Research Methods From Chapters One - Four

Front 1

Define Human Services

Back 1

Organizations established to help people in various ways. Ex. foster care, help for elderly

Front 2

How do human service research and practice contribute to each other?

Back 2

They determine what tx are effective. Can provide scientifically valid knowledge

Front 3

Define effective practice.

Back 3

Managed care more closely monitors tx for cost effectiveness & accountability.

Front 4

What is social research and its objectives?

Back 4

icial research is dived into descriptive, predictive, explanatory, and evaluation.

Front 5

What are the three objectives of social research?

Back 5

It is systematic. All aspects of research planned in advance

Front 6

What are the objectives of social research?

Back 6

It gathers empiracal (info or facts about the world based on sensory experiences) data.

Front 7

What are the objectives of social research?

Back 7

It studies social and psychological factors that affect human behavior

Front 8

List the four types of research with examples.
1. Descriptive:

Back 8

Attempts to discover facts or To discover facts or describe reality. Example: what are people's attitudes toward welfare? What is domestic violence?

Front 9

...2. Predictive:

Back 9

Make predictions about what might occur in the future or in other settings. Example: making predictions about how long people will live

Front 10

...3. Explanatory:

Back 10

Explains how or why something occurs. Focuses on why something happened. Example: find out why some people become deliquent.

Front 11

...4. Evaluatiion:

Back 11

Focus on planning intervention programs using scientific research methods, monitor new ones, evaluate old ones. Example: to get funding you must prove it works

Front 12

Define two types of research:

Back 12

Basic and Applied

Front 13

Define Basic Research:

Back 13

Pure research. Purpose is to advance knowledge about human behavior with little concern for immediate benefits. No research standards

Front 14

Define Applied research:

Back 14

Designed with practical outcome in mind and with assumption that some group or society as a whole will gain benefits from it. (used in human svcs.)

Front 15

Application of social research is in five areas: Behavioral and Social environments

Back 15

Study to gain understanding of the people we serve and the social environment they live in.

Front 16

...2. Study to Assess Needs

Back 16

Assess the needs of people, highly descriptive. Example: assess the community for needs for mental health svcs.

Front 17

...3. Study to Assess client functioning.

Back 17

Assess global functioning level. Various areas of life are accounted for here to determine needs of client.

Front 18

...4. Study to evaluate larger scale program

Back 18

This entails use of scientific research to assess results of a program and evaluate whether it reached its goals

Front 19

...5. Study to assess effectiveness of intervention on individual, family, or focused group.

Back 19

Assess efficacy of intervention efforts on specific clients. Example is single cell design/single system design. To repeatedly measure a problem, apply intervention then monitor behavior. Compare baseline behavior with post intervention behavior.

Front 20

What is the difference between above two strategies?

Back 20

Scope of efforts is the difference: Macro focuses on complete programs vs. study of a particular aspect of a practice situation that will not necessarily impact entire probram.

Front 21

What about special issues with regard to minorities?

Back 21

Minorities tend to suffer disproportionately from the problems that human service workers try to alleviate.. Many social conditions affect minorities negatively and limit opportunities and achievement potential

Front 22

Name the six stage division of the research process.

Back 22

Problem formulation, design development, data collection, data analysis, drawing conclsions, public dissemination.

Front 23

1. Define problem formulation.

Back 23

First step of research, the problem, needs to be something for which empiracal data can be gathered to develop a researchable problem.

Front 24

2. Define research design development.

Back 24

A detailed plan outlining how observations will be made. Plan closely followed and always addresses who will be studied, how people will be selected, what info will be gathered.

Front 25

3. Define data collection

Back 25

Describes what kinds of data will be collected and how it will be done. Two aspects are: pilot study - small scale run, and pretest - preliminary application of data-gathering technique for purpose of determining its adequacy.