Practical Approaches to Applied Research and Program Evaluation for Helping Professionals

Practical Approaches to Applied Research and Program Evaluation for Helping Professionals is a comprehensive textbook that presents master’s-level counseling students with the skills and knowledge they need to successfully evaluate the effectiveness of mental health services and programs. Each chapter, aligned with 2016 Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) standards, guides counseling students through study design and evaluation fundamentals that will help them understand existing research and develop studies to best assess their own applied research questions. Readers will learn the basics of research concepts as applied to evaluative tasks, the art of matching evaluative methods to questions, specific considerations for practice-based evaluative tasks, and practical statistical options matched to practice-based tasks. Readers can also turn to the book’s companion website to access worksheets for practitioner and student planning exercises, spreadsheets with formulas for basic data analysis, a sample database, PowerPoint outlines , and discussion questions and activities aligned to each chapter.

Preface. Acknowledgments I. Embarking on an Inquiry 1. Where Science Meets Practice 2. Methodological Concepts 3. Measurement & Statistical Concepts 4. Strategies for Program Development, Scientific Inquiry, and Program Evaluation II. Using Research and Program Evaluation in Practice 5. The Matter of Question-Design Fit 6. Surveying Groups of People 7. Understanding Lived Experiences 8. Predicting Relationships Between Variables 9. Evaluating Change Within an Individual 10. Measuring Change with a Single Group 11. Evaluating Differences Between Groups 12. Combining Findings Across Studies or Sites III. Putting Evaluation Practice into Motion 13. Writing Goals, Objectives, and Outcomes 14. Using Literature to Support Practice 15. Selecting Assessment Measures 16. Managing Data 17. Reporting to Stakeholders 18. Closing the Loop 19. Sharing with Other Professionals 20. Addressing Ethical, Legal, and Cultural Considerations

Casey A. Barrio Minton, PhD, NCC, is a professor of counselor education and program coordinator for clinical mental health counseling at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is a past president of the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling, the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, and Chi Sigma Iota International. A. Stephen Lenz, PhD, LPC, is an associate professor of counselor education at the University of Mississippi. He is a past president of the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling and editor of Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation.