LMSW: Research

Control group

group of research participants that does not receive the new treatment being studied.

Experimental / Intervention Group

The group that receives the new treatment/ intervention

a collection of subjects who are matched and compared with a control group in all relevant respects, except that they are also subject to a specific variable being tested

Randomized Controlled Trial:

An experimental design that measures the effect of an intervention by randomly assigning participants to either an experimental/intervention group or a control group.

Quasi-Experimental Design:

design that resembles a randomized controlled trial, but does not involve the random assignment to a control group and experimental group

(instead, it allows the researcher to control the assignment to the treatment and control groups using some criteria other than random assignment).

It is commonly used in eld research where random assignment is difficult or not possible.

Single Subject Design:

Research where the subject serves as their own control, rather than using another individual/group.

Retrospective Design:

participants are asked to retrospect (literally, to ‘look back’) and try to remember what they were like at an earlier time point.

Cross-sectional Design:

researchers collect data at a single point in time from participants of different ages.

Longitudinal Design:

the same people are measured at different ages.

Cross-sequential Design:

a combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. At the rst point, groups of people from several different ages are measured. If the design were to stop there, it would be a simple cross-sectional design, but these groups are then followed over time, incorporating the longitudinal aspect.

Correlation:

A mutual relationship between two variables that are related; a change in one variable is associated with a change in the other variable.

Independent Variable:

the variable changed (or controlled/manipulated) in a scientific experiment.

Dependent Variable:

the variable tested and measured in a scientific experiment. A

Inter-rater Reliability:

The degree to which different people give similar scores for the same observations; refers to the consistency of a measure.

Literature Review

he process of searching published work to find out what is already known about a research topic.

Mean:

The average value or measure of central tendency

Median:

The middle score.

Mode:

: The value that occurs most frequently.

Null Hypothesis

A statement that no relationship exists between study variables.

Pretest:

A questionnaire or other data-gathering instrument administered to a subject just before a period of inquiry that provides a baseline for comparison with the end results

Posttest:

A questionnaire or other data-gathering instrument administered to a subject at the end of a specic period of inquiry.

Pilot Study:

A procedure for testing and validating a questionnaire or other instrument by administering it to a small group of respondents from the intended test population. The procedure helps determine whether the test items possess the desired qualities of measurement and the ability to discriminate other problems before the instrument is put to widespread use.

Validity:

The degree to which a tool measures what it claims to measure

Construct Validity

The degree to which an instrument measures the characteristic being investigated

Internal Validity:

The confidence that can be placed in the cause-and-effect relationship in a study.

External Validity

The extent to which an effect in research can be generalized to other populations, settings, and treatment variables.

Concurrent Validity

The extent to which the results of a particular test, or measurement, correspond to those of a previously established measurement for the same construct.

Predictive Validity:

This involves testing a group of subjects for a certain construct, and then comparing them with results obtained at some point in the future.

Reliability:

the overall consistency of a measure

Objective Data:

data that you can measure.

This includes things like age, the number of times a behavior occurred, blood pressure, temperature, etc.

unbiased observation/ measurement

Subjective Data:

data that is given from the viewpoint of the client (or someone in the client’s life) and that is not measurable.

This includes things like how a person feels or their pain level. This is someone’s personal evaluation.

Qualitative Research:

Systematic investigations that include inductive, in-depth studies of individuals, groups, organizations, or communities. They focus on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of decision making to better understand human behavior.

Quantitative Research:

Systematic investigations that include descriptive or inferential statistical analysis