The previous chapters have focused on how social work use social science research methods to understand the world. But what about social workers who aren’t researchers? Social workers in practice may not have time or interest in conducting experiments or focus groups for the purposes of scholarly publication. While the preceding chapters should provide you the information you need to understand the research conducted by professional researchers, social workers in practice still must use research skills to help their clients. This chapter will review three approaches to research that social workers will use while in practice.

Chapter Outline

• 15.1 Evaluation research
• 15.2 Single-subjects design
• 15.3 Action research

Content Advisory

This chapter discusses or mentions the following topics:  substance abuse.