Gerontology: PhD in Human and Social Services

Students in this course are introduced to Walden University and to the requirements for successful participation in an online curriculum. Students work toward building a foundation for academic and professional success as scholar-practitioners and social change agents. They assess the relationship of mission and vision to professional goals and develop a program of study and strategies for online success. Students also explore resources used throughout the program, such as the online Walden University Library. Students engage in course assignments focused on the practical application of professional writing, critical-thinking skills, and the promotion of professional and academic excellence.

This course is designed to provide students with a doctoral foundation in the history and development of the various human services professions. Students engage in coursework that integrates content from various specializations, in areas such as counseling, social work, psychology, family studies, and criminal justice. Examining both the strengths and weaknesses of the human services delivery systems, students review the origins of the profession as well as its various responses to the changing needs of society. Through critical literature reviews related to research, policy, and practice; discussions about human services and contemporary society; and practical assignments, students begin to develop their identities as leaders, researchers, and informants in the area of human services. Students focus on the competencies and ethics of human services professionals.

The purpose of Residency 1 is to socialize new students into the Walden doctoral community of scholar-practitioners. Topics include doctoral competency development, orientation to academic support services and networking, community building, writing at the doctoral level and using American Psychological Association (APA) style, library search skill building, and professional development. Upon completion, students will have completed a self-assessment and identified goals for continual development of the skills and practices required of new doctoral students.

The first step in helping individuals, families, organizations, and communities is to form effective helping relationships. These relationships are characterized by the ability to connect with clients and those around them through demonstrating empathic caring, respect for people and institutions, and genuineness that leads to perceived trustworthiness. Just as an ERG is a unit of energy in physics, Empathy, Respect, and Genuineness (ERG) is the unit of energy in helping relationships. In this course, students will learn how to talk with people in ways that demonstrate empathy, respect, and genuineness while obtaining the kind of information required to help clients identify their unmet needs and participate in finding ways to meet them. Students will participate in mock interviews and will participate in critiques of their own work along with their instructor. Students in this course will also focus on the essential functions of case management including how to write up important case notes appropriately with special attention to ethical and legal issues. While the basic principles underlying an effective helping relationship may be close to universal (ERG), the actual process of demonstrating them could vary greatly across cultures or countries; therefore, students will explore how this might differ in a different setting and among different professions.

Diminishing resources compound societal challenges facing contemporary human services agencies. In this course, students examine the core competencies required of human service administrators to address these challenges and make a greater difference in the communities they serve. Students discuss a broad range of skills and innovative approaches, including cross-agency collaboration, stakeholder communication, supervision of people and processes, creation and implementation of policies, and strategic planning and management. Through course discussions and practical applications, students demonstrate knowledge and skills of human services administration, which they can translate into current work environments.

In this research course, students are provided with core knowledge and skills for understanding, analyzing, and designing research at the graduate level. Students explore the philosophy of science, the role of theory, and research processes. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research designs and data collection methods are introduced. The alignment of research components is emphasized. Students also explore ethical and social change implications of designing and conducting research. Students demonstrate their knowledge and skills by developing an annotated bibliography.

In order to be effective professional helpers, practitioners need to have a working knowledge of how research informs practice. This is becoming even more important as the emphasis on evidenced-based practice increases across all fields that provide human and social services. Students will explore different approaches to research and evaluation and will demonstrate the ability to find, critically read, and integrate relevant research articles from trustworthy sources.  In addition, they will use case studies, discussions, and readings to help see the connections between theory, research, and practice and how applications might differ in different cultures and across different professions. They will also identify important ethical considerations related to conducting and reporting research results, especially in the context of program evaluations.

The purpose of Residency 2 is to develop skills in reviewing and performing scholarly research. Topics include refinement of research questions, research question and methodology alignment, and literature critique and synthesis. Upon completion, students will have developed key components of a research plan.

In this course, students examine the philosophy of ethics and social justice, with a focus on the interplay among race, religion, and culture within and between different societies and organizations. Students explore the complex social, political, and related ethical challenges that Human Services professionals face as they seek to meet the needs of diverse populations. They examine ethics and social justice related to economic disparity, power, and privilege. Applying concepts presented in the course, students engage in an in-depth assessment of an emerging or persistent ethical or social justice issue, through which they will demonstrate their ability to make recommendations for improvement or change. Students engage in readings, case studies, and practical assignments to gain a better understanding of the interactions among culture, ethics, and social behaviors.

Grant writing is a highly marketable skill that requires many nonprofit, educational, and community organizations to secure external funding to provide needed services to the community. In this course, students will explore the basic skills needed for non-research grant writing including identifying potential funding sources, creating objectives and a needs statement, preparing and justifying a budget, identifying appropriate assessment plans, and writing an executive summary. Course assignments will allow students to directly apply what they are reading and discussing by writing a full grant proposal based on an actual Request for Proposal (RFP).

Great improvements in medicine, public health, science, and technology enable today's older adults to live healthier, longer lives. In this course, students will explore theories and practices for providing services to older adults who remain independent and vibrant members of their families and communities. Students will delve into models of aging in place, including ways of assessing health and social and economic needs, as well as identifying and prioritizing options in physical, mental, emotional, and intellectual health promotion activities and programs.

Students takng this research course are provided with the opportunity to develop core knowledge and skills for designing quantitative research at the doctoral level, including understanding data analysis and applying statistical concepts. Students explore classical quantitative research designs and common statistical tests, the importance of quality assurance, and ethical and social change implications of conducting quantitative research and producing knowledge. They approach statistics from a problem-solving perspective with emphasis on selecting appropriate statistical tests for a research design. Students use statistical software to calculate statistics data and interpret and present results. Students apply their knowledge and skills by developing a quantitative research plan. (Prerequisites: RSCH 8100D.)

The purpose of Residency 3 is to continue developing research skills that will lead to the development of the prospectus or dissertation proposal. Topics include qualitative, quantitative, and mixed research designs; data collection, management, and analysis considerations; and development of the prospectus. Upon completion, students will have completed a research alignment tool to inform and guide their dissertation research planning.

Public and nonprofit leaders in all areas of public administration require a thorough understanding of the expectations of their roles as leaders and managers of diverse and complex organizations. Students use theoretical and applied perspectives from which they study the intricacies of these roles, including the distinction between leadership and management, organizational culture, change management, systems theories, and organizational development. Students gain a practical understanding of these topics through the application of principles and concepts to public and nonprofit organizational settings in different cultures and societies depicted in case studies, a virtual city environment, and through relevant material provided by students themselves. Students will also explore how to promote interprofessional collaboration within and among organizations.

Students in this research course are provided with the opportunity to develop basic knowledge and skills for conducting qualitative research at the doctoral level. Students explore the nature of qualitative inquiry, how theory and theoretical and conceptual frameworks uniquely apply to qualitative research, data collection procedures and analysis strategy, and how the role of the researcher is expressed in the ethical and rigorous conduct of qualitative research. Students practice collecting, organizing, analyzing, and presenting data, and they develop a detailed research topic for conducting a qualitative study. (Prerequisites: RSCH 8110 or RSCH 7110 or RSCH 6110.)

Doctoral level practitioners are often called upon to conduct rigorous evaluations of programs, and the results of their evaluations often determine the fate of the programs they evaluate and the clients served by those programs. Therefore, it is important that students learn how to conduct both formative and summative evaluations and how to evaluate the fidelity of program implementation prior to evaluating program outcomes. In this way, program evaluation also tests the theory or logic model on which the program is based. Students will use hands-on activities to develop their ability to develop evaluation plans, provide constructive critical critiques of other students' projects, and accept constructive, critical feedback from others. They will also connect with other professionals engaged in evaluation research through various professional forums (e.g., listservs, blogs, and professional associations). In addition, they will explore how the process, pressures, and outcomes of evaluation research could differ in a different culture and across different professions.

There is no specific course description for this course for doctoral students due to the flexibility inherent in the Knowledge Area Module (KAM) learning model, which allows students to develop expertise in their area of interest through an individualized program. The number of KAMs required varies by program, but each KAM culminates in a scholarly paper comprising three segments: Breadth, Depth, and Application. Through the KAM process, students will apply what they have learned to meet a need in their profession.

Students in this course will review past and current models of health behavior change, disease prevention, disease management, and relapse prevention. Coverage of health-related issues includes dietary needs, tobacco and drug use, safer sexual practices, and stress management. In addition, students will examine the analysis of behavior change within specific populations (young, elderly, cognitively impaired, etc.) and factors that predict or serve as obstacles to lifestyle change and adherence.

This course is designed to enhance students' understanding of the responsibility of human service professionals to foster social change, provide leadership and service to the human services professions, and advocate for their communities, clients, students, and professions. Students use research to examine the current trends and issues of the professions and identify how community, national, and international issues affect human services professions. Students also gain an understanding of the processes of advocacy and social change. Students continue to enhance their professional development plans by identifying specific goals for professional involvement and service.

