Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book outlines the major concepts, principles, and issues to consider in qualitative analysis. It offers an overview of a few common statistical tests and data analysis. The book explains an overview of program evaluation and a brief discussion of logic models, an increasingly common program evaluation tool. It identifies the major concepts and issues related to research ethics in the context of professional social work practice, drawing on the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics to consider the guidelines for ethical research conduct. The book reviews the literature, it helps to understand why and how to read and think about what others have said and done in our topic of interest, especially in the empirical literature. It describes the role and meaning of reliability and validity in instrument design.