Essay Instructions: Assignment Below
1) Scenario: You are working for a community mental health agency that serves male adolescents aged 14-16 who have received a diagnosis of conduct disorder. You have been asked by your director of clinical training to answer the following questions (choose only one):
a) What individual treatment modes have been found to be effective (best practices, evidence-based) for treating this population?
b) What group treatment modes have been found to be effective (best practices, evidence-based) for treating this population?
c) What family treatment modes have been found to be effective (best practices, evidence-based) for treating this population?
2) Using database searches (e.g., EBSCO), locate at least three resources that provide information to answer your question. Some keywords to try for the search are highlighted in the question (best practices, evidence-based).
3) Your assignment response will consist of two sections:
a) Submit an annotated bibliography with an entry for each of your resources. Include the references in proper APA format. Write a brief summary highlighting the theory, treatment, intervention, and research methodology discussed in each resource. Use the additional materials for this module to help you in creating your annotated bibliography. There is no minimum required word count or length for your bibliography; however, you should conduct enough research to write the assigned paper for Module 1 (see below), and even more importantly, to write your final research proposal.
b) Based on your readings, write a paper (750-1,000 words) in which you prepare an answer to your question, citing the resource(s) you used for your answer. Note any gaps in information, special considerations, etc., that you found limited your ability to answer your question. Use standard essay format in APA style, including an introduction, conclusion, and title page. An abstract is not required.
REFERENCES BELOW and Lecture NOTES
http://gcumedia.com/digital-resources/mcgraw-hill/2011/research-design-and-methods_a-process-approach_ebook_8e.php
http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/
Lecture 1
Introduction
Profession: "A calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive preparation, including instruction in skills and methods as well as in the scientific, historical, or scholarly principles underlying such skills and methods..." (Webster, 1968, p. 1811). In addition to skills, competencies, and professional standards, professions are typically characterized by a set of basic theories, foundation knowledge, and processes for ongoing collection and assessment of knowledge. Research methods provide basic philosophies and tools for continuing acquisition and critique of such knowledge.
The Role of Research in Professional Counseling
In a time of emphasis on evidence-based practice(King & Heyne, 2000), it is even more important for mental health professionals to be able to locate and critically review the professional literature that presents evaluation of both theory and clinical practice. In addition, practitioners should be able to evaluate their own clinical practice to ensure that their methods are appropriate and effective. In fact, the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (n.d.)?the training accreditation arm of the American Counseling Association?has identified the following as knowledge that should be developed in the course of training in the profession:
The importance of conducting research
Various types of research methods
The use of technology and statistical methods
The roles of research in program evaluation and modification
Using research to improve counseling effectiveness
Ethical and legal issues in conducting research
What Is Evidence-Based Practice?
Evidence-based practice generally refers to clinical activities and treatment protocols that are supported by systematic evaluation?in other words, research. Excellent resources on evidence-based practices for mental health professionals include edited collections by Stout and Hayes (2004), Roberts and Yeager (2004), and The Center for School Counseling Outcome Research (Carey & Dimmit, 2006). Professional journals and books are filled with reports of such research and preferred research designs to establish the level of evidence that have been identified (e.g., Chambless & Ollendick, 2001).
In practice, mental health professionals should be able to review the literature to seek information about the efficacy of various treatment options for specific disorders and client populations, apply this information in their own choices of service, and evaluate the progress and outcomes of their own treatment activities through single case designs and more structured experimental designs.
The Goals of Research
In general, any given research project will seek to fulfill one or more of the following goals:
Describing a phenomenon
Explaininga phenomenon (theory building, modeling)
Predicting events related to phenomenon (predictions generated from theories, models)
Controlling variables to affect a phenomenon
Describe
One goal of research is accurate portrayal of a phenomenon. Observation with description is often a first step in gathering better information about an incident, process, individual, etc. The information can become the basis for theory building. Various observational techniques might be used here, from naturalistic observation to more structured ways of collecting, coding, and counting information.
