Request for consultation

Thanks for your request. You’ll soon be chatting with a consultant to get the answers you need.
Your form is submitting...
{{formPostErrorMessage.message}} [{{formPostErrorMessage.code}}]
Email Address is required. 'Email Address' must contain at least 0 characters 'Email Address' cannot exceed 0 characters Please enter a valid Email Address
First Name is required. 'First Name' must contain at least 0 characters 'First Name' cannot exceed 0 characters Please enter a valid First Name
Last Name is required. 'Last Name' must contain at least 0 characters 'Last Name' cannot exceed 0 characters Please enter a valid Last Name
Institution is required.
Discipline is required.
Country is required. 'Country' must contain at least 0 characters 'Country' cannot exceed 0 characters Please enter a valid Country
Cengage, at your service! How can we best meet your needs? is required.
Why are you contacting us today? is required. 'Why are you contacting us today?' must contain at least 0 characters 'Why are you contacting us today?' cannot exceed 0 characters Please enter a valid Why are you contacting us today?

Empowerment Series: Research Methods for Social Work, 9th Edition

Allen Rubin, Earl R. Babbie

  • Copyright 2017
  • {{checkPublicationMessage('Published', '2021-04-05T00:00:00+0000')}}
Starting At £45.00 See pricing and ISBN options
Instructor Next Steps
Students: Buy now
Empowerment Series: Research Methods for Social Work 9th Edition by Allen Rubin/Earl R. Babbie
Quick Navigation

Overview

Widely considered the best text for the course, RESEARCH METHODS FOR SOCIAL WORK strikes an optimal balance of quantitative and qualitative research techniques -- illustrating how the two methods complement one another and how they can be integrated in mixed-methods studies. Rubin and Babbie's classic bestseller is acclaimed for its depth and breadth of coverage as well as for the authors' clear and often humorous writing style. A rigorous and comprehensive presentation, combined with a reader-friendly approach, helps students overcome the fear factor often associated with this course. Examples from real-world settings help students see the connections between research and social work practice. The Ninth Edition continues to incorporate coverage of evidence-based practice and aligns with other accreditation requirements based on the EPAS guidelines. It can be used across undergraduate, graduate, and doctorate levels of study.

{{readMore['overview'] ? 'Read More' : 'Read Less'}}

Meet the Authors

{{collapseContainerClosed['meet-the-author'] ? 'Show More' : 'Show Less'}}

Allen Rubin

Allen Rubin has been doing and teaching research since 1976, when he received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. He taught social work research at the University of Texas at Austin from 1979 through 2013 and at the University of Houston from 2013 through 2024. Renowned in social work, Dr. Rubin has written several research texts, published numerous research studies on social work practice and is a past president of the Society for Social Work and Research.

Earl R. Babbie

Dr. Earl Babbie is the Campbell Professor Emeritus in Behavioral Sciences at Chapman University in Southern California. He taught sociology at the University of Hawaii from 1968 through 1979 and took time off from teaching and research to write full time for eight years. He then joined the Chapman University faculty in 1987. Credited with defining research methods for the social sciences, Dr. Babbie has written several texts, including THE PRACTICE OF SOCIAL RESEARCH, as well as numerous research articles and monographs. For 25 years he has been active in the American Sociological Association, where he served on the executive committee. He is also a past president of the Pacific Sociological Association and the California Sociological Association. Dr. Babbie received his A.B. from Harvard and his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley.

What's New

{{collapseContainerClosed['whats-new'] ? 'Show More' : 'Show Less'}}
  • More reader friendly than ever, the Ninth Edition of this bestseller includes new graphics, photos, figures, illustrative boxes, and tables -- creating a lively presentation for visual learners. The more streamlined narrative also includes new transitional headings, which break longer sections of text into more digestible segments.
  • Thoroughly revised and completely up to date, the Ninth Edition delivers expanded coverage of mixed-methods designs, scale development, LGBTQ populations, meta-analysis, inferring causality in epidemiological research, how to conduct focus group interviewing and successful program evaluations, and how advances in technology are affecting surveys and qualitative research.
  • A new appendix helps students critically appraise meta-analyses as part of the evidence-based practice process. Also, the appendices on using the library and on random numbers have been updated to make them more consistent with today's online world.
  • The chapter on program evaluation has been revised significantly to put more emphasis on helping students learn how to conduct successful evaluations.
  • Coverage of inferential data analysis has been streamlined and improved, in part by removing the content that is much more likely to be covered in statistics courses. As a result, the Ninth Edition has one chapter on this topic instead of two, retaining and combining the content most relevant to research methods courses.

