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 patients who engaged in aggressive behaviors, or what? How would we measure these things? And, of course, Susan would need data both when the moon was full and when it was not. In other words, Susan would need to employ methods consistent with the spirit of scientific inquiry, which seeks to discover rather than to justify, through methods of inquiry that are objective and comprehensive. Susan is aware that anecdotal evidence (evidence from a single example) is not good evidence. You can offer proof of just about any weird theory with a single example. You must go beyond a single example to engage in the scientific process of investigation.
Susan might start a process of scientific research by reviewing the literature on the subject of the full moon and unusual behavior. If her question is well answered by the current literature, she would decide that she does not need to reinvent the wheel by doing another study. If not, she would define the concept of unusual behavior, find a method of measuring it, collect data on this behavior when the moon was full and when it was not, analyze the data to see if unusual behavior was more prevalent when the moon was full than when it was not, and draw conclusions consistent with the results. That would exemplify the scientific method of inquiry.
Introduction
In this chapter, you will examine the nature of inquiry, with an emphasis on science as a guide for social work practice and research. You will see how science is different from other means of inquiry that you employ on a regular basis. In this regard, you will see how science and critical thinking are founded on similar principles and how certain commonsense phrases are related to various steps in the research process. In contrast to science, you will view mechanisms of inquiry that are flawed, with a special emphasis on pseudoscience as different from science. In essence, you will see how scientific research can contribute to the improvement of your practice decisions, even though it is not the only useful means for doing so.
In this chapter, you will implement certain learnings about the scientific method in the examination of current research on whether people’s behavior is influenced by the full moon. Do people act more strange during the full moon than at other times? You will see that common perceptions can be incorrect and how science can help you avoid such errors. You may have a perception about social work practice that is supported by scientific research, or it may be refuted by it. In either case, it is the intent of this chapter that you acquire an appreciation for how science can improve decision making.
You will acquire several competencies from this chapter. At the end of this chapter, you will be able to do the following:
1 Distinguish between science as a way of learning from other means like experience, common sense, tradition, and so forth
2 Explain how scientific research can contribute to social work practice
3 Distinguish between science and pseudoscience
4 Identify the aspects of inquiry that make the process scientific
5 Report on how certain commonsense phrases and science can be used to report on research that addresses the question “Do people act differently when there is a full moon?”
6 Explain how common sense, critical thinking, and the scientific method are connected
7 Identify the steps in the process of scientific research
How Do We Know What We Know?
How did you come to your opinion about whether the full moon affects behavior? How about another opinion? Do you believe that giving clients homework to undertake between therapy sessions is effective? What about the view that long-term treatment for depression is justified when compared with short-term treatment because it is more cost-effective?
We come to our opinions in a variety of ways. Sometimes we believe something because it has been handed down to us from a source of authority, like our parents. Other times we come to hold a belief because it makes sense to us. Maybe we believe in a way of doing something because this is the way we have always done it. These are three of many ways by which we come to our opinions.
None of these ways is supported by science, which requires the systematic collection and analysis of data. We could ask ourselves if we have beliefs about social work practice based on scientific evidence. Do we know of scientific studies that show that a certain service is effective with regard to a certain outcome? Many human service agencies advertise that they use evidence-based practices. This means that their practices are supported by evidence. In other words, their services are supported by science. They don’t just ask for the opinions of staff and leave it at that. They subject
