Understanding and Applying Research Concepts in Social Work
This chapter delves into defining and measuring concepts in social work research, focusing on quantitative methods. It covers the importance of formulating clear research questions and hypotheses, emphasizing the need for specificity and plausibility. The chapter also discusses the significance of defining and operationalizing concepts in quantitative research. Additionally, it touches on topics such as alcoholism among seniors, anxiety in children, and more, prompting readers to create their own research questions and hypotheses.
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Chapter 9: Defining and Measuring Concepts Scientific Inquiry in Social Work
Chapter Overview This chapter is mainly focused on quantitative research methods, as the level of specificity required to begin quantitative research is far greater than that of qualitative research. In quantitative research, you must specify how you define and plan to measure each concept before you can interact with your participants. In qualitative research, definitions will emerge from how participants respond to your questions. Measurement, conceptualization and operationalization are defined and explained in relation to quantitative research.
Review: Research Questions A research question seeks to find an answer to a social problem or issue. A good research question generally has the following features: It is written in the form of a question It is clearly written It is not a yes/no question or one that can be answered with just a one-word response It has more than one plausible answer Plausibility means that in order to make the claim that one event, behavior, or belief causes another, the claim has to make sense. It considers relationships among multiple variables (IV and DV) It is specific and clear about the concepts it addresses It contains a target population
Review: Hypotheses Hypotheses are educated guesses about how the research results may turn out. A statement describing a researcher s expectation regarding what she anticipates finding Written to describe the expected relationship between the independent and dependent variables Your prediction should be taken from a theory or model of the social world For example, you may hypothesize that treating clinical clients with warmth and positive regard is likely to help them achieve their therapeutic goals. That hypothesis would be using the humanistic theories of Carl Rogers. Using previous theories to generate hypotheses is an example of deductive research. Sometimes we use the Null Hypothesis which states there will be no difference between the groups.
Alcoholism among seniors Anxiety in children Depression among individuals who are homeless Social smoking among college students Gambling addictions F2F classes more productive than Online classes for adolescents with ADHD Practice: Write a Question and Hypothesis Next change a hypothesis into a null version.
Measurement is the way that we ascribe meaning to our variables. We might use: Observational terms: what we can see Indirect observables: simple things we can ask about, but not necessarily see Constructs: complex things we can ask about using multiple questions Defined in terms of observables using multiple questions based on theory Measurement (mostly quantitative) Variables are concepts on which your research is focused. An independent variable is the cause, and a dependent variable is the effect.
Defining your terms (quantitative research) Operational definition Conceptual definition How will you measure the concept? Need specific indicators Use existing scales or assessments Qualitative - create a measure (interview guide, focus group guide, content analysis guide) that matches your working definition Look at the methods section of empirical articles Look at Mental Measurements Yearbook Defined in terms of other concepts From theory, literature Look at the literature reviews inside of your articles
Some variables are easy Directly observable such as, They are present in class. (attendance) Indirectly observable such as, They said the person was 20 years old. (age) Some variables are more complicated Constructs (empathy, happiness) Multi-dimensional variables (over time, if yes then what?) These variables need multiple questions to measure correctly Index: a checklist Scale: a weighted checklist, often using Likert scales (None, Some, All) Typology: different categories (Male, Female, Transgender) Operationalizing your variables
Try-it! Operationalize These Variables Educational books Comedic movies Healthy meals Parental alcoholism
Krieger, M.S., et al. (2018). Use of rapid fentanyl test strips among young adults who use drugs. International Journal of Drug Policy, 61, 52-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.09.0 09 Operational definition must contain: The variable being measured The measure you will use How you will interpret that measure Operationalization walkthrough https://www.ijdp.org/article/S0955- 3959(18)30246-9/pdf Let s see how these researchers operationalized their variables Read through abstract. Demographics/background behaviors Video 1: Fentanyl test strips prove useful in preventing overdoses (1min) Attitudes and experiences towards fentanyl Behavior change following a positive test result for fentanyl https://www.youtube.com/watch?ti me_continue=60&v=GoMtIwuXNTQ Feasibility, acceptability, and willingness to continue using test strips
Example: Participants asked at their first visit their attitude about overdose and fentanyl with prompts such as I am concerned about my drugs being contaminated with fentanyl and I am concerned about overdosing . Response options were offered on a 4-point Likert scale of strongly agree to strongly disagree. Variables were recoded into two categories: agree (for answers strongly agree or agree), and disagree/neutral (for answers strongly disagree, disagree, do not know or refuse) Gender race, ethnicity education Homelessness regular drug use (defined as at least once a week) lifetime history of having ever injected drugs dealt drugs overdosed, or witnessed an overdose Operationalization walkthrough (part 2)
Operationalization walkthrough (part 3) Don t worry! You don t have to create your own measures! Let s look at the mental measurements yearbook https://buros.org/tests-reviewed-mental- measurements-yearbook-series Review some empirical journal articles you ve pulled for your literature review and check out the methods section What measures do you see? NOTE: Using well-established measures is a good idea we ll see why next
Validity and reliability
Measurement Quality Measurement Quality Reliability: consistency Test-retest Inter-rater For observations Internal consistency Validity: accuracy Face Content Predictive/concurrent Does this give an accurate measure of the person s state? Convergent/discriminant Does this give an accurate measure of the concept?
Levels of Measurement Categorical: Nominal Which of these categories do you belong to? (i.e., asleep, awake, zombie) Mutually exclusive, exhaustive Categorical: Ordinal On a scale of 1-5, please rate your satisfaction? (complete satisfied, somewhat satisfied... Mutually exclusive, exhaustive, rank-ordered Continuous: Interval What is your age? (1-100) Distance between each attribute is equal Continuous: Ratio How many days were you absent from school? Has a true zero point These are often thought of as interval/ratio
What gender do you identify with? Male, female, transgender What level of measurement is this? How would you show this measure is valid? How would you show this measure is reliable? Test your knowledge
What is your total household income, before taxes? Test your knowledge (part 2) What level of measurement is this? How would you show this measure is valid? How would you show this measure is reliable?
What is the highest level of education you have currently completed? Middle school or junior high school High school diploma/GED Undergraduate degree Graduate degree Test your knowledge (part 3) What level of measurement is this? How would you show this measure is valid? How would you show this measure is reliable?
What is the highest level of education you have currently completed? Middle school or junior high school High school diploma/GED Undergraduate degree Graduate degree Test your knowledge (part 4) What level of measurement is this? How would you show this measure is valid? How would you show this measure is reliable?
Problems in Measurement Reification: conceptual definitions aren t REAL Systematic error: error in one particular direction Measures may be missing something important Leading questions Social desirability Acquiescence bias: The Simpsons - Itchy & Scratchy focus group (:45) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqk_fN0NRgg Random error: error in all directions Measures aren t perfect. False negative. False positive
Trustworthiness: truth value Credibility Dependability Confirmability Must have working conceptual definitions Create interview questions or focus group guides Letting your participants guide your definitions of terms Revise questions you want to ask Researcher as the measurement instrument not scales, indexes, etc. Words need human interpretation What about qualitative research? Authenticity: multiple perspective, creating change Fairness
What is your research question? Identify one variable (independent or dependent) in your research question. Provide an operational definition for that variable (includes variable, measure, and interpretation). Assess the validity of your measure. If there is validity information available in the literature, please report it. If not, describe how you would assess the validity of this measure. Assess the reliability of your measure. If there is reliability information available in the literature, please report it. If not, describe how you would assess the validity of this measure. Work time
