Learning Outcomes

In Walden’s Ph.D. in Human Services program, you will

1. Demonstrate understanding of the role of philosophy in establishing a conceptual framework for conducting scholarly inquiry.
2. Demonstrate understanding of the broad-based nature of scientific inquiry as compared to other forms of inquiry.
3. Demonstrate understanding of the construction, use, and verification of theories, models, and conceptual frameworks in systems of human inquiry.
4. Demonstrate analysis of concepts, theories, and logic of the arguments in published scholarly research.
5. Demonstrate understanding of the ethical, social, and political aspects of the production of scholarly knowledge.
6. Demonstrate understanding of the relationship among inquiry, theory, and knowledge application.
7. Describe the philosophical, axiological, and epistemological bases of qualitative and quantitative inquiry.
8. Evaluate the accuracy of qualitative and quantitative designs, methods, and outcomes/findings of research reported in scholarly/professional journals, texts, etc.
9. Develop a research question, identify and conceptualize relevant variables and their relationships, and generate testable hypotheses to evaluate these relationships.
10. Demonstrate understanding of the application of quantitative and qualitative research designs to investigate problems or phenomena in human services practice.
11. Use qualitative and quantitative methods in the analysis and presentation of human services related research data.
12. Identify, describe, and evaluate social change theories.
13. Describe the impact of social change on human services practice and research.
14. Identify, describe, and evaluate life-span human development theories.
15. Demonstrate understanding of the use of life-span human development theories in human services research and practice.
16. Identify, describe, and evaluate social systems and organizational theories.
17. Demonstrate understanding of the use of social systems and organizational theories in human services research and practice.
18. Identify, describe, and evaluate theories used in social policy analysis and planning or in clinical social work, counseling, criminal justice, or human services administrative practice and research.
19. Identify, describe, and evaluate intervention strategies used in clinical social work, counseling, criminal justice, or human services administrative practice and research.
20. Design a strategy for planned change in a human services practice setting, which is ethically and philosophically compatible with the agency's/organization's mission.