In your work at a residential treatment center (RTC) for adolescents, several problems related to the delivery of group and recreational therapy services to the residents have become evident. The following represents the issues:
Residents are not opening up during group process meetings (there seems to be a lack of trust or cohesion in the group).
When reporting during individual therapy sessions, residents find it difficult to describe how the recreational therapy activity for the week has helped them with resolution of their issues.
The boss has observed that during the group process meetings, many of the residents are not paying attention (i.e., they are not engaged in the flow of the session).
The boss reports that he or she has noticed that when residents return from recreational therapy activities, many of them are complaining about being sore (pain in their muscles).
Although the program director would like to have all of the questions answered, he or she has asked that you select 1 of the questions (the one that would be most interesting to you). The assignment he or she has given you is to propose a research process that will answer your selected question. The organization is committed to answering these questions, so it will fund the study that you propose. Not only will you be able to answer the question for your RTC, but the corporate office has also committed funds to send you to a conference focused on residential treatment center effectiveness to present your findings. These facts emphasize the need to ensure a well-designed study that will lead to accurate, reliable, and valid results.
Your proposal needs to include the following sections:
Introduction: Describe the current issue (the focus of the proposal should be 1 of the items from the list above) and how you developed an understanding of it.
Research Question: Describe the process that you used to arrive at the question that you are proposing (from Week 1), and clearly state the actual question.
Literature Review (from Weeks 2 and 4): It is here that you describe what is already known in the general literature about the issue and the question that you are proposing.
To fully understand the question posed from Week 1 and to effectively and thoroughly answer it, you will find at least 6 sources (all sources must be a peer-reviewed sources) related to the topic of the question you have proposed. You will then write a literature review that summarizes what is already known about the topic. Keep in mind that this is an effort to address an area that is important to your boss. You must ensure that the sources are credible and directly related to the question that you posed. The review should include the following:
Introduction: This section discusses what will be covered in the literature review. It must contain a statement of the research question that is being explored in the review. This should be 1-2 paragraphs, at the most.
Body of the review: This contains a discussion of the sources that were found in relation to the research question or topic. It is divided into sections based on what is being covered. You should use headers and subheaders in accordance with APA standards to organize the body.
Conclusion: This section is a very brief statement of what was covered in the body of the review as it relates to the research question or topic. It should end with a comment that addresses why the study is needed (i.e., it will fill a gap in the body of knowledge about the topic under study).
Methodology (from Week 3): In this section of your proposal, you will describe the type of research design (i.e., quantitative or qualitative) and the method that you will use to answer the proposed question. This should also include information related to who will participate, the materials that you will need to complete the study, and the procedure that you will follow.
You will present this proposal to the regional vice president of operations for the organization. Please keep this in mind as you prepare it.