I’ve been working on several different projects for my social work classes, and, in general, learning a lot about what social work really is and my place in the field. For many of my courses, I’ve been assigned papers for which I can choose the topic. In my Discovering Evidence class, I just recently wrote a paper about the relationship between sexual victimization and eating disorder symptoms, and I found myself really enjoying writing the paper. I’ve also enjoyed writing papers for my Ethics class and my Lifespan Development class. It has made me wonder whether I might be interested in a career in research or even macro level social work rather than just micro level practice. I think it’s so exciting to look at existing research and piece it together to find gaps and limitations upon which future research can build, and then to determine, from that knowledge, what new research is needed.

I also am really enjoying learning about research designs and statistics in my Discovering Evidence class. While I realize that these might not be the most interesting topics to many people, I am fascinated by how much sense they make. It’s all so systematic and scientific, even though the subject matter is human beings, who by nature are neither systematic nor scientific. Although it would be possible to see the use of scientific methodologies in the social sciences as somehow taking away from people’s humanity, I tend to see it in another way. I see the scientific methodologies as ways to overcome some of the limitations of humanity, with its inherent subjectivity and bias, in order to pursue and create new knowledge.

I’m excited for my research project, whatever I ultimately decide to focus it on. It will give me a chance to apply everything I’ve learned and to walk through the steps of research myself, from literature review to research design to statistical analysis. I’m especially excited that this project will be ‘real’ research. I will be going through the required processes which will enable me to work directly with research participants, and the study will be designed with the intent of adding to the existing body of research, not just examining or critically reviewing it. I will have the opportunity to try to create new knowledge, and even if my project ends up yielding statistically insignificant results, it is still real research which can be included in future literature reviews by other social scientists.