1. CHAPTER 3 Doing the groundwork
Research methods in clinical psychology: An introduction for students and practitioners Chris Barker, Nancy Pistrang, and Robert Elliott
CHAPTER 3
Doing the groundwork

2. Groundwork stage Formulating questions
Political and organisational issues

3. Formulating the research questions
Choosing the topic
Research questions
Discovery-oriented (exploratory)
Hypothesis testing (confirmatory)
(Hypothetico-deductive model of science)
Classification of question types
Theoretical basis of research
Proposal

4. Types of research question
Description
Descriptive-comparison
Correlation
Causality
Measurement

5. The politics of research in clinical settings
Organisational issues
Opposition by clinical staff
rational reasons
research is threatening
Gaining trust
Ownership of data (and authorship)

6. Structure of Introduction
General statement of problem area
Literature review
Summary of literature
main findings
methodological weaknesses
Description of present study
Research questions or hypotheses