Experimental Research Designs in Social Work

Experimental research is of great value to social work. Well-designed studies help social workers understand which approaches are most effective, with implications for both practice with individual clients and social policy more broadly. Many social work practitioners conduct studies that randomly assign clients to specific interventions and various control groups in order to assess policy outcomes. However, social work programs often do not teach experimental methods. Critics continue to assert that true experiments are impractical, unethical, or simply too blunt a tool to evaluate the effects of social work practices and policies.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of the theory and practice of experimental research in the field of social work. Bruce A. Thyer describes the logic and design of experimental methods, helping readers understand the basics and then exploring increasingly complex and sophisticated research. He illustrates key principles through examples of how social workers have evaluated real-world practice approaches. The book considers recruitment and representation of marginalized groups, the ethical issues involved in the design and conduct of experiments, and how social work researchers can ensure that all participants in an experimental study benefit from effective care. An appendix contains a chronological listing of published studies authored by social workers who conducted experimental research. Accessible to social work undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students alike and valuable for professionals from clinical workers to policy analysts, this book demonstrates the utility of experimental research across the entire spectrum of social work practice.

Bruce Thyer is Distinguished Research Professor and former dean at the College of Social Work at Florida State University. He is the founding and current editor of the journal Research on Social Work Practice and coeditor of the Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal and the Journal of Evidence-based Social Work. He is a founding board member of the Society for Social Work and Research. He is the author of more than 290 journal articles, 130 book chapters, and more than thirty-five books in social work, psychology, behavior analysis, and psychiatry. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and of the National Academies of Practice. His most recent co-authored books are titled Program Evaluation: An Introduction to an Evidence-based Approach (Cengage, 2016, now in its sixth edition), and Science and Pseudoscience in Social Work Practice (Springer, 2015).