The general takeaways from the course and the blog is really a way to understand research further and what I have learned. I learned the different types of research, sampling, experiments, and why it is important. I was hoping to learn more about the importance to research and how it connects with social work. I know research is important for social work in understanding policy but I wanted to learn about it from behind the scenes and I think it I accomplished it with this class. The insights I received is being more aware with knowing what information is true or not. I didn’t know how to spot the difference before and now I can and it will help me with being a resource for individuals as a social worker.

Ethical research before todays class meant to do a research without being unethical in the approach you’re giving. It is about being true to the research without changing it for your own benefit. A lot of times people don’t know that they’re being unethical and that is what I learned after todays class. It is very easy to be unethical and not know or know but not care about it. I gained from this material about how you can plagiarizer yourself. I never understood how you could but it makes sense that you cannot upload a paper for one class one year and then try to upload it for a different class the next year, it is unethical to do so. My understanding about ethical issues is making more aware of the material that I will encounter and it will help me spot the research that doesn’t go with my research question. My awareness is heightened and it makes me want to thoroughly go through the articles in order to see if they’re at an ethical standpoint for my research proposal.

I am approaching this paper by coming up with a rough draft and to include more time in writing it. The paper isn’t due for a few weeks but I want to work on it slowly and make sure I hit every question. I have already started organizing my thoughts, that way I can have it done in a timely manner. I think I would need to come up with more resources and better organize them in order to get the most out of the articles. Also, look into other articles that have done similar experiments to get a better idea of what I need to do in order to give an effective research proposal paper. Looking into resources and checking out the writing center can really help me improve my writing for this assignment.

After class ended, I realized how important it is to know the difference between each research design and how important it is to figure out which one fits with certain research topic questions. I realized how important it is to figure out which research design works for my research question as well as how to go about doing a study for that certain research design. For example, which population to go after, if I need to do a survey or an interview, and what questions to ask. I am considering to do a qualitative research approach because for my research question I am trying to figure out stress among formally incarcerated women so, I know I will have a small sample size and it’ll be an interview with open ended questions because stress is different with everyone. With qualitative it focuses more on the subject and how I can interpret what they’re telling me in order for it to coincide with my study.

I tend to gravitate more towards qualitative because it is more of an open-ended type of question and answers. I think there is more to learn about the individual if they’re more intrigued to talk about a question that is more open ended. I think it is better to recognize the bias in choices of the research methods because that way you can know what the bias is while doing the research. Once you’re able to recognize the bias, you can state that bias and not let it affect the research. When qualitative research is presented it is more so a understanding something like human behavior, something that cant be numerically measured. When its quantitative research, it is more about numbers like how many people attended a concerts in the summer vs fall.

I do not like statistics at all and its mostly because it deals with numbers. I was never good with math and statistics isn’t really math but its about probability and has numbers, and I am not good at understanding it. I have taken two statistics classes in the past and I have also done SPSS program and even then, it still something that I have trouble with. Statistics is very important to determine the outcome of many surveys that are very important to the public and it is a way to explain it and put it in perspective in a different way than just literature. Its a way of holding the research itself accountable and making it a plausible as far as finding a sample size to measure to take the survey. I think we need to understand the importance of statistics because it is a way of finding the numbers in our research and how to keep the sample size truly random.

The current biases with my research is the idea of trying to measure stress. There are a lot of researchers who although noticed that the formally incarcerated women are stressed, many of the research didn’t really care about trying to stop the stress. There was a few articles that even said that they deserve that stress because of the crimes they committed and that was another part of doing time. Its important to be mindful of the biases when writing because I do not want to create my literature review with the same bias. I think that it may affect the conclusion if I let it, but if I try not to let the biases cloud my writing, it may not affect it.

What gains/new insights/perspectives have you made about the uses of research to your future social work practice?

I gained new knowledge about how to look up research and understand how to get scholar articles.

How relevant is research to social work practice?

Research is relevant in social work practice because in working with a nonprofit organization, you have to do research in order to understand the policies in place and keep the organization running. It is important to keep up with different research questions to stay up to date on ever growing concepts.

What could research potentially do?

It can validate a question one may have and also help individuals understand how different concepts intersect.

How should social workers really think about the role of research?

They should think about the role in understanding research in order to apply the knowledge you find to clients and individual to inform them on what you can do as a social worker to help,

Do social workers have to choose between doing research and working for their clients? Are these two issues distinct or are they different sides of the same coin? (HINT: See Ch. 1)

They’re different sides of the same coin because they have to do research in order to effectively work with their client.

Please elaborate on your ideas. Use a meme/memes to summarize your perspectives. Why did you pick this particular meme?

What gains/new insights/perspectives have you made about the uses of research to your future social work practice?

I gained new knowledge about how to look up research and understand how to get scholar articles.

How relevant is research to social work practice?

Research is relevant in social work practice because in working with a nonprofit organization, you have to do research in order to understand the policies in place and keep the organization running. It is important to keep up with different research questions to stay up to date on ever growing concepts.

What could research potentially do?

It can validate a question one may have and also help individuals understand how different concepts intersect.

How should social workers really think about the role of research?

They should think about the role in understanding research in order to apply the knowledge you find to clients and individual to inform them on what you can do as a social worker to help,

Do social workers have to choose between doing research and working for their clients? Are these two issues distinct or are they different sides of the same coin? (HINT: See Ch. 1)

They’re different sides of the same coin because they have to do research in order to effectively work with their client.

Please elaborate on your ideas. Use a meme/memes to summarize your perspectives. Why did you pick this particular meme?

A lot of individuals rely on google for there research without understanding what a peer review article is. Research can be misleading and that can lead to misinforming clients one may work with within the social work field and that is an issue. Google Scholar is a good research tool however, google itself is not.

I think I have what it takes to write a literature review now because I am knowledgeable on the tools that is needed to write an effective one. A strength I have is being really good at looking up scholarly articles and being able to take out the important information from the study. I need more attention on understanding what are the variables at play and how they affect one another.

In undergrad, I took a research method class. It has been a few years since I took the class so I don’t really remember much of the subject. Research doesn’t really excite me but I know that it is necessary for a growing field like social work. Research is necessary in social work, to keep up to date with the latest information and also put things into perspective in a way where it can bring light to a certain situation you’re trying to advocate for. My concerns are going to be trying to stay focus on research because it can be a bit boring and repetitive at times and that can make me lose interest in the class.