Counselors are both consumers and producers of research. While having a thorough understanding of the meaning of research for professional practice is essential, it is also important for you to have a basic understanding of how to conduct research. Surveys can be one form of research that can be used for all areas of your counseling practice. Among other things, you can use surveys to determine the degree to which clients are satisfied with your services or to evaluate the effectiveness of a particular counseling program offered by a school, hospital, career center, or agency.
This week, you learn about the steps involved in survey development and how to analyze the associated data. You also develop a survey instrument and describe your procedures for analyzing the data. These experiences will help you to develop a foundational knowledge of survey methodology.
The assignment: (3-4 pages)
Imagine that you are interested in the following research question: "What are the differences in perceptions of self-efficacy among counseling students in online and land-based counseling graduate degree programs?"
In order to investigate this research question:
Develop an operational definition of self-efficacy.
Construct a 10-item survey to measure the self-efficacy of the counseling students. The survey should be based on one of the designs in the Learning Resources.
Briefly discuss your rationale for the items you included.
Briefly describe your method of data collection and data analysis.
Explain the challenges of constructing a survey of this nature. Be specific and use examples.
Course Text:Counseling Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods
Chapter 6, "Predictive Designs"
Chapter 7, "An Overview of Survey Research"