| CODE | COU5004 | ||||||||
| TITLE | Counselling Research - An Introduction | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Counselling | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | The study-unit is the first of two modules focusing on transcultural counselling research. The Module will explore the epistemological and ontological foundations of counselling research, addressing how positivism, interpretivism, the critical paradigm and postmodern, poststructuralist and posthuman methodology have had on quantitative and qualitative research, in order to help students appreciate the paradigms of the construction of the research question, process and design in qualitative and quantitative research. Sampling, validity, reliability, credibility and trustworthiness in social research will be discussed. The goal of this study-unit is to explore the main tools available in qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. Ethics and research integrity will also be discussed, in order to help students prepare for their research proposal. The study-unit will also present cultural issues in research. Study-Unit Aims: This study-unit aims at: - Giving students a grounding in the philosophy of social science research, with a particular focus on counselling research; - Familiarizing students with core issues involved in the research process and research design; - Introducing different forms of quantitative and qualitative research methodology; - Discussing ethical principles in counselling research; - Appreciating the cultural element in research. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Explain the philosophical underpinnings of counselling research; - Critique the use of different methodologies in counselling research; - Describe the various qualitative and quantitative methodologies; - Compare qualitative and quantitative research methodologies; - Discuss cultural elements in research. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Formulate appropriate research questions; - Choose correct research design for research question; - Design research processes and designs that are appropriate to the research questions; - Critique Published research; - Implement strategies to address cultural issues in research. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2017). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Sage publications. (or latest edition). - Etherington, K. (2004). Becoming a reflexive researcher: Using ourselves in research. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. - Holman Jones, S., Adams, T. E., & Ellis, C. (2016). Handbook of autoethnography. Routledge. - McLeod, J. (2015) Doing Counselling Research. London: Sage Publications. - Ravitch, S. M., & Riggan, M. (2016). Reason & rigor: How conceptual frameworks guide research. Sage Publications. - Creswell, J.W. (2013). Qualitative Inquiry and research design. Choosing among five traditions (3rd ed.). London: Sage. Supplementary Readings: - American Psychological Association (2019). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 7th Edition. American Psychological Association: United.(always use the latest edition) - Andrews, M., Squire, C. & Tamboukou, M. (2013). Narrative Research. Sage. - Atkinson, P. & Hammersley, M. (2008). Ethnography: principles in practice. Routledge. - Babbie, E. R. (2001). The Basics of Social Research. Wadsworth Publishing. - Babbie, E.R. (2007). Adventures in Social Research: Data analysis using SPSS 14.0 and 15.0 for Windows. - Berg, B.l. (2004). Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. Sage - Black, T.R., (1999), Doing Quantitative Research in the Social Sciences: An Integrated Approach to Research Design, Measurement and Statistics, SAGE Publications Ltd, ISBN-13: 978-0761953531. - Bloomberg, L.D. and Volpe, M. (2008), Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation. Sage. - Box-Steffensmeier, J.M., Freeman, J.R., Hitt, M.P., Pevehouse, J.C.W., (2014), Time Series Analysis for the Social Sciences (Analytical Methods for Social Research), Cambridge University Press, ISBN-13: 978- 0521691550. - Bryman, A. (2008) Social Research Methods, 4th Edition. Oxford University Press. - Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry. - Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. SAGE Publications. - Denzin, N.K. & Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds.) (Latest Edition). The Sage handbook of qualitative research. Sage. - Denzin, N.K. &Lincoln, G. (2002) Handbook of Qualitative Research. Sage. - Etherington, K. (2004). Becoming a reflexive researcher: Using ourselves in research. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. - Field, A. (2013). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics. Sage. - Hamilton, L.C., (2012), Statistics with STATA: Version 12, Duxbury Press, ISBN-13: 978-0840064639. - Holman Jones, S., Adams, T. E., & Ellis, C. (2016). Handbook of autoethnography. Routledge. - Jarvie, I.C., J. Zamora-Bonilla. (2011). The Sage Handbook of the Philosophy of the Social Sciences. Sage. - Jupp, V., (2006), The SAGE Dictionary of Social Research Methods, SAGE Publications Ltd, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9780857020116. - McElreath, R., (2015), Statistical Rethinking: A Bayesian Course with Examples in R and Stan (Chapman & Hall/CRC Texts in Statistical Science), Chapman and Hall/CRC, ISBN-13: 978-1482253443. |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Additional Notes: Students are expected to attend all the lectures and prepare themselves by completing assigned readings prior to the respective lecture. | ||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Michelle Camillieri Liberato Camilleri Ruth Falzon Sandro Lanfranco |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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