First Class at the Institute

Introduction to the Class (RP 1)

This introduction originally took place live at the Institute because I couldn't be there for a Sunday afternoon on-site class. That's why I refer to people having already having shared about themselves on Saturday.




Why Bother with Research? (RP2)





Are Social Workers Any Good At This? Our History (RP3)





The Philosopher in the PhD RP 4)

The scientific method is one thing, but there are other ways of knowing. Do we care? Well, hopefully you'll respectfully defer to the methodology of social science.



Okay, now, as a group, look up alternative epistemologies, other ways of knowing, and be prepared to tell me, next class, why they're inferior.

No disrespect.

Evidence Based Practice (RP5)

How the empirical clinical model, generally a single-system design, morphed into Evidence Based Practice, basing our clinical decisions upon interventions that work for particular populations, based, of course, upon research.




Compassionate Practice is Evidence Based (RP 6)

We talk about that, and ask then ask three totally unrelated questions:

1. What is the difference between a top-down and a bottom-up search?

2. What types of studies are randomized clinical trials and why do social workers rarely use them?

3. Is there a disconnect between qualitative research and evidence based practice? Why or why not?





Qualitative Research, Post-Modernism, and Paradigms (RP 7)

I tell you, in this video, that the majority of the studies done here are qualitative, but that might no longer be true. It seems many students are doing mixed-methods dissertations.

The big debate in social science research is whether or not qualitative methodology or quantitative methodology is superior, more "scientific."

All of the social sciences have their own particular paradigms to explain human behavior.





Social Work Research Paradigms (RP 8)

We're back to is one paradigm better than another, and come to the conclusion that it is what you are studying, whom, and why that makes that determination.

The six paradigms that social scientists use to guide how they conduct research. The symbolic-interactional, functionalism, conflict, positivism, interpretism, and the critical social science paradigm.