The module will enable students to develop awareness of the way research is shaped by worldview, and is approached by a critical exposure to the key elements of social science: empiricism, positivism, critical theory, constructivism, post-modernism, ethnography and hermeneutics. The module provides the broad conceptual framework within which students will develop research ideas. It is therefore primarily concerned with issues of truth, knowledge, methodology and validity. The intention is that by the end of the module students will be able to both defend and critique their own perspective with some confidence, as they begin to apply it to the research questions they are developing.

The aims of this module are:

1. To enable students to analyse professional practice using different theoretical frameworks.
2. To inform students in their work as key professionals and agents of change in the context of health and social care.

The module content will be made up of a number of strands of sociological enquiry, relating to both macro and micro approaches: the primary focus is on the relationship between the individual and society. 

1. Sociological theory, to include examination of symbolic interactionist, feminist, Marxist, functionalist and post-modernist perspectives as means of understanding the shape and delivery of contemporary professional practice.
2. Theorising health and social care policy, to involve deconstruction of contemporary policy initiatives to establish the emergence of a particular discourse, and the subsequent implications for the types of service delivered in practice.
3. Examination of the changing role of health and social care professions in contemporary society e.g. deskilling; proletarianisation; deprofessionalisation.
4. Contextualise the contemporary role of health and social care professions in relation to policy changes.

The aims of this module are: to enable students to justify their research approach and potential study designs, and demonstrate appropriate research skills that are congruent with their chosen methodology. Therefore, the module will:

1. Equip students to justify and develop a study design that is congruent with their research question and chosen paradigm.
2. Enable students to evaluate research from a variety of methodologies.

The module content further develops links between methodology theory and research study design in health and social care, looking at the practical implications of methodology for research methods, including:

1. Implications of methodology theory for study design – application of different methodologies to research, including experimental and quasi-experimental approaches; grounded theory; phenomenology; ethnography; narrative inquiry; discourse analysis; case study. Assessments of validity or trustworthiness in research studies.
2. Data tool development and data collection skills: questionnaire development and use; interview schedule development and interviewing skills.
3. Data analysis skills: statistical analysis; qualitative analysis; development of databases to facilitate analysis. Role of reflexivity in data analysis and discussion.
4. Large-scale, multi-site research including randomised controlled trials, quasi-experimental studies and cohort studies.
5. Desk-top research: meta-analysis; systematic literature reviews.