Research reports are crucial sources of information professionals can use to improve their practice and develop a foundation for further scientific progress. The reports might lack quantitative data or sufficient background to submit a discussed issue’s significance in counseling. For instance, the research with the listwise deletion used for solving a missing data problem reduces its statistical credibility and might present biases (Cook, 2021). Another common problem of the research report is missing elements of methodology a researcher did not include assuming they were not significant for the results (Giordano et al., 2021). The issue affects professionals who study the sources before having the results for their evidence-based practices because they risk making irrelevant conclusions if they are not familiar with all methods used. Reports must be transparent and detailed about the background, data collection, analysis, and limitations to help counselors make correct decisions or use the research in their own studies.
A report is necessary to synthesize the study’s results, validate them, and clarify if the outcomes align with initial purposes and hypotheses. In counseling research, the assignment contains an abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, and reference sections that provide a reader with a structured scope of information about the subject (Giuliano, n. d). The report must include these parts regardless of its methodology because all types of studies require an evidence-based explanation of the problem identified and strategies used for getting outcomes. The abstract highlights the main objectives, research design, and conclusions to encourage further discussion in counseling research. The introduction states the problem, includes brief background, and explains the purposes and hypotheses, while the method discusses the design and qualitative and quantitative approaches utilized throughout the research (Giuliano, n. d). Results and discussion are the vital sections that include conclusions, types of analysis, statistics, acknowledgment of limitations and practical benefits of the study; references mention all literature mentioned in research materials.
Making a research report is similar to standard graduate-level writing because it includes synthesizing broad scope of information and must align with referencing guidelines. Moreover, the structure is common because an identified problem gets through the same stages of description, analysis, and discussion (Balkin & Kleist, 2017). The distinction between the two types of writing is that a research report must include evidence such as previous studies’ results or statistics to submit the problem.
The key components of the research process are selecting a topic, reviewing the literature, stating the question and hypotheses, data collection, analysis, and conclusions discussion. The first step is significant as it determines the course of study; thus, a counselor must carefully check the subjects and eliminate biases. A literature review is vital to conduct to submit the urgency for exploring the background and identifying problems worth studying. After a topic is selected and examined, hypotheses can be stated, and relevant data can be collected from diverse sources. The latter is significant because using literature reviews, and qualitative and quantitative research conducted influences the study outcomes, and the information collected from primary sources must align with what was found in the secondary (Balkin & Kleist, 2017). Analysis and conclusions synthesize the evidence and identify how the results are useful in the selected field. Every counselor reading research must be aware of these components in conducting their own or studying other sources because if one or similar of them is missing, the information’s credibility is questionable.
Objectivity and subjectivity in social research have philosophical roots as these conceptions determine how a researcher’s individual assumptions and perception of society-developed events influence study results. Furthermore, both factors commonly appear throughout the process because although an issue might be selected based on a personal viewpoint, it will still be explored in a particular historical moment and with the methods developed and influenced by others (SAGE Publications Ltd, 2014). Indeed, in SAGE Publications’ video (2014), the expert claims that the “social situation itself is not just simply a methodological one, but it’s also the context of the society that the sociologist, for example, is working in.” Objectivity and subjectivity inevitably appear in research and influence the methodological issues, such as biases, sampling, and categorization. For instance, if a study explores a counseling problem that varies among patients, subjectivity might force the researcher to draw conclusions based on the more relevant cases to their initial viewpoint. It is vital to remember that social study results impact further practice; thus, an author should balance the objective and subjective aspects of their claims and the sources they select.
Research reports are valuable sources for all professionals who want to apply EBP in their operations, yet they should consider the time necessary for studying the sources.
References
Balkin, R. S., & Kleist, D. M. (2017). Counseling research: A practitioner-scholar approach. American Counseling Association.
Cook, R. M. (2021). Addressing missing data in quantitative counseling research. Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation, 12(1), 43-53.
Giordano, A. L., Schmit, M. K., & Schmit, E. L. (2021). Best practice guidelines for publishing rigorous research in counseling. Journal of Counseling & Development, 99(2), 123–133.
Giuliano, T. (n. d). Guide for writing in psychology.
Lyon, A. R., Stanick, C., & Pullmann, M. D. (2018). Toward high‐fidelity treatment as usual: Evidence‐based intervention structures to improve usual care psychotherapy. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 25(4), 70.
SAGE Publications Ltd. (2014). Objectivity and subjectivity in social research.