su2016 mft 620 wk 1 intro
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work eintroTRANSCRIPT
STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES AND
RESEARCH METHODS IN MFT
Kirsten Lind Seal, PhD, LMFTAssistant Professor
Tonight’s Agenda Introductions Do we need this? Worldview and paradigms in research Definitions How they work together Syllabus/housekeeping
Introductions Name Where are you in the program? Former careers/life experience Family information that you would like to
share Experiences with research? What are you hoping to get out of this class? What are your hopes for your future career
as an MFT?
Me…currently Kirsten PhD from the University of Minnesota,
Twin Cities, Family Social Science Department, Couple and Family Therapy Specialization
Master’s in Counseling Psychology with a minor in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota
Clinical workPrivate practice since 1.1.11Clinical work with refugees in Spanish and
French at WalkIn Counseling Center – 4 yearsCo-Parenting classes at Headway Emotional
Services in Spanish and EnglishWomen’s group at El Centro (in Spanish)Abbott Northwestern Movement Therapy Adult
Inpatient GroupsFairview Riverside Child and Adolescent
Inpatient Unit
Researcher Post Doc LGBTQ research – trans youth Marital First Responders training (dissertation research) Family Education Diabetes Series Father-daughter relationship (qualitative study) How the arts heal – arts work in trauma (Liberian group) Couples and the New Business Venture
Publications○ Dissertation published in Journal of Marital and Family Therapy○ 3 Chapters in textbook on Intimate Relationships○ Web modules on Attachment○ Qualitative Health Research on Diabetes and Native American
people○ Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy
Teaching
Currently ○ Teaching MFT 690 all sections○ Teaching MFT 620A Statistical Techniques and
Research Methods in MFTFormerly
○ Contemporary Family Therapy Theories at UW Stout○ MFT Ethics at St. Cloud State University
Training in pedagogy○ St. Mary’s University Teaching Fellow 2013-2014○ Preparing Future Faculty from University of Minnesota
What do we need research for? We are therapists, not scientists…
Why do we do research in MFT? Take a minute to think about this
Turn to your neighbor and discuss for 3 minutes
Bring it back to the class
Time for a break…10 minutes
The field of MFT Master’s level 80% work in clinical settings
However…we need research to help us understand what we know and what we do not yet know
Some important concepts Ontology – concerned with the nature of
realityMaterialist ontological position – no ghosts
Epistemology – what we can know about reality (social behavior in this case) and how we can know itHow do you discover/understand/test it?Is there only one way of knowing? Or are there
many ways?
A quick way to think about this… What shall I study? RQ
Whom shall I study? Sample
How shall I study? Research method
A paradigm or worldview How we see the world Consists of a particular theoretical bent It is the lens through which we explain
things – for example, attachment theory More complicated than quantitative and
qualitative – but we will start here…
What does it mean… To be a “Research-informed clinician?”
Research – What is it? Originates with a question/problem Clear articulation of a goal Divides principle problem into more manageable
steps (or sub-problems) Guided by specific problem/question/hypothesis Requires a specific plan/procedure Relies on critical assumptions Collection and interpretation of data to resolve
the problem/question Cyclical
Statistics – what are they? Thoughts?
Definition The science that deals with the
collection, classification, analysis and interpretation of numerical facts or data, and that, by use of mathematical theories of probability, imposes order or regularity on aggregates of more or less disparate elements
The numerical facts or data themselves
How do they work together? Statistics are one way of figuring out an
answer to a research question/problem
There are many other ways
You don’t need to be able to produce statistics in order to understand how they work
Research Methods and Statistics Research methods are guided by our
paradigm If that paradigm is more positivist and
quantitative, then we will likely be using statistics to answer our question
Three main ways of discovering Qualitative
More subjectiveUses words not numbers as data
QuantitativeUses numbersTests hypotheses
Mixed-methodsUses bothMore full and more difficult to do if you are actually
conducting research
One way to think about research…
Now let’s look at the syllabus
Goal of this class: Becoming a good and critical consumer
of research
Using it to inform your clinical practice
Maybe inspire you to go further later on if that turns out to be part of your journey
So what might you be interested in finding out? Research autobiography due next week
Answer these two questions:○ What is it you are interested in finding out?
What is the big question?○ Why are you interested in doing this? What is
so important about this topic?
See you next week!