The purpose of Residency 4 is to build students' capacity in representing themselves as scholar-practitioners. Topics include practicing presentation and critique, research dissemination, implications for social change, and dissertation writing. Upon completion, students will have composed a draft presentation of their doctoral research and plan for research dissemination.

Students in this course focus specifically on the process of writing the dissertation prospectus. Students use their preliminary research plan, developed previously, and develop a problem statement, to be used in the dissertation. They further refine the problem statement and carry out the planning and the library research that will bring them to the formulation of a dissertation prospectus. The prospectus is a brief paper, typically 15–20 pages in length, that lays out the background for the problem statement, the problem statement itself, a survey of the relevant literature, typically 25–75 references, and a research, implementation, and evaluation plan for the solution of the problem.

Students in this research course build upon knowledge and skills acquired in the prerequisite quantitative reasoning course and are presented with opportunities to apply them. They are provided with more specialized knowledge and skills for conducting quantitative research at the doctoral level, including understanding multivariate data analysis and applying more advanced statistical concepts, such as factorial ANOVA, mediation, moderation, logistic regression, ANCOVA, and MANOVA. Students explore existing datasets and apply suitable statistical tests to answer research questions with social change implications. In this course, they approach statistics from a problem-solving perspective with emphasis on selecting the appropriate statistical tests for more complex research questions and social problems. Students use statistical software to perform analyses and interpret and present results. They will apply and synthesize their knowledge and skills by carrying out a quantitative research project. (Prerequisites: RSCH 8110.)

Students build upon the knowledge and skills acquired in RSCH 8310 - Qualitative Reasoning and Analysis. and have experience applying them. Students develop a more sophisticated understanding of the theoretical antecedents and practical applications of eight contemporary qualitative approaches. Students gain experience developing qualitative interview guides, collecting data, and managing the process from transcription through analysis. The unique challenges of confidentiality and ethical issues are explored as well as implications for social change. Students will apply and synthesize their knowledge and skills by developing a qualitative research plan using a topic relevant to their capstone.

Students build upon knowledge and skills acquired in RSCH 8210 - Quantitative Reasoning and Analysis and RSCH 8310 - Qualitative Reasoning and Analysis for more specialized knowledge and skills to design mixed-methods research at the doctoral level. Students are provided with more specialized knowledge and skills for designing mixed-methods research at the doctoral level. They gain an understanding of the types of mixed-methods designs and how to select the most appropriate approach for the research question(s). The emphases of this course are on integrating quantitative and qualitative elements into true mixed-methods studies, practice in data analysis, and integration of qualitative and quantitative data within a research write-up. Students will apply and synthesize their knowledge and skills by developing a mixed-methods research plan that incorporates qualitative and quantitative elements appropriately. (Prerequisites: RSCH 8110 or RSCH 7110 or RSCH 6110 and RSCH 8210 or RSCH 7210 or RSCH 6210 and RSCH 8310 or RSCH 7310 or RSCH 6310.)

Through this course, doctoral students have the opportunity to integrate their Program of Study into an in-depth exploration of an interest area that includes the completion of a research study. Students complete the dissertation independently, with the guidance of a dissertation supervisory committee chair and committee members. Students complete a prospectus, proposal, Institutional Review Board application, and dissertation. Once students register for HUMN 9001, they are registered each term until successful completion of the dissertation.Students take this course for a minimum of 4 quarters and are continuously enrolled until completion of their Dissertation with final Chief Academic Officer (CAO) approval.To complete a dissertation, students must obtain the academic approval of several independent evaluators including their committee, the University Research Reviewer, and the Institutional Review Board; pass the Form and Style Review; gain approval at the oral defense stage; and gain final approval by the Chief Academic Officer. Students must also publish their dissertation on ProQuest before their degree is conferred. Learn more about the dissertation process in the Dissertation Guidebook. RSCH 8100U, RSCH 8200U, and RSCH 8300U.)

This course is part of Walden's commitment to help prepare students to meet the university's expectations for writing in courses at the doctoral level. In this course, students write a short academic essay that will be scored by a team of writing assessors. Based on the essay score, students will be guided toward any further recommended or required writing support needed to meet writing proficiency standards. This required course is free. Students will be enrolled automatically in it after they complete their first term of their doctoral program.