Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is knowledge?
justified true belief
Uniformity of Nature Principle
Laws of nature are forever constant and apply the same way to all matter across both time and space
Sciencetific knowledge is tentative because
based on existing observable evidence, which is subject to change
Scientific Inquiry depends on this concept
positivism
Positivism
Assumes persistent patterns or regularity in phenomenon being studied
Which field of science is positivism challenged in
social sciences, because they believe you can not generalize free will
Determinism
Events are bound by causality
Durkheim
said social phenomena can be studied like physical phenomena
Max Weber
Believes there is rationale behind human action
Many social scientists take an ____ approach to social phenomena
intermediate, believe it can be somewhat explained and predicted but always subject to change
Rationalism
Logic is the source of knowledge
Empiricism
Observation or experimentation lead to knowledge
Superior theories are
- efficient, 2. accurate 3. comprehensive (cover a lot)
Deductive process
Theory as guidance for research (data categories determined beforehand)
Inductive Process
research as guidance to theory (categories identified during data analysis)
Only way scientists can modify/construct scientific theories?
empirical evidence
Nonempircial evidence includes
common sense, tradition, intuition
Empiricism means problems/issues must be ____
observable
Empircism means problems/issues must be
observable
Scientific inquiry has to do with what ____, not what _________
what is, not what should be
Objectivity can be achieved through…
Double Blind
Peer Review: other researchers agree on research finding
Institutional Review Board
Reviews research plans w/ respect to ethical implications and make recommendations for compliance with appripriate standards
Some ethical considerations
Voluntary compliance
Right to Service
Confidentiality
Informed consent: fully aware of risks
Confirmation bias
tendency for people to favor info confirming/strengthening their beliefs
6 steps of theory construction
- topic
- assumptions
- range of phenomena
- major concepts
- proposition/hypotheses
- theory
proposition
statement about one or more concepts or variables, building blocks of theories
hypothesis
testable proposition that predict relationship between two or more variables
Intervening variable
can explain some part of relationship between X and Y (comes in between them)
Antecedent variable (confounding)
creates spurious relationship between x and y, impacts both of them
suppressor variable
conceals relationship between two variables
three basic requisites to causul relationship
statistical association
sequence of influence/ cause - effect sequence
nonspuriousness: correlation between variables cannot be explained by extraneous variable
Applied social science research like HSR comes from ______ needs, not ______ development. Aims to solve a _______
practical needs, not theory development. Aims to solve a real-life problem
Correlation is a case of association, can be…
positive (direct) or negative (inverse)
HSR Defintion
Examines how access, cost, and outcome of health care (organization, provision, quality, how to improve care)
AHRQ
Agency for healthcare research and quality
AHRQ mission
conduct research and provide evidence to make healthcare safer and higher quality
Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)
Information on inpatient stays, ambulatory surgery and services visits, and emergency department encounters. Enables study of health care delivery and patient outcomes over time, and at the national, regional, State, and community levels.
Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
Measuring how Americans use and pay for medical care, health insurance, and out-of-pocket spending. Annual surveys of individuals and families, as well as their health care providers, provide data on health status, the use of medical services, charges, insurance coverage, and satisfaction with care.
Factors contributing to more HSR
more fed gov
rise of managed care
drive to quality and outcome
4 major characteristics of HSR
scientific
interdisciplinary
pop. based
applied
HSR practitioners are mostly ______ scientists
social
HSR tries/should to take on _____ perspective
multidisciplinary
HSR focuses on ______ rather than individuals, differentiating them from other health-related research
populations
clinical =
biomedical =
environmental =
epidemiological =
individual
sub-individual
environmental
population, but drawn from individual environmental
Applied Practice: 2 attributes
- practical and problem solving
- priorities established by health services/societal concerns
Ultimate goal of HSR
improve pop. health status
Process of HSR
Conceptualization
Groundwork
Methods
Design
Sampling
Measurement
Data Collection
Data processing
Data Analysis
Application
