Learn the latest healthcare and human service research methods! Introduction to Research: Understanding and Applying Multiple Strategies, Seventh Edition, helps bridge the gap between research and practice by giving you a solid foundation for critiquing your own work. This easy-to-read guide covers all the major research design strategies: qualitative, quantitative, naturalistic, experimental-type, and mixed method. Plus, this edition has been updated to include contemporary references, two all-new chapters, updated research methods, and more.
Key Features
- UPDATED! New thinking on who can know, who should be involved in the research enterprise, big data, research methods, strategies, and references provides you with the latest information on research in diverse areas of health and human service inquiry
- Comprehensive coverage of research designs helps you further understand how to apply these methods to healthcare and human service settings
- Detailed examination of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodologies offers a unique and balanced focus that makes this text more comprehensive than others in its field
- NEW! Two additional chapters cover contemporary ethical issues and emergent design
- NEW! Enhanced ebook version, included with every new print purchase, features math tips and study questions, plus access to all the text, figures, and references, with the ability to search, customize content, make notes and highlights, and have content read aloud
- Case examples provide real-life snapshots of what it is like to participate in different types of research processes, identify research dilemmas relevant to chapter subjects, and alert you to problems you might encounter
- Contemporary practice examples give you a highly relevant understanding of today’s changing health and human service and research environments
- In-depth analysis of big data and data analytics expands your knowledge of how to apply these numbers to health and human service research
- Emphasis on technology in research and research-informed practice ensures you grasp the latest available methods
Author Information
By Elizabeth DePoy, PhD, MSW, OTR, Professor, Interdisciplinary Disability Studies and Social Work and Cooperating Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Cooperating Faculty, School of Policy and International Affairs, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA
PART I Introduction
1. Welcome to the Universe of Research!
2. Essentials of Research
3. Research Ethics
PART II Thinking Processes
4. Philosophical Foundations
5. Framing the Problem
6. Developing a Knowledge Base Through Literature and Resources
7. Theory in Research
8. Formulating Research Questions and Queries
9. Language and Thinking Processes
PART III Design Approaches
10. Experimental-Type Designs
11. Naturalistic Designs
12. Mixed Method Designs
13. Emerging Designs
PART IV Action Processes
14. Setting the Boundaries of a Study
15. Boundary Setting in Experimental-Type, Designs
16. Boundary Setting in Naturalistic Designs
17. Collecting Information
18. Collecting Data Through Measurement in Experimental-Type Research
19. Gathering Information in Naturalistic Inquiry
20. Preparing and Organizing Data
21. Statistical Analysis for Experimental-Type Designs
22. Analysis in Naturalistic Inquiry
23. Sharing Research Knowledge Before the Study
24. Sharing Research Knowledge During and After the Study
25. Ethical Issues
PART V Improving Practice Through Inquiry
26. Reciprocal Role of Research and Practice