Qualitative research is frequently useful in gathering details about processes, such as how people are experiencing a phenomenon. Qualitative refers to focusing on features that are less understood in numbers. For example, while one may be able to count the exact wavelength of red light or count the number of red balls in a basket, this is not the same as studying the qualitative experience of seeing redness. Redness would be the quality of the experience. Diaries, folk stories, photo albums, newspaper reports, contents of speeches, open-ended responses in interviews and focus groups, and therapy session notes are but a few of the sources of information for qualitative research. Content analyses of the materials seek to identify common themes and relationships.
Quantitative research is also a tool for observing and describing a phenomenon. Quantitative refers to measuring and counting. Most phenomena can be counted in some way. Even the example from above regarding the experience of perceiving redness can be quantified. Early researchers of sensation and perception asked individuals to report when they first saw or experienced events such as color, and were able to devise measurement scales for these perceptual phenomena. They realized that experiences such as seeing a color are the result of much more than the simple wavelength of light?in fact, that they are very individualized processes.
Mixed-methods approaches might use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to gather basic information about a phenomenon. Examples are interviews, which allow respondents to describe their thoughts, needs, feelings, and behaviors in their own words, and a survey, which asks questions about these areas but in a structured question-and-answer format (e.g., "Use a scale from 1-5 to indicate the level of agreement with the following statement.") related to thoughts, needs, feelings, and/or behaviors. For example, a researcher might collect information in a clinical interview about new widow's experiences with depression and administer a quantitative measure, such as the Beck Depression Inventory.
Explain
Gathering and describing observations can give researchers pieces of a puzzle. The next step is to build on these pieces through inductive reasoning in order to develop an explanation for these observations. This is theory or model building. For example, Freud's psychosexual theory of personality development was built on the observations he collected from his patients, while Piaget's theory of cognitive development was based on his observations of his own young children. In addition, trait theories of personality are based on factor analyses of numerous types of measures of attitudes, aptitudes, and behaviors (Schultz & Schultz, 2008).
Co-relational methods allow researchers to study quantitative relationships between phenomena (e.g., the correlation between level of poverty and alcohol abuse rates) and these correlations can then be used to create explanatory models via statistical methods such as path analyses, factor analyses, discriminant analyses, and regression analyses. Literature reviews and meta-analyses also allow researchers to integrate existing thoughts and research findings on a particular topic. For example, Avants and colleagues have used path analysis (Avants, Margolin, & McKee, 2000) and regression analysis (Avants, Margolin, Warburton, Hawkins, & Shi, 2001) to try to explain treatment adherence patterns among individuals in methadone maintenance programs. Prendergast, Podus, Finney, Greenwell, and Roll (2006) conducted a meta-analysis to integrate findings about the usefulness of contingency management in the treatment of substance use disorders.
Good theories offer general principles to explain already observed events and relationships, but also generate testable predictions (hypotheses) about future events. Good theories are also economical or parsimonious, meaning they are explained in the most forthright manner and without unnecessary complexity. Theories ultimately rise or fall on their ability to be tested and to predict from their explanations.
Predict
It is important to test whether and how explanatory theories and models hold up in actual practice. This level of experimental research identifies predictions?that is, hypotheses?that would be made from a given line of explanation, and then devises designs that adequately test these hypotheses. The validity of these tests of hypotheses depends heavily on the quality of the research design. Previous co-relational research might suggest that there is a relationship between two variables, but it does not demonstrate cause and effect. For example, it might be observed that people who are depressed also express negative thinking; that is, the more depressed a person is, the more negative the beliefs, expectations, and interpretations he or she expresses. However, while there is a strong correlation here, it is difficult to know which factor is the cause and which is the effect. In other words, is negative thinking caused by depression, or is depression caused by negative thinking?
