The Apparent Conflict between Commitment to the Development of the Profession and the Imperatives of the Academy

It has been argued in a number of publications in the social work field that the current preoccupation with evidence-based practice is problematic, in that it offers a restricted and sometimes inappropriate understanding of the fundamentals of research in the social sciences. As a result social work and social care are at risk of deprivation of appropriate knowledge to inform practice. This article takes up this critique, in particular pointing out that the tendency for the debate to be reduced to one of competing (qualitative and quantitative) research methods is unhelpful. The issue is an epistemological one about the nature of knowledge and the authority of 'knowers'. The article gives examples of participatory approaches to research that start from a valuing of a range of kinds of knowledge. This opens the way for both quantitative and qualitative methods to have a place in social work research and social work education.     

Internet Technology in Service of Personal Health Care Management: Patient Perspective

Internet technology has become an informational resource for most health care consumers. Online information, discussion, and support groups, in the form of message boards, listservs, and chat rooms are emerging as parts of virtual self-health-care network. This paper examines the extent to which participation in online health discussion groups was reported to be helpful in increasing medical knowledge and in enhancing the participatory patient role of health care consumers in interaction with health care service professionals. Data for this study was collected from 350 patients who participated in Internet discussion groups for cancer patients. The findings of the study indicated the important impact of Internet health discussion groups on health care management practices as perceived by health care consumers, including empowerment through knowledge and proactive participation in cancer care management. This research contributes to understanding the patient perspective and assesses the perceived importance of Internet groups by health care consumers.     

Development of a New Approach to Guided Self-Help via the Internet: The Swedish Experience

ABSTRACT

This article describes the development and empirical status of guided Internet-delivered self-help. The treatment approach combines the benefits of bibliotherapy with book-length text materials and the support given online via web pages and e-mail. Interactive features such as online registrations, tests, and online discussion forums are also included. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) guided the research and clinical implementations of this approach, as it lends itself more easily to the self-help format compared with other presently available psychotherapy approaches. We include an overview of the research, current issues and research in service delivery, lessons learned through a program of research, and directions for future investigations.     

Postmodern‐oriented practices and patient‐focused research: possibilities and hazards

In this article two streams of thought within family therapy, one representing a traditional research focus and the other postmodern oriented practices are brought together. A qualitative study is described that used standardised measures to monitor therapeutic practice and provide feedback on process and outcome to therapists. The opportunities and pitfalls concerning this approach are discussed and illustrated. The use of measures as conversational tools increases and expands opportunities for collaboration between children, parents and their therapists. However, in organisations these measures risk becoming tools of competition instead of conversation, which is helped when managers take responsibility for implementing and supporting a culture of feedback.     

Cheats,charity cases and inspirations: disrupting the circulation of disability-based memes online

With the increasing part online self-performance plays in day-to-day life in the twenty-first century, it is not surprising that critiques of the way the daily social drama of disability plays out in online spaces and places have begun to gain prominence. In this article, I consider memes as a highly specific style or strategy for representing disability via social media sites. I identify three commonly circulating categories of meme – the charity case, inspiration and cheat memes – all of which offer representations that people with disabilities find highly problematic. I then investigate the ways in which disabled people have begun to resist the representation and circulation of these commonly circulating categories of memes, via the production of counter or parodic memes. I focus, in particular, on the subversive potential of these counter memes, within disability communities online and within broader communities online.     

The village in the mind: Applying Q-methodology to re-constructing constructions of rurality

In recent years rural studies have focused on the analysis of different notions of ‘the rural’ and how they are constructed in expert discourses as well as in everyday life. Dealing empirically with such patterns of meaning, poses special challenges to social science. In this article I want to explore Q-methodology that approaches subjectivity in a particular way. Instead of beginning with the individual – as it is done in case study approaches – or with socio-demographic categories – as surveys usually do – Q-methodology attempts to put the focus of inquiry on the content of subjectivity itself, i.e. the integral views and their internal frame of reference. Q-methodology can be conceived as a hybrid of qualitative and quantitative methodology since it combines mathematical procedures like factor analysis with a genuine constructivist and interpretative approach to ‘reality’. An example of a study in which Q-methodology was applied is presented. The aim of this analysis was to explore the different views of village development and community life that existed in a municipality of the exurban hinterland of Hamburg. As a result of this study three distinct perceptions of rurality are identified: an idyllic, a reform-oriented and an anti-conservationist view. Based on a structured comparison of these three views it is shown how Q-methodology can contribute new perspectives and insights to the debate about social representations of rurality.     

