Handbook for Beginning Mental Health Researchers

In fulfilling the need for a beginner's manual in mental health research, the authors have written an insightful exposition of the fundamental factors essential to good research. This articulately written manual teaches how to formulate a clear hypothesis, select a representative population, conduct a valid study, and describe results in an intelligible manner. The experienced authors thoroughly explain the need for acquiring a research attitude--an inquiring and critical mind--and then discuss how mental health research is done, using anecdotal case reports, studies with only a few variables, and complex investigations of multiple variables as examples. A wide range of research possiblilities is explored, including those that require little or no financial support.

Peter Hauri, PhD, is Co-Director of both the Dartmouth Sleep Disorder Center and the Dartmouth Behavioral Medicine Section, He teaches graduate and undergraduate level classes at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. Dr. Hauri is a nationally and internationally recognized expert on insomnia and sleep disorders., Charlotte Sanborn, BPhD, is Director of the Faculty/Employee Assistance Program at Dartmouth College. She earned a BPhD degree in Behavioral Philosophy of Mental Health from the Pacific Western University. Her most recent research and clinical interest is in young adult suicide. She is President of the American Association of Suicidology, and a consulting editor for the Journal of Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior., John Corson, PhD, is Professor of Psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School, Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Dartmouth College, and Chief Psychologist at the White River Junction, Vermont Veterans Administration Hospital. He is the author of many publications on the topics of learning theory, stress, and psychophysiology., Jeffrey Violette, MD, is former psychiatrist at the Community Health Counseling Services in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine. He completed his pathology residency at the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont and his psychiatry residency at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.

Contents Foreword - Introduction - Why Should You Do Mental Health Research? - How Has Mental Health Research Been Done? - How to See Each Client as an Experiment - Ethical Issues in Mental Health Research - How to Decide on an Area for Research - How to Review the Literature - How to Decide on a Research Question - How to Match Research Design to the Research Question - How to Select the Varibles to be Studied - Frequently Used Assessment Devices - How to Carry Through Your Research Project - How to Analyze Your Results - How to Write a Paper for Publication - Writing and Publishing From a Resident's Point of View - References - Appendix I: The Nuremberg Code - Appendix II: Declaration of Helsinki: Recommendations Guiding Physicians in Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects - Index