Читать книгу Social Work Research Methods - Reginald O. York - Страница 77

The purpose of evaluative research is to evaluate programs or interventions with regard to various measures of success. In this book, we will focus on the evaluation of interventions. An intervention is a specific service to an individual or a small group (e.g., therapy for Mr. Smith, support group for caregivers of handicapped individuals, etc.). This requires the measurement of client outcome. Did our clients have lower depression scores at the end of treatment than before treatment? Did our clients have higher grades during the semester of our special intervention than in the semester prior to it? Were our homeless clients more likely to find a home within 6 months compared with the national average for homeless people?

A key issue for the evaluative study is causation. If you find that your clients have improved during the course of the treatment, what do you conclude is the cause of this improvement? Is it the treatment? Could it be something else? The study methods you employ will help answer this question.