Researching Persons with Mental Illness

"This volume is a superb resource for teaching or becoming aware of the unique theoretical and methodological issues that must be resolved before successfully researching the mentally ill. The volume abounds with relevant references to the research literature and practical advice that should facilitate the conduct of research projects oriented toward the mentally ill." --Howard B. Kaplan, Texas A&M University Can the mentally ill be interviewed? What kind of reliability can be expected in their responses? What about the ethics of informed consent? Although standard social science methodologies have been used successfully to study mental health, researching the mentally ill introduces unique theoretical and methodological issues. A first of its kind, Researching Persons with Mental Illness focuses on the study of mentally ill adults at the individual level of analysis and explores significant issues: how theories of human behavior that have been developed for a general population may have limited applicability in a population whose defining characteristic is a label of mental pathology; how symptoms are defined and measured; ways to plan and implement research to avoid methodological design problems; uses of alternative data sources, such as clinical charts; and the issues of research in multi-disciplinary settings. Designed for social scientists, this pathbreaking volume will alert researchers in ways to deal with the special problems in researching the mentally ill.