Current and Future Trends in Internet-Supported Mental Health Interventions

Despite growing research in the past two decades involving Internet-supported or online mental health interventions, there has been only a few attempts to provide a synthesis of the research findings and future trends. The Internet has grown exponentially during this time, providing greater access to a wider population than ever before. Consequently, online mental health interventions have the potential to be cost-effective, convenient, and reach a more diverse population than traditional, face-to-face interventions. This paper reviews and summarizes the current research for online mental health interventions and discusses future trends. These interventions range from psychoeducational static webpages and complex, personalized, interactive cognitive-behavioral-based self-help programs, to videoconferencing, self-help support groups, blogging, and professional-led online therapy. Future trends in online interventions include the greater prevalence of online therapy and the use of video chat and videoconferencing technologies to enhance and extend the therapeutic relationship. The use of texting or short message service (SMS), mobile communications, smart phone applications, gaming, and virtual worlds extends the intervention paradigm into new environments not always previously considered as intervention opportunities. We find that there is strong evidence to support the effective use and future development of a variety of online mental health applications.     

Reasoning With Case Studies: Issues Of An Aging Workforce

Case studies are an ideal research approach to generate in-depth and contextualized data. Many specific data collection approaches can be incorporated to gather data through a case study, but the information so gathered is interpreted in terms of a single case. When a set of case studies is conducted on a particular research theme, the question arises as to what kinds of inferences can be made with a small number of cases. Problems of inference are increased when the cases have been selected opportunistically or haphazardly and when the universe of all potential cases cannot readily be defined. Charles Ragin has distinguished between the logic of multivariate analysis and the logic of comparative case analysis. Drawing on this distinction, this article will describe the ways in which inferences can be drawn, and the nature of such inferences, from a multiple case study approach. Reasoning from multiple case studies is an inductive process that uses comparisons to generate hypotheses and to provide limited tests through the principle of falsification. This approach was used in developing a synthesizing report based on seven large case studies from the project, “Issues of an Aging Workforce.” Five Canadian and two American case studies were conducted in corporate settings in different economic sectors. The case studies used qualitative methods (focus groups and key informant interviews) and survey data from employees and managers. Thus, the logic of multivariate analysis was used, along with inductive reasoning with qualitative data, within cases, and a logic of comparative case analysis when seeking to make and test generalizations based on the set of seven cases.     

Researching youth culture and popular music: a methodological critique

In this article I argue the need for critical evaluation of qualitative research methodology in sociological studies of the relationship between youth culture and popular music. As the article illustrates, there is currently an absence of critical debate concerning methodological issues in this field of sociological research. In the first part of the article I begin to account for this absence by illustrating how early research on youth and music rejected the need for empirical research, relying instead on theories and concepts drawn from cultural Marxism. The second part of the article illustrates how the legacy of this early body of work in youth and music research manifests itself in current research which, although empirically grounded, is characterized by an almost total lack of engagement with methodological issues such as negotiating access to the field, management of field relations and ethical codes. Similarly problematic is the uncritical acceptance on the part of some researchers of their insider knowledge of particular youth musics and scenes as a means of gathering empirical data. In the final part of the article I focus on the issue of insider knowledge and the need for critical evaluation of its use as a methodological tool in field-based youth and music research.     

Insights and recommendations for recruitment and retention of low socio-economic parents with overweight children

Low socio-economic groups are typically difficult to recruit and retain in health research, which makes it difficult to investigate their health-related beliefs and behaviours. Low socio-economic parents with overweight or obese children took part in a longitudinal qualitative child obesity study over 12?months. These parents’ views of and recommendations for appropriate recruitment and retention strategies are reported. Their interpretations and suggestions are considered in the light of the difficulties that were experienced in designing the study to meet their needs and the approaches that were found to be more effective in achieving and maintaining a viable study cohort. Relevant aspects of recruitment included remuneration, recruitment locations and the use of appropriate weight-related terminology. Retention factors included protocol flexibility, ongoing remuneration and learning opportunities. Barriers to ongoing participation are also discussed. Suggestions are provided for future qualitative research with low socio-economic families.     

