Fundamentals of Social Work Research

by Rafael J. Engel, Russell K. Schutt

Overview

Designed to help students develop skills in evaluating research and conducting studies, this brief version of the popular, The Practice of Research in Social Work, makes principles of evidence-based practice come alive through illustrations of actual social work research. With integration of the CSWE Competencies, the text addresses issues and concerns common to the discipline and encourages students to address diversity and ethics when planning and evaluating research studies. The Second Edition includes a focus on qualitative research, a new chapter on research ethics, new sections on mixed methods research and community-based participatory research, and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781483352084
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	01/14/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Rafael J. Engel, PhD, is associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh. He received his PhD (1988) from the University of Wisconsin, his MSW (1979) from the University of Michigan, and his BA (1978) from the University of Pennsylvania. He coordinates the graduate certificate program in aging and is the principal investigator for the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education. He has written Fundamentals of Social Work Research (with Russell Schutt) and Measuring Race and Ethnicity (with Larry E. Davis). He is co-editor-in-chief of the journal, Intergenerational Relations and a member of the editorial board of Race and Social Problems. He has authored journal articles on such topics as poverty in later life, welfare benefits, and depressive symptomatology, and he has written a variety of monographs reporting agency-based evaluations. His research experience includes funded research studies on gambling, faith-based organizations, and employment in later life as well as funded evaluation research studies on welfare-to-work programs and drug and alcohol prevention programs. His most recent research involves older adults and gambling prevention.

Russell K. Schutt, PhD, is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he received the 2007 Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Service and taught from 1979 to 2022. He is also a Clinical Research Scientist I at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a Lecturer (part-time) in the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. He completed his BA, MA, and PhD degrees at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Sociology of Social Control Training Program at Yale University (where he met Dan). In addition to ten editions of Investigating the Social World: The Process and Practice of Research and one of Understanding the Social World, as well as coauthored versions for the fields of social work, criminal justice, psychology, and education, his other books include Homelessness, Housing, and Mental Illness (2011), Social Neuroscience: Brain, Mind, and Society (coedited, 2015), and Organization in a Changing Environment (1986). He has authored and coauthored more than 65 peer reviewed journal articles, as well as book chapters and research reports on homelessness, mental health, organizations, law, and teaching research methods. His currently a Dual Principal Investigator (with Matcheri Keshavan, MD) in randomized comparative effectiveness trial of two socially-oriented interventions to improve community functioning among persons diagnosed with serious mental illness, funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). His other recently concluded research includes co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation-funded study of the social impact of the pandemic in Boston, and co-investigator on a Veterans Health Administration-funded study of peer support.  His earlier research has been funded by the National Cancer Institute, the Veterans Health Administration, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Fetzer Institute, and state agencies. Details are available at https://blogs.umb.edu/russellkschutt/.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Science, Society, and Social Work Research
Chapter 2. The Process and Problems of Social Work Research
Chapter 3. Ethical and Scientific Guidelines for Social Work Research
Chapter 4. Conceptualization and Measurement
Chapter 5. Sampling
Chapter 6. Group Experimental Designs
Chapter 7. Single-Subject Design
Chapter 8. Survey Research
Chapter 9. Qualitative Methods: Observing, Participating, Listening
Chapter 10. Mixing Methods and Comparing Methods and Studies
Chapter 11. Evaluation Research
Chapter 12. Quantitative Data Analysis
Chapter 13. Qualitative Data Analysis
Chapter 14. Reporting Research
Appendix A: Questions to Ask About a Quantitative Research Article
Appendix B: How to Read a Quantitative Research Article
Appendix C: Questions to Ask About a Qualitative Research Article
Appendix D: How to Read a Qualitative Research Article
Glossary