Handbook of Methodological Approaches to Community-Based Research: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods

by Leonard A. Jason (Editor), David S Glenwick (Editor)

The field of community psychology has focused on individuals' and groups' behavior in interaction with their social contexts, with an emphasis on prevention, early intervention, wellness promotion, and competency development. Over the past few decades, however, community-based applications of the newest research methodologies have not kept pace with the development of theory and methodology with regard to multilevel data collection and analysis.

The Handbook of Methodological Approaches to Community-Based Research is intended to aid the community-oriented researcher in learning about and applying cutting-edge quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches. The Handbook presents a number of innovative methodologies relevant to community-based research, illustrating their applicability to specific social problems and projects. These methodological approaches explore individuals and groups in interaction with their communities and provide examples of how to implement and evaluate interventions conducted at the community level. The chapters discuss how particular methodologies can be used to help gather and analyze data dealing with community-based issues. Furthermore, they illustrate the benefits that occur when community theorists, interventionists, and methodologists work together to better understand complicated person-environment systems and the change processes within communities.

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

Leonard A. Jason is a professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, where he also directs the Center for Community Research. His chief professional interests include the study of chronic fatigue syndrome, smoking, smoking cessation, and Oxford House recovery homes for substance abuse. Jason's interest in chronic fatigue syndrome began when he was diagnosed with the condition in 1990 after having mononucleosis.

Jason is a former president of the Division of Community Psychology of the American Psychological Association (APA) and a past editor of The Community Psychologist. Jason has edited or written 23 books, and he has published 541 articles and 77 book chapters on CFS, recovery homes, the prevention of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug abuse, media interventions and program evaluation. He has served on 83 Thesis Committees (of which he chaired 57), and 70 Dissertation Committees (of which he chaired 36). He has served on the editorial boards of ten psychological journals. Jason has served on review committees of the National Institutes of Health, and he has received over $26,000,000 in federal research grants. He was also a board member and vice-president for an advocacy group called International Association of CFS/ME.

He is a member the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee. In 1999, Jason published an epidemiological study of chronic fatigue syndrome among United States adults. Jason helped organize two major American Psychological Association sponsored conferences on research methods for community psychology and recently co-edited a book on this topic.

Jason has served on the editorial boards of journals including:
-Prevention in Human Services, 1986-1995; renamed Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community, 1996–present.
-Journal of Community Psychology, 1983-1986, 2007–present.
-The Journal of Primary Prevention, 1983-1986. Appointed Associate Editor, 1986-2007.
-Special Services in the Schools; renamed Journal of Applied School Psychology 1984-2008.

Jason received the 1997 Distinguished Contributions to Theory and Research Award and the 2007 Special Contribution to Public Policy award of the Society for Community Research and Action. He was presented the 1997 CFIDS Support Network ACTION Champion Award by the Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome Association of America.

He received the Dutch ME Foundation International ME Award in 2003. He has been awarded three media awards from the APA.

Reviews

[Maris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great overview of a variety of methods with a brief introduction to each. a good starting point to conduct community-based research