145: Experimental Research Design (Part 2): Interview with Bruce Thyer, PhD, LCSW

The Social Work Podcast

Episode 145: Today's episode is the third of a three-part series on research design (and the second of a two-part series on Experimental Research Design) with Dr. Bruce Thyer, Distinguished Research Professor and former Dean with the College of Social Work at Florida State University. In today's episode, Dr. Thyer unpacks how social work practitioners can think about experimental research design. We explore why you don't need to be embarrassed if you find experiments intimidating, but why critically appraising research, including randomized experiments, is a core expectation for all social workers. Dr. Thyer shares practical tools like the CONSORT-SPI checklist to help you evaluate studies and encourages you to respectfully challenge your professors about the empirical evidence behind therapies they teach. We'll also tackle some of the challenges and biases in social work against experimental designs, the inherent risks of empirical study where results might not confirm expectations, and the ethical considerations when designing interventions, especially for serious issues like suicide prevention. Plus, we'll clarify the difference between true experiments and quasi-experiments (often mistakenly called 'natural experiments') and understand why precise research is vital, sometimes with its full value recognized much later. You can read a transcript of today's interview at https://socialworkpodcast.blogspot.com/2025/07/Thyer3.html. You can connect with other social workers at the Social Work Podcast Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/swpodcast, or follow the Bluesky feed at https://jbsinger.bsky.social.