature of science and how it differs from other ways of investigating our world, especially pseudoscience. Also reviewed are the connections of science with logic and critical thinking, the nature of evidence-based practice, and the process of investigation that leads the scientist to conclusions. This presentation highlights how science contributes to social work practice. A major part of this chapter shows how science is connected to various common-sense sayings, which are illustrated through the examination of the question of whether people are affected by the full moon. Readers begin their journey of learning by doing through an exercise in which they ask others to answer the question about the full moon. At the completion of this chapter, the readers have a better sense of the nature, and process, of science and how it differs from other ways of knowing.
Chapter 2: Purposes and Processes of Social Work Research
This chapter provides an overview of how social work research can be characterized and described, so the researcher will know where he or she is when engaged in various research endeavors. Research is characterized with regard to scope, general approach to measurement, and the purpose of the study. It is further described with regard to four processes you go through when you are conducting a research study. On completion of this chapter, the reader will know how to characterize research in these ways and identify key issues to address in each category. Readers continue their journey of learning by doing through exercises where they conceive of studies that might be undertaken with regard to both specific interventions and broad social work programs.
Chapter
