Guiding Questions Deck 1 Flashcards
Define and provide an example of the major types of research bias (e.g., selection/sampling bias, response bias, confirmation bias)
- Selection/Sampling bias: systematic and directional error involved in the choice of units, cases, or participants from a larger group for study; affects external validity
Ex.: Health studies that recruit participants directly from clinics miss all the cases who don’t attend those clinics or seek care during the study - Recall bias: retrospective reporting error (e.g., systematic undercount or overcount of a behavior’s frequency)
Skewing results as a result of not remembering - Response bias: occurs when participants’ responses are influenced by variables other than the construct being measured (e.g., test context, intention/motivation)
Ex.: Using an anonymous online survey, a professor asks his students “Have you cheated on an exam in my class?” Many of the students who have cheated still answered “no.” - Misinterpretation (confounding): incorrectly attributing an association between two variables instead of a third factor that is independently associated with both the IV and DV; affects internal validity
- Confirmation Bias: the tendency to gather or weight consideration towards evidence that confirms preexisting expectations, typically by emphasizing or pursuing supporting evidence while dismissing or failing to seek contradictory evidence
Ex.: During presidential elections, people tend to seek information that paints the candidate they support in a positive light, while dismissing any information that paints them in a negative light.
Publication bias: tendency for study results that are published in journals or other outlets to more likely show positive or statistically significant findings
Understand the Latin phrase, ad hoc ergo propter hoc, and how it relates to correlation
- “after this, therefore because of this”
- Correlation does not equal causation
Know the general steps of the scientific method and where a review of the literature falls in this process
- Observation/Question
- Research
- Literature Review (is part of the research)
- Hypothesis
- Experiment
- Analysis
- Report
Define empirical, inductive reasoning, and deductive reasoning as they relate to research
- Empirical: based on observation, direct or indirect (instruments)
- Inductive: use observations and data to formulate a theory, ground-up
- Deductive: test an existing theory, top-down
Define and contrast theory and hypothesis
- Hypothesis: an empirically testable proposition about some fact, behavior, relationship, or the like, usually based on theory, that states an expected outcome resulting from specific conditions or assumptions. Predicted outcome of a single study- BASED ON A THEORY
- Theory: in the philosophy of science, a set of logically related explanatory hypotheses that are consistent with a body of empirical facts and that may suggest more empirical relationships. Description of a phenomenon based on multiple studies- BASED ON MULTIPLE STUDIES
Describe the spectrum of experimental vs. non-experimental designs, including features and the major factor that distinguishes them
- Experimental:
Manipulate independent variables to observe changes in dependent variable
Control and experimental groups
Random sampling and assignment
Blind and double-blind - Non-experimental:
Less variable control
More descriptive, more applied
Ex.: surveys, polls, interviews, case studies
Correlation
Contrast quantitative and qualitative, including the advantages of each
Quantitative:
Measurements in numbers
Advantages: standardization, reliability, easy to analyze statistically
Often deductive: test existing theories, generalize from sample to population
Larger, random samples, collected quickly
Qualitative:
Data collected in words, narrative; analyzed for themes
Advantages: Greater depth, exploration
Often inductive: exploratory; observe and form/refine questions
Smaller, “purposeful” samples, more narrative data requiring interpretation
Define translational research as it relates to basic and applied research
Bridge between basic research and applied research
Using basic research results to develop and test applications.
Examples: development of a new cochlear implant or translating how typically developing children map verb meaning into new approaches teaching verbs to children with language impairment
Define ethics and contrast research ethics against the general notion of moral behavior
- Ethics: the principles of morally right conduct