With a focus on well-being and capabilities

Most of the applied research on capabilities and well-being makes use of quantitative data and research techniques. This paper examines the possibilities of qualitative data gathering to explore the theoretical richness (and complexity) of the capabilities framework. With this objective, the capabilities theory is translated into a framework that enables focus group discussions on well-being. It turns out to be surprisingly easy to discus issues related to the theory of capabilities, as the concepts are recognizable for the focus participants.Being able to choose and making trade offs is related to the concepts of well-being of the participants. Provided one has ‘the basic capability to cope with capabilities’, possibilities and choices increases well-being. These findings show that the capability framework can be fruitfully used for applied research on well-being and that qualitative data gathering creates opportunities that are complementary to quantitative techniques.     

Improving public relations web sites through usability research

Public relations communicators can use a variety of techniques to pretest the effectiveness of messages, including readability testing, focus groups, peer and jury reviews, experiments and field testing/test marketing. Another yet-untapped technique is usability research, a set of procedures used for more than 50 years in product and software development. Although usability is a technique that can be applied to any type of public relations message, usability research has particular relevance for enhancing the effectiveness of web sites and other new interactive techniques. This article examines the nature and value of usability research, and the elements of an effective web site based on usability principles. Applications to other types of public relations communications are also discussed.     

Making Sense of Multi‐Actor Dialogues in Family Therapy and Network Meetings

In recent years, a number of family therapists have conceptualized psychotherapy as a dialogical activity. This view presents family therapy researchers with specific challenges, the most important of which is to find ways of dealing with the dialogical qualities of the multi‐actor dialogues that occur, for example, in family therapeutic conversations. In this article, we propose some preliminary ideas concerning qualitative investigations of multi‐actor dialogues. Our aim is to work toward an integration of Bakhtin’s theoretical concepts with good practices in qualitative research (e.g., dialogical tools and concepts of a narrative processes coding system) in order to make sense of family therapy dialogues. A specific method that we have called Dialogical Methods for Investigations of Happening of Change is described. This method allows for a general categorization of the qualities of responsive dialogues in a single session, and also for a detailed focus on particular sequences through a microanalysis of specific topical episodes. The particular focus is on the voices present in the utterances, the positioning of each speaker, and the addressees of the utterances. The method is illustrated via an analysis of a couple therapy session with a depressed woman and her husband.     

Sports PR in message boards on Major League Baseball websites

Message boards are possible places for sports fans to actively express and exchange their opinions. The purpose of this study is to explore the typology of message board uses on sports websites. The analysis of 1350 topics on eight Major League Baseball teams’ websites for 10 days revealed that: (1) the cognitive need of using message boards in a sports organization's website was an outstanding motivation; (2) sharing opinions was a new motivation category (compared to traditional uses and gratifications) that was found to be dominant; and (3) winning teams and losing teams’ message boards were significantly different in terms of number of topics, number of users, and optimism score; however, messages seemed to be optimistic. Implications for public relations practitioners suggest that the message board is an excellent monitoring tool for them as well as a fine communication tool between sports organizations and fans.     

Gaming out online: Black lesbian identity development and community building in Xbox Live

As gaming culture continues to marginalize women and people of color, other gamers are also highlighting the inequalities they face within digital gaming communities. While heterosexism and homophobia are commonplace within gaming culture, little is known about the actual experiences of “gaymers” and even less about “gaymers” of color. As such, this article seeks to explore lesbians of color and their experiences “gayming” out and online. Exploring identity development, community building, and connectivity via social networking, the women within this study articulate what it means to be lesbian online and how this impacts their physical and digital experiences. The private spaces within gaming culture that many marginalized groups inhabit are the few spaces that value the articulation of marginalized interests and viewpoints. Ethnographic observations reveal how supportive communities can improve resilience by mitigating the effects of stereotyping, microaggressions, and other discriminatory practices in online gaming.     

‘Unjust,inhumane and highly inaccurate’: the impact of changes to disability benefits and services – social media as a tool in research and activism

This article details research carried out as part of an MA in Social Research at the University of Leeds (UK). The research was concerned with two key issues: documenting the impact of recent cuts in benefits and services on disabled people; and the role of disabled people’s organisations in responding to this impact. It also explored the use of social media in recruiting research participants. Working with Hammersmith and Fulham Action on Disability, the experiences of 95 disabled people were gathered using focus groups and an online questionnaire distributed via social media. The use of social media to gather participants is something I felt was particularly interesting in relation to disabled people, especially in light of social media’s role in current disability rights campaigns, and a method I feel should be explored further.     

