empowerment in qualitative social work studies reveals merits and some limitations, as researchers often emphasize successful or resilient individuals within oppressed groups studied. The dual focus on resiliency and empowerment contributes to research participants as role models of successful coping within their communities. Simultaneously, it overshadows the stories of the multitudes of ordinary unfortunate members of these oppressed or disenfranchised populations. The target of most empowerment studies is to increase the social power of populations and not the research participants themselves, resilient or not (Peled & Leichtentritt, 2002).
A number of advantages have been documented about the use of qualitative methodologies for social work. For example, descriptive, inductive, and unobtrusive techniques for data collection are regarded as compatible with the knowledge and values of the social work profession. In circumstances where social workers are faced with issues and problems that are not amenable to quantitative examination, qualitative methods have been advocated. The social’psychological bases of qualitative research suggest that it is compatible with the person-in-environment paradigm of social work practice. Qualitative approaches are similar in method to clinical social work assessments, as clinicians rely on interviews to gather data on a client’s issues in the context of the environment. The clinician reviews a series of hunches and working hypotheses that are based on observations made through ongoing contact with the client. Qualitative researchers, like clinicians, are trained to investigate each case individually, without imposing preconceived notions or attempting to generalize to all clients having a particular problem. Qualitative researchers maintain field notes and documents on their research, just as clinicians maintain running accounts of contact with a client in the form of process recordings or case records. In studies of social processes of complex human systems such as families, organizations, and communities, qualitative methodology may be the most appropriate research strategy. Scholars of the family now extol the benefits of qualitative methodologies in gaining, or understanding, the dynamic processes, meanings, communication patterns, experiences, and individual and family constructions of reality. Field settings and social service agencies provide unique opportunities for the qualitative