Category Archives: Research Methodology

Question Can speech and language therapy help people with schizophrenia? How? For example, by improving self-verbal monitoring and inner speech (if we assume that these patients exhibit distorted self-verbal monitoring or inner speech). My reply The state of the art At the time of writing, the role of speech and language therapy for people with schizophrenia […]

ABSTRACT Writing a research proposal requires clarity about which methodological, ethical and political questions need to be answered at each stage of research. This article presents a table of relevant questions that will assist in the planning of a robust research strategy. How to write a research proposal Methodological, ethical and political questions STAGE OF […]

ABSTRACT Speech therapy, as a social science, uses several research tools that are common to the social sciences in general. It is convenient to identify the main research styles as experiments, surveys and ethnography. This article expands these categories and includes a discussion of standardized tests, observations, and meaning and language-based methods. The article concludes with […]

ABSTRACT The strengths and weaknesses of the three principle social scientific research methods of experiment, survey and ethnography are highlighted. For each, the relative emphasis placed on the setting, reliability, generalizability, description of explanatory variables and control of extraneous is summarized. The following table summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of the three principle social scientific research styles. experiments surveys […]

ABSTRACT The cycle of enquiry is a method of moving away from common-sense reactions and towards an examination of appropriate evidence. An evidence-based discipline? What do we mean when we say that Speech-language pathology (speech therapy) is an evidence-based discipline? The basic principle is that it is necessary to have some means of evaluating the answers […]

ABSTRACT Incidence and prevalence are measures used to describe patterns of disease in communities. Data on preschool stuttering is used to demonstrate how to calculate an incidence rate and a prevalence rate. Definition of disease The term disease is used here in its broadest sense to mean any impairment (whether psychological, physiological or anatomical) that interferes with […]

What is ‘normal’? What do we mean when we say something is ‘normal’?  Reflect on what you think is ‘normal’ for each of the following: women’s height eyesight behavior when waiting for a bus consumption of alcohol Each of your answers to the above will likely reflect different approaches to defining ‘normality’. Note that there […]

ABSTRACT One way of defining normality and abnormality is to ask whether certain behaviors or styles of functioning cause personal distress. Does it hurt? Another way of defining ‘abnormality’ is to ask whether certain behaviors or styles of functioning cause distress to the individual concerned. Think about your response to what you consider to be […]

ABSTRACT Cultural approaches to normality mean that what is defined as ‘abnormal’ depends on expectations and standards of society, and thus on political, economic and social factors. Expectations and standards What is normal in terms of the simple act of waiting for a bus? In the UK it is expected that people will organize themselves […]

ABSTRACT Medical approaches to normality stress the idea of uniformity of physical and psychological functioning across individuals. Limitations and disability How did you define ‘normal’ eyesight? (see Definitions of Normality) The ability to see clearly without eye glasses? It is unlikely that you wrote down short- or long-sightedness as an example of ‘normal’ eyesight, even though […]