Features

{{collapseContainerClosed['features'] ? 'Show More' : 'Show Less'}}
  • RESEARCH METHODS FOR SOCIAL WORK offers a balance of quantitative and qualitative research methods that equips students with insight into both methodological approaches. Rather than presenting a divisive or unbalanced picture, the authors demonstrate how quantitative and qualitative methods can complement one another and can be integrated in mixed-methods studies.
  • To ensure student comprehension, the text uses multiple examples that illustrate the material and its relevance for practice. The authors focus on applications to social work practice, including material on gender- and minority-related research and coverage of cross-cultural research.
  • Helping students optimize their study efforts, each chapter provides helpful learning aids, including chapter outlines and overviews, "Main Points," review questions and exercises, and clarifying charts, graphs, and screened examples. In addition, boxed features bring research content to life, illustrating its relevance to social work and its utility in informing social work practice.
  • The text incorporates the most current Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS), as recommended by the Council on Social Work Education.
  • The authors are highly regarded in their respective fields. A widely respected leader in social work, Allen Rubin is a past president of the Society for Social Work and Research. Earl Babbie is well respected in sociology and is the author of the best-selling research methods text in sociology.

Table of Contents

{{collapseContainerClosed['table-of-contents'] ? 'Show More' : 'Show Less'}}
Part I: AN INTRODUCTION TO SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY IN SOCIAL WORK.
1. Why Study Research?
2. Evidence-Based Practice.
3. Factors Influencing the Research Process.
4. Comparing Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods of Inquiry.
Part II: THE ETHICAL, POLITICAL, AND CULTURAL CONTEXT OF SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH.
5. The Ethics and Politics of Social Work Research.
6. Culturally Competent Research.
Part III: PROBLEM FORMULATION AND MEASUREMENT.
7. Problem Formulation.
8. Conceptualization in Quantitative and Qualitative Inquiry.
9. Measurement.
10. Constructing Measurement Instruments.
Part IV: DESIGNS FOR EVALUATING PROGRAMS AND PRACTICE.
11. Causal Inference and Experimental Designs.
12. Quasi-Experimental Designs.
13. Single-Case Evaluation Designs.
14. Program Evaluation.
Part V: DATA-COLLECTION METHODS WITH LARGE SOURCES OF DATA.
15. Sampling.
16. Survey Research.
17. Analyzing Existing Data: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods.
Part VI: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS.
18. Qualitative Research: General Principles.
19. Qualitative Research: Specific Methods.
20. Qualitative Data Analysis.
Part VII: ANALYSIS OF QUANTITATIVE DATA.
21. Descriptive Data Analysis.
22. Inferential Data Analysis.
Part VIII: WRITING RESEARCH PROPOSALS AND REPORTS.
23. Writing Research Proposals and Reports.
Appendix A: Using the Library.
Appendix B: Statistics for Estimating Sampling Error.
Appendix C: Critically Appraising Meta-Analyses.

Compare Buying Options

{{collapseContainerClosed['compare-buying-options'] ? 'Show More' : 'Show Less'}}

MindTap Options

{{collapseContainerClosed['detail_1'] ? 'Show More' : 'Show Less'}}
MindTap
Each MindTap product offers the full, mobile-ready textbook combined with superior and proven learning tools at one affordable price. Students who purchase digital access can add a print option at any time when a print option is available for their course.

This Cengage solution can be seamlessly integrated into most Learning Management Systems (Blackboard, Brightspace by D2L, Canvas, Moodle, and more) but does require a different ISBN for access codes. Please work with your Cengage Learning Consultant to ensure the proper course set up and ordering information. For additional information, please visit the LMS Integration site.

Standalone Digital Access — Ultimate Value

Recommended and most popular

  • ISBN-10: 1337019224
  • ISBN-13: 9781337019224
  • RETAIL £45.00
Instructor Next Steps
Students: Buy now

Textbook Only Options

Traditional eBook and Print Options

{{collapseContainerClosed['detail_0'] ? 'Show More' : 'Show Less'}}

  • ISBN-10: 0357692179
  • ISBN-13: 9780357692172
  • RETAIL £53.00

  • ISBN-10: 0357670973
  • ISBN-13: 9780357670972
  • RETAIL £144.00
Instructor Next Steps
Students: Buy now

Supplements

{{collapseContainerClosed['supplements'] ? 'Show More' : 'Show Less'}}

Cengage provides a range of supplements that are updated in coordination with the main title selection. For more information about these supplements, contact your Learning Consultant.

FOR STUDENTS

International MindTap Social Work Instant Access for Rubin/Babbie’s Empowerment Series: Research Methods for Social Work

ISBN: 9781337019224
International MindTap Social Work Rubin/Babbie’s Empowerment Series: Research Methods for Social Work, 9th Edition, is the digital learning solution that helps instructors engage and transform today's students into critical thinkers. Through paths of dynamic assignments and applications that you can personalize, real-time course analytics, and an accessible reader, MindTap helps you turn cookie cutter into cutting edge, apathy into engagement, and memorizers into higher-level thinkers. As an instructor using MindTap you have at your fingertips the right content and unique set of tools curated specifically for your course, all in an interface designed to improve workflow and save time when planning lessons and course structure. The control to build and personalize your course is all yours’, focusing on the most relevant material while also lowering costs for your students. Stay connected and informed in your course through real time student tracking that provides the opportunity to adjust the course as needed based on analytics of interactivity in the course. All online text media materials accessible through this access code are available in EMEA, Latin America, Asia, and India only.