Research in Health Care Settings

This is the first volume to focus on a substantive area of research rather than on a particular method. It describes the whole process of research from setting up and conducting the project to interpreting and publishing results. Much current research is cited in this very useful American volume. --Journal of the Institute of Health Education "Veteran and neophyte researchers will find this book extremely valuable. . . . Kathleen E. Grady and Barbara Strudler Wallston simplify potentially complex and boring material and can be used as a quick reference. Combining an easily readable style, breezy approach and technical insights makes Research in Health Care Settings an excellent contribution to the libraries of all social scientists." --Evaluation Practice An individual′s behavior and lifestyle are critical factors for preventing and managing diseases. Social scientists and health professionals are increasingly studying the behavior-health link in the new areas of behavior medicine and health psychology. Research in Health Care Settings is the first book to review social science research methods used in health care settings. This important work speaks both to health care professionals conducting behavioral research and social scientists doing research in health care settings. It provides social scientists with a better understanding of health settings, and health care professionals with better training in social science methodology. This careful step-by-step guide to designing and carrying out a study in behavioral medicine is loaded with real-life examples from health care settings. It reflects the needs of interdisciplinary research projects, not idealized research situations. A useful guide for students of research methods in medical and allied health programs, and for health professionals and social scientists studying the behavior-health link.

Kathleen E. Grady, Ph.D, is founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Behavioral Medicine in East Longmeadow, MA. Barbara Strudler Wallston1,3 (1943–1987), a fine feminist scholar who died young, was the recipient of many awards. Wallston possessed awesome organizational skills and rose to early leadership in organizations fostering women’s careers within psychology and the development of the psychology of women. She was a leader in the Association for Women in Psychology as well as the sixth president of the APA’s Division on the Psychology of Women. Wallston also made important contributions to psychological research. She developed a health locus of control scale with her then husband, Kenneth Wallston, which is used internationally to measure people’s beliefs about what controls their health status. She also worked in the area of dual-career couples, stereotyping, and feminist methodology in psychology.