CASE SCENARIO
You are a social work student who is completing a practicum in a nursing home. You have been assigned to work with a social worker who wants to conduct a study on the effects of having residents interact with pets (dogs who are specially trained for this type of work) to see if it will help alleviate their depression. The social worker has the following research question in mind, “Will residents who
interact with specially trained therapy dogs show a decrease in their depression than those who don’t
interact with the dogs?” The social worker has a plan to select a depression inventory and measure the
resident’s depression before interacting with the therapy dog, then have the residents interact with the
dog for one hour a week over an eight-week period, and then measure their depression again using the
same scale. She will measure another group’s depression who will not interact with the dog. The social
worker has asked you to develop a literature review to help her formulate her research.
CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS
Based on the preceding case scenario, answer the following questions:
1. What search terms would you use to conduct your literature review? Give reasons for choosing
those particular terms.
2. What databases would you search?
3. Based on your initial search, would you believe that this research would fall into the quantitative
or qualitative category? Give reasons for your selection.
4. Do you see any ethical issues that might be presented as a result of this study? If yes, how would
you resolve them?
