Research Methods for Clinical Therapists. Applied Project Design and Analysis

Description

Struggling to do a project or dissertation, evaluate published research or conduct your own research? Help is at hand with this 5th edition of Research Methods for Clinical Therapists, which explains, in a clear and simple manner, how to evaluate existing research and how to conduct your own research.

Aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as the practising health care professional, the focus of the text is the design and analysis of experimental studies. These are vital to the effectiveness studies that are central to the work of the healthcare professional. Specific examples from different areas of healthcare are used to explain the core research concepts and relate them to clinical situations. Statistical theory and jargon are kept to a minimum.

Key Features

• 'Key concept' boxes to explain technical research terms
• Activities and exercises (with answers provided in an appendix) to reinforce learning
• Sample critique of a published research article
• Comprehensive coverage of the key components of a robust research study
• Explanation of basic mathematical concepts

New to this Edition

• Extended section on calculating sample sizes
• Guidelines on the preparation of posters
• Calculation of Inter-rater reliability measures, including Cohen’s Kappa, ICC (interclass correlation) and Bland-Altman graphs of inter-rater agreement
• Introduction to Receiver Operating Characteristics, for use in screening and diagnostic testing against gold-standards
• The Thurstone Paired Comparison Technique, valuable in capturing the user voice on a variety of service planning, design and development issues
• Undertaking Systematic Reviews
• Relevant further reading for each chapter to support readers in their work.

Contents

SECTION 1 Basic principles of research

1. Introduction
2. Research design and statistics: some basic concepts
3. Questionnaires, surveys and sampling
4. The nature of the data
5. Techniques of descriptive statistics
6. Testing hypotheses
7. Designing your study
8. Sources of error in research
9. Matching the research design to the statistical test
10.Putting the theory into practice
11.Writing up the research for publication
12.Reading published research critically

SECTION 2 Statistical tests

13.Non-parametric tests for same- and matched-subject designs
14.Parametric tests for same- and matched-subject designs
15. Non-parametric tests for different- (unrelated-) subject designs
16.Parametric tests for different- (unrelated-) subject designs
17.Non-parametric and parametric tests for correlational designs
18.Estimation

SECTION 3 Research applications

19.Attitude scales
20.Repertory grid analysis
21.Using statistics in diagnostic and screening tests: receiver operating characteristics
22.Capturing expert opinion: the Delphi technique
23.Capturing the user voice: Thurstone’s paired comparison technique
24.Capturing the clinician’s view: reliability measures
25.Undertaking systematic reviews

Appendices
Appendix 1 Basic mathematical principles
Appendix 2 Statistical probability tables
Appendix 3 Answers to activities
Appendix 4 A sample critique of a published article

Glossary
References, further reading and information sources
Index

Author Information

By Carolyn M. Hicks, BA, MA, PhD, PGCE, CPsychol, Professor of Health Care Psychology, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK