Fifth in a series of short articles describing the ideas and methods of research in clear, understandable language. Each article addresses a segment of research in a way that clinicians, prevention specialists, supervisors, and administrators will find useful and friendly. Collectively, the articles provide a "refresher course" that can be referred to as needed.

If you have been following this series, you know the last three articles addressed various forms of experimental research. Experiments examine the idea of difference. For example, is there going to be a difference in some level of recovery if I send one group of clients to self-help groups compared with one that doesn't attend such groups? Is there going to be a difference in relapse if I shorten the length of treatment for a group of people with alcoholism compared with a group that stays in treatment for a longer period of time? Good questions.

Surveys are methods that collect information from members of a population to determine the status of that population on some set of variables (Gay, 1992). The variables or information can be in the form of an opinion, a value, an attitude, or a behavior.

Surveys are the most frequently used mode of observation utilized in the social sciences. They gather information that can be used to describe and explore a population, or notice interrelations within a population (Babbie, 1995; Polit & Hungler, 1995).

For example, the survey helps answer questions like, "What is the estimated number of adolescents who used marijuana in a region of the country in the last year?"

To find out, someone goes into the field and surveys a sample of such people in an attempt to answer the question.

Another example is, "Has there been an increase or decrease in the number of women who drink while pregnant?"

Again, the surveyor goes off into the real world and interviews a sample of pregnant women to try to answer this question.

The survey generally gathers its information by a questionnaire or by watching behavior. However, it is not as simple as it seems. There is a real art to conducting a survey. A good survey will include specific objectives, a good research design, an honest population or sample, reliable and valid interments, an appropriate analysis, and an accurate report of the results (Fink, 1995).

The survey has some basic strengths and weaknesses. The strengths include:

• Surveying large samples (e.g., questioning 1,000 or more adolescents who may be using marijuana is not unusual)
• flexibility (you can ask a lot of different questions on a given topic)
• asking the same question of all the subjects surveyed

The weaknesses of surveys are that:

• they can be superficial in the coverage of a complex topic
• they seldom develop a feel for the total life situation
• although they can be flexible, they can also be inflexible in that once designed, they have to stay that way throughout the life of the survey
• they can be artificial (e.g., when asked, "Do you favor the medical use of marijuana?" people are prone to form an opinion on the spot).

This covers the masses, but what about the single example?

Case Methods

These are in-depth studies of individuals, groups, or institutions. They are less experimental and more illustrative. Plus, they generally examine relationships that have encircled a client, as well as tendencies that have developed over time (Gay, 1992).

When you think about it, a form of the case study is the AA speaker. Here the individual explains how a series of biological, psychological, and social connections lead to an addiction, how that addiction developed over time, and how, for this individual, the recovery process started and continues.

The emphasis is on why the subject behaves, thinks, or develops in a certain manner, rather than the subject's actions and thoughts as in the survey.

This method intensely probes a case, which can lead to unexpected insights. The case method serves an important role in that it can take concepts and variables that are not that easily understood and make them very clear. The case history also serves as an illustration to fill in the richness of real-life subjects that is often missing from experimental research.

The case history can be effective in illuminating certain points or advancing a more realistic portrayal of abstract theories.

This form of investigation avoids the seemingly superficial feel of many other forms of research, and it gives the researcher an intimate knowledge of the subject. However, all this intimacy serves as its greatest weakness. That is, the information gathered in a case study is not often generalizable to other individuals (Polit & Hungler, 1995). In addition, this form of research is often more appropriate to the qualitative form of research, which is rich in words and poor in measurable data (Babbie, 1995).

Correlational Research

As with surveys and case histories, the correlational method of research attempts to describe existing conditions, but does it with a distinctive quantitative (numerical) approach. This type of research also attempts to identify whether the variables in question convey — that is, suggest some sort of a relationship between them.

If the relationship is strong, it will have a correlational coefficient close to +1.00 for a positive relationship or -1.00 for a negative relationship. If the variables are not related, the coefficient will be near 0.00 (Gay, 1992).

Correlational research asks questions like, "Is there a relationship between certain peer group associations and a decrease in adolescents who smoke marijuana?" or "Is there a relationship between married women who drink heavily and whose mate is a heavy drinker?"

If there is a strong association, this may signal the need to further study the relationship with a true experimental design or a quasi-experiment as discussed in the second and third parts of this series (Counselor, September/October 1999 and November/December 1999, respectively).

A strong association serves as an early stage of research. In and of itself, a correlation cannot determine a link between variables as the experiment has the potential to do. Yet this form of research is more practical and more ethical, because one would not want to experiment with different levels of drinking mates to determine if that drinking was related to someone who is pregnant.

Two warnings are necessary when using the correlation. First is the problem of the third variable. For example, even though you may think that an association with certain peers will influence an adolescent's drinking habits, there may be an unobserved third influence in the mix that is really making the difference.

Second, the correlation cannot determine the direction of the influence. For instance, we cannot say with assurance, at least at this level, that pregnant women are not influencing the drinking of their mates or partners. Given these two warnings, researchers need to be cautious about drawing conclusions about correlations-and turn to research that has higher levels control.

Next: We will tie up loose ends and address forms of research such as cost analysis, process analysis, and meta-analysis.

Michael J. Taleff, PhD, CAC, MAC, is assistant professor in the Counselor Education Department and project director of Chemical Dependency Programs at Pennsylvania State University. He is also a member of the NAADAC Research Committee and welcomes comments on this series. His e-mail address is This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

References:
Babbie, E. (1995). The practice of social research (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Fink, A. (1995). How to design surveys. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Gay, L.R. (1992). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and application (4th ed.). New York: Merrill.

Polit, D.F., & Hungler, B.P. (1995). Nursing research: Principles and methods (5th ed.). Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott.

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