The purpose of this paper is to develop appropriate research skills to ensure that effective treatment strategies are selected on the basis of review of professional literature when developing a counseling group.

Hypothetical Scenario:

You have been hired as a clinical mental health counselor. Your agency asks you to do a needs assessment to determine which clinical population (defined by age, gender, clinical presenting issue, or other criteria) could best be served by the formation of a new counseling group. In speaking with fellow counselors and surveying clients, you see a clear need for a group that pertains to (enter your choice here). Your administrator first asks you to conduct a review of literature to ensure that evidence-based practices include group counseling for this particular specialty population.

Tasks:

Seek topic approval from your instructor to ensure that your topic is narrow enough. After conducting a review of the literature, address the following:

• This paper has four content sections:
  • Provide a brief review of recent literature on the selected population or clinical issue (e.g., depression).
  • Analyze group theory, techniques, and interventions that are evidence-based recommendations for the selected population or clinical issue (e.g., effectiveness of group counseling with depression). Explain the need for a variety of techniques and interventions.
  • Identify and explain cultural and developmental considerations for the specific population that the group will include (e.g., Latina adolescents in group counseling).
  • Analyze ethical and legal considerations for group counseling especially relevant to the selected specific population or clinical issue (e.g., confidentiality with groups or ethical/legal issues working with minors).
• The topic of this special topic paper will be the same population or clinical issue used in the group counseling proposal assignment in M6 Assignment 2 LASA.
• Your final submission should be an 8- to 10-page paper (including the cover page and references) in a Microsoft Word document. Cite a minimum of five scholarly sources. At least one of your references should be from the Journal for Specialists in Group Work. Use the most current APA format.

 

In Week 2, you were introduced to the bystander effect (Darley & Latané, 1968). The perceived diffusion of responsibility makes bystanders less likely to intervene in an emergency situation. It might be tempting to assume that aggressors and the bystanders who do nothing to intervene are just “bad” people; however, the reasons for how and why these behaviors occur are much more complex. In this assignment, you will consider how factors such as obedience to authority, perceived power, and diffused responsibility in the presence of others may explain varied responses to potential or actual harm to others.

Reference

Darley, J.M. & Latané, B. (1968). Bystander interview in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8(4), 377-383.

To Prepare:

• Review the Hock (2013) readings on social psychology theories and principles. Think about the influence of environmental and social context on behavior.
• Reflect on the following social media scenario:
  You are reading posts in your favorite social media site, when you come across a post by a 19-year-old male. He writes that he was raped at a party last night and he’s afraid they will post pictures of it online. He is contemplating suicide. You notice three types of behaviors in the comments to him:

1. A small group of individuals are using profanity and belittling him. They are encouraging him to commit suicide.
2.  A larger group of individuals are making supportive comments and providing the number for a crisis help line.
3. Many of his online followers have not responded to his post.

• Think about how social psychology theories or principles could be applied to explain the types of comments made to the 19-year-old in the scenario.

By Day 7

Submit a 2- to 3-page paper that addresses the following:

• Describe the impact of social context on conformity, obedience, and helping behaviors.
• Explain how social psychology theories or principles could be applied to account for each of the responses in the scenario (e.g., which principles/theories could explain response type A; which principles/theories could explain response type B, and so on). Be sure to support your assertions with scholarly content.
• Provide at least one recommendation to help reduce the derogatory comments or increase the number of supportive comments in the scenario, based on what you have learned about social psychology.

Note: Support your statements with specific references to the Learning Resources and any additional sources you identify using both in-text citations and references. It is strongly recommended that you include proper APA format and citations.

 

Week 4 – Assignment

Research and Critique a Qualitative Study

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, be sure to have read all the required resources for the week.

Locate a peer-reviewed qualitative research study in the Ashford University Library on the topic you chose in Week One for your Final Research Proposal. You may choose to use a qualitative study that was included in the literature review you used in the Week One assignment by searching the reference list for qualitative research studies on the topic. It is also acceptable to utilize a qualitative research study on your topic that was not included in your literature review.

Once you have located an appropriate qualitative study, identify the specific qualitative research design used. Summarize the main points of the study including information on the research question, sampling strategy, research design, data analysis method(s), findings, and conclusion(s). Evaluate the published qualitative research study focusing on and identifying the researcher’s paradigm or worldview and any evidence of reflexivity described in the report. Explain whether or not potential biases were adequately addressed by the researchers. Describe how the researchers applied ethical principles in the research study.

The Research and Critique a Qualitative Study

• Must be three to four double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• Must use at least one peer-reviewed source from the Ashford University Library in addition to those required for this week.
• Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.

 

As with the previous week’s Discussion, this Discussion assists in solidifying your understanding of statistical testing by engaging in some data analysis. This week you will once again work with a real, secondary dataset to construct a research question, perform categorical data analysis that answers the question, and interpret the results.

Whether in a scholarly or practitioner setting, good research and data analysis should have the benefit of peer feedback. For this Discussion, you will post your response to the hypothesis test, along with the results. Be sure and remember that the goal is to obtain constructive feedback to improve the research and its interpretation, so please view this as an opportunity to learn from one another.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Review Chapters 10 and 11 of the Frankfort-Nachmias & Leon-Guerrero course text and the media program found in this week’s Learning Resources related to bivariate categorical tests.
• Create a research question using the General Social Survey dataset that can be answered using categorical analysis.

By Day 3

Use SPSS to answer the research question. Post your response to the following:

1. Include the General Social Survey Dataset’s mean of Age to verify the dataset you used.
2. What is your research question?
3. What is the null hypothesis for your question?
4. What research design would align with this question?
5. What dependent variable was used and how is it measured?
6. What independent variable is used and how is it measured?
7. If you found significance, what is the strength of the effect?
8. Explain your results for a lay audience and further explain what the answer is to your research question.

Be sure to support your Main Post and Response Post with reference to the week’s Learning Resources and other scholarly evidence in APA Style.

 

Wagner, III, W. E. (2020). Using IBM® SPSS® statistics for research methods and social science statistics (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

• Chapter 7, “Cross-Tabulation and Measures of Association for Nominal and Ordinal Variables”
• Chapter 11, “Editing Output” (previously read in Week 2, 3, 4, 5. 6, 7, and 8)

 

Frankfort-Nachmias, C., Leon-Guerrero, A., & Davis, G. (2020). Social statistics for a diverse society (9th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

• Chapter 9, “Bivariate Tables” (pp. 281-325)
• Chapter 10, “The Chi-Square Test and Measures of Association” (pp. 327-373)

• Five situational essay questions
• At least three solid paragraphs are required for each question
• Unlimited time
• You may use references, but you must properly cite any references used

Questions are not available until test has started, Time is unlimited but will need done is a little as 3 hrs. I will give the questions to the winning bidder when the bidder is ready to start the assignment.