Читать книгу Social Work Research Methods - Reginald O. York - Страница 26

This book is designed to help students of the human service professions to gain the ability to use research to inform practice and to conduct their own research, with an emphasis on the evaluation of practice. It is written for the beginning and intermediate students in social work research. It begins with no assumption of knowledge of research methods and takes the readers beyond the basic level of understanding to a level of competence in the execution of the various tasks of the research study.

When students complete this book, they will know how to inform their practice by reviewing the research of others. They will know, for example, how to determine the extent to which a social work intervention has been shown to be effective in the treatment of a given target behavior.

On completion of this book, readers will also know how to evaluate their own practice. There are a number of research questions that are relevant to this endeavor. For example, was their support group intervention effective in the improvement of the self-esteem of the at-risk youth in the group? Was their cognitive–behavioral therapy effective in the reduction of the depression for a group of adults they served? Did their homeless clients find a home faster than the homeless people in their shelter who did not have the special strengths-based case management services that they implemented?