Research design in counseling

Part 1. Philosophical, ethical, training, and professional issues. Philosophies of science and counseling: why science matters to counseling ; Research training: joys and challenges ; Ethics in counseling research: being and doing right ; Professional writing: a critical skill for scientists and practitioners

Part 2. Getting started: establishing the foundation for a study. Identifying interests and operationalizing topics: forget that perfect study ; Choosing research designs: balancing ideals and realities ; Validity issues in research: the heart of it all ; Population issues: who we study matters! ; Diverse perspectives: conceptual and methodological considerations ; Scale construction: a most fundamental tool

Part 3. Major designs. True experimental designs: the power of between-groups and within-subjects designs ; Quasi-experimental longitudinal designs: examining relationships in applied setting ; Quantitative descriptive designs: describing, explaining, and predicting phenomenon ; Analogue research: maximizing experimental control ; Single-subject designs: learning from the richness of a sample size of 1 ; Qualitative research: complexities and richness from digging deeper ; Mixed methods designs: when qualitative and quantitative designs meet

Part 4. Methodological issues. The independent variable: the drivers of the study ; The dependent variable: skillfully measuring intended outcomes ; Counseling outcome research: does counseling work? ; Process research: the how's and why's that make counseling work ; Program evaluation: applying science and practice to real life ; Bias: error variances from investigators, experimenters, and participants.