Evaluating the Quality of Online Survey Data Collected in 2018 in the USA: Univariate,Bivariate, and Multivariate Analyses

Collecting survey data in Japan and the USA is difficult for many reasons, including the difficulty of creating complete sampling frames and low response rates. Online surveys, which collect data through online access panels and recruit members using nonprobability sampling, is becoming a popular alternative to traditional survey techniques, both in market and social science research. However, sociological researchers are hesitant to adopt online survey data collection techniques as it is unclear how representative such data are. This article examines the quality of online survey data by comparing online surveys with the two datasets collected using probability sampling, the American Community Survey and the General Social Survey. We conducted univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses and investigated whether similarities improve from the univariate analyses to bivariate relationships, and to bivariate relationships with controls. The results show that similarities improved from univariate to bivariate and multivariate analyses, but the results of bivariate and multivariate analyses did not differ. We concluded that data collected via volunteer‐based access panels yielded similar results to the benchmark data, especially when the relationships among variables are examined. We argue that automatically discrediting the data collected via volunteer‐based access panels is not good practice. With careful considerations of data quality, online survey data with nonprobability sampling could advance sociological research by giving researchers more freedom to ask questions at a relatively low cost, with a quick turnaround time, and more opportunities to conduct cross‐national research.     

On Finding the C in CBT: The Challenges of Applying Gambling-Related Cognitive Approaches to Video-Gaming

Many similarities have been drawn between the activities of gambling and video-gaming. Both are repetitive activities with intermittent reinforcement, decision-making opportunities, and elements of risk-taking. As a result, it might be tempting to believe that cognitive strategies that are used to treat problem gambling might also be applied to problematic video gaming. In this paper, we argue that many cognitive approaches to gambling that typically involve a focus on erroneous beliefs about probabilities and randomness are not readily applicable to video gaming. Instead, we encourage a focus on other clusters of cognitions that relate to: (a) the salience and over-valuing of gaming rewards, experiences, and identities, (b) maladaptive and inflexible rules about behaviour, (c) the use of video-gaming to maintain self-esteem, and (d) video-gaming for social status and recognition. This theoretical discussion is advanced as a starting point for the development of more refined cognitive treatment approaches for problematic video gaming.     

Approaching the bench: accessing elites on the judiciary for qualitative interviews

Qualitative research with political elites provides unique opportunities to access intimate details regarding the perceptions and opinions of key decision-makers; yet limited scholarly attention has been directed at the difficulties involved in recruiting these groups for interviews. In this article, I outline a series of targeted strategies aimed at successfully recruiting members of the political elite for qualitative research, using examples from a successful recruitment process in a study of U.S. state court judges. Recruitment strategies tailored to elite populations are described, including utilizing multiple modes of contact, crafting a compelling presentation of the study, highlighting participation benefits, preemptively alleviating concerns, and elegantly navigating gatekeepers. These techniques extend common recruitment approaches used with non-elite populations to political elites and provide guidance in managing the unique power dynamics associated with accessing members of the elite to improve interview participation rates.     

Contextualized theory-based predictors of intention to practice monogamy among adolescents in Botswana junior secondary schools: Results of focus group sessions and a cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT

Culture and tradition influence behavior. Multiple-partner and concurrent relationships are held responsible for the increase of HIV infection in Sub-Saharan Africa. A contextualized “theory of planned behavior” is used in this article to identify predictors of intention to practice monogamy. A mixed method design using qualitative data from focus groups, stories, and a survey is analyzed for quantitative data. The qualitative data add to the behavioral beliefs a sociocultural belief domain, as well as attitudes and subjective norms. Perceived behavioral control predicts the intention to practice monogamy. Adolescents show a tendency toward having more than one sexual partner. The normative beliefs and the sociocultural beliefs also predict intentions, while hedonistic beliefs and partner’s reaction do not. In contextualizing theory-based interventions, it is important to draw from stories and the language that circulate in a community about a given behavior. More studies are needed on ways to combine qualitative approaches with quantitative approaches to inform the development of theory-based, culturally appropriate, and context-specific intervention strategies to reduce the risk of HIV.