Abela, Brozine, and Seligman (2004) designed a study to test whether there was a cause-effect relationship between attribution style and later experiences of hopelessness depression in reaction to life stressors. Although they did not manipulate the person's attribution style (the independent variable, which is a subject variable that the person brought with him or her), the researchers measured it in advance as a predictor of later behavior. This type of directional prediction strengthens the argument that A must cause B. However, the problem is that investigators may not be able to rule out other confounding variables that might be equally as important or more important in causing B. For example, perhaps individuals who think negatively do so as an outcome of earlier depression, which could mean that depression predicts depression and that the thinking style is just an aftereffect of earlier depression. Perhaps these individuals are more likely to behave in ways that cause more negative stressors in their lives and feel more hopeless about their chances of not having negative outcomes in their lives. By contrast, those who do not think in a generally hopeless way may be able to see that bad things in their lives come along, but not as a consequence of their own choices. This would support greater hope that things could change in the future.
The true experiment involves the manipulation of the independent variable, which the researcher hypothesizes to be the cause, so he or she can observe what happens to the dependent variable, which the researcher hypothesizes to be the effect. In a simple experiment, Croft and Walker (2001) manipulated people's beliefs about Monday work days, and then observed their moods on subsequent work days. One group (A) was given information that supported the belief that people are more blue on Mondays, while the other group (B) was given information that this is not true. The hypothesis was that the more a person believe he/she will have the blues (negative affect) on Monday, the more likely he/she will be blue on that day (and more so than on other days of the week). That is, group A should then report more negative affect on Mondays than those in group B. In reality, the researchers found that both groups still reported more negative affect on Mondays, but that those in group A reported less positive affect on Mondays. Here, negative beliefs had more to do with decreasing the positive than increasing the negative. This kind of information may then be used to adjust the underlying theory about the relationship between beliefs and moods.
Control
Finally, once people believe there is a demonstrated relationship between an independent variable (cause) and dependent variable (effect), they may wish to manipulate the independent variable in order to control outcomes (dependent variable). An example of this might be the use of certain types of treatment to control symptoms. Background research demonstrates the effectiveness of a treatment mode for a particular client group. Researchers build on this by then using the treatment to affect outcomes.
Beginning a research process
Ideas for research projects may come from any number of sources. For example, one may simply be curious about something and want to know more using a systematic method. Alternatively, one may wish to gather data to assess a need, or to evaluate a program or intervention, in order to provide recommendations for treatment, program, or policy decisions. One might seek to identify risk factors for certain behaviors. One might wish to compare one form of intervention with another, or to compare the effectiveness of one type of treatment for different types of clients. Sometimes ideas for research projects are self-generated, while at other times they are requested or required by others (e.g., a class assignment).
Whenever someone begins a research project, it is important to collect information that is already known about the problem or target phenomenon. Information may exist on any or all of the four stages of the scientific method: observation, explanation (i.e., theories, models), prediction, and control. It is the researcher's responsibility to build upon previous work, not to start from scratch.
Step 1: Review of the Scientific Literature
Sources usually include scholarly books, articles in professional journals, and possibly unpublished manuscripts, such as papers delivered at professional conferences or dissertations. Sometimes something published in a less scholarly source can be of use. For example, a newspaper or magazine might contain an article on a topic and provide the names of researchers or theorists. One could then go to professional resources to track down the works by these researchers or theorists.
Whenever possible, primary sources?that is, those written by the original authors?are preferred over secondary sources, which contain secondhand reports and interpretations of the original work. Textbooks are a type of secondary source that should guide one toward finding the primary sources. Electronic databases such as PsycInfo and PsycArticlesprovide useful tools for searching a very large collection of publications (and some unpublished works) to find resources that pertain to a topic. In addition, e-mail addresses of authors are often provided in articles (or through Internet searches) and may be used to contact the authors directly to gather information. Reference lists within articles or books may also be used to gather references for more background information.
Creating an annotated bibliography is a good strategy while collecting and reviewing information. An annotated bibliography is an ongoing series of notes about all the materials that are read and reviewed in the process of researching the topic. Not all of the resources will be used in the final research proposal or report. However, they can serve as the source of background information.
It is important to write the reference for each item in correct APA format, with all of the necessary information recorded in order to access the source quickly when transferring the reference to the research proposal or report. Also, it is useful for researchers to use keywords that may help them organize the various items as they go.
Some create annotated bibliographies using Excel spreadsheets or other software to allow organization of and searching within the information that is collected. An example of an annotated bibliography and resources on annotated bibliographies can be found in the Overview section of this module.
Note that this step may lead to a dead end. Sometimes the review of the literature may convince a researcher that it is not a useful path to follow for a project. Perhaps there is too little known to build on, or, at the other extreme, it is a huge area that would be difficult to boil down to one project. If this is the case, repeat Step 1 with a new idea for review.
Step 2: Writing Introduction and Literature Review for Research Proposal
Research should be purposeful. Before collecting any data, it is important to state clearly the question or problem to be addressed. For example, the question might be, "How do military spouses who are recently widowed cope with grief?" Another question might ask whether a grief group for spouses who are recently widowed could be a viable new service to offer at an outpatient center. If such a group already exists, the question might be whether it has had any positive effects. Another question might be whether a peer support group for these recently widowed spouses is as effective as, more effective than, or less effective than a professionally facilitated grief group or individual treatment.
After stating the question or problem of interest, the next step is to present a review of relevant literature that can provide background knowledge on the question. Here, theories and prior research can be summarized. Key terms should be defined for the reader. Attention can also be given to operational definitions, measurement techniques, and research designs previously used to gather information. Limitations and gaps in information can be pointed out.
The review should be logical and not scattered. It should guide the reader toward expecting what the particulars of this new research project will be, such as the hypotheses.
Conclusion
Research plays an integral role in the development and maintenance of a profession. Members of the profession, including professional counseling, are expected to have a basic understanding of the research that supports theory and practice, to apply evidence-based practice as appropriate, and to be able to systematically gather information and evaluate services they provide.
Research activities help us to describe, explain, predict, and control phenomena, including those relevant in clinical practice. The ability to conduct a good review of the professional literature is a key skill underlying any research project.
References
Abela, J.R.Z., Brozina, K., & Seligman, M.E.P. (2004). A test of integration of the activation hypothesis and the diathesis-stress component of the hopelessness theory of depression. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 43(2), 111-128
Avants, S. K., Margolin, A., & McKee, S. (2000). A path analysis of cognitive, affective, and behavioral predictors of treatment response in a methadone maintenance program. Journal of Substance Abuse, 11(3), 215-230.
Avants, S. K., Margolin, A., Warburton, L. A., Hawkins, K. A., & Shi, J. (2001). Predictors of nondherence to HIV-related medication regimens during methadone stabilization. American Journal of Addictions, 10(1), 69-78.
CACREP. 2001 Standards. Retrieved November 10, 2008, from http://www.cacrep.org/2001Standards.html.
Carey, J.C., & Dimmitt, C. (2006). Resources for school counselors and counselor
educators: The Center for School Counseling Outcome Research. Professional School Counseling, 9(5), 416-420.
Chambless, D.L., & Ollendick, T.H. (2001). Empirically supported psychological interventions: Controversies and evidence. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 685-716.
Croft, G.P., & Walker, A.E. (2001). Are the Monday blues all in the mind? The role of expectance in subjective experience of mood. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 31(6), 1133-1145
King, N.J., & Heyne, D. (2000). Promotion of empirically validated psychotherapies in counselling psychology. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 13(1), 1-12.
Prendergast, M., Podus, D., Finney, J., Greenwell, L., & Roll, J. (2006). Contingency management for treatment of substance use disorders: A meta-analysis. Addiction, 101(11), 1546-1560.
Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2008). Theories of personality. New York: Cengage.
Webster, N. (1968). Webster's third new international dictionary (Unabridged). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.
copyright 2009. Grand Canyon University. All Rights Reserved.
