Sociology for Social Work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Sociology for Social Work - Essay Example Applied research on the other hand, as postulated by Pickering (2001), has to do with pursuing knowledge so as to enhance program application or policy assessment. In most instances, social programs are assessed on the basis of their effectiveness in diminishing an experienced problem or in enacting desirable changes. Information retrieved by way of applied research can be inculcated into social programs like the one Ms. W was signed into. It is characteristic of all sociological research to commence with a theory. As such, the research identifies a client, for our case Ms W, whereupon he attempts an explanation, ultimately offering the derived explanation for the exhibited behaviour patterns. As postulated by Frankfort-Nachmias and Leon-Guerrero (2003), the researcher identifies causal relationships between variables. Variables in sociological research are features of individuals or items that ideally can take on two or more values. As sociologists try to explain Ms W’s behaviour they may give a specific explanation regarding the relationship that characterises two variables, for instance, the husbands death and her denial to own her problems. Ms W. denial can be measured according to a variety of variables. These could be her lack of acknowledgment of having paranoid schizophrenia, her s trange behaviour in public as well as her refusal to take medication. The researcher states the relationship that exists between these variables in a hypothesis as Astbury (1996) contends. A hypothesis is a tentative statement which tends to assume to know how the variables relate to each other. A researcher could assume that upon the death of Ms. W’s husband together with the frustration she received from her dealings with the government, she was overwhelmed and thus broke down into paranoiac schizophrenia. Research methods are constituted by a combination of