gn in presented below:
TREATMENT
TESTING With Family Members No Family Members
Groups will not be randomly assigned to treatment conditions due to the volunteer nature of the study (both alcoholics and family members cannot be forced to participate in the program and must volunteer their participation). The inability to randomly assign subjects to the treatment condition means that the research design must be considered to be quasi-experimental or descriptive in nature.
As noted by Best (1981), this type of research approach and design has several distinct features. First, according to Best, this type of research design is referred to as quasi-experimental because it deals with the relationships between nonmanipulated variables in a natural, rather than artificial setting; since the events or conditions have already occurred or exist, the researcher selects the relevant variables for an analysis of their relationships. This is the essence of what is going to be done in the proposed research.
Other features of the research design will include hypothesis formulation and testing, the use of the logical methods of inductive-deductive reasoning to arrive at generalizations, and complete and accurate descriptions of all data collection and analysis procedures.
The population from which subjects will be drawn consists of all inpatients about to begin treatment at Bronx Veteran's Medical Center for a pre-diagnosed problem of alcoholism who meet subject-selection criteria. These criteria consist of the facts that the hospital has certified subjects as alcohol dependent and verified that they have had the drinking problem for no less than two years and no more than three years.
The hospital admission records of all people in the population will be examined and sorted into two groups: (1) those alcoholics who have at least one family member agreeing to participate in ...