Communication and Social Change: Research Methods

Abstract

Modern research methods for social/behavioral change reflect a tension between collecting data at the individual level while making inferences at macro‐levels such as health‐care systems, communities, and nations. This tension becomes more palpable when measuring the concerns of historically underserved, difficult‐to‐reach populations, those suffering the greatest inequalities in access to information, civic participation, and, in particular, health‐care. Research questions are explored by focusing on multiple levels of analysis, multidisciplinary approaches, targeted methods/measures, flexible measures of “community,” and converging methodologies for maximizing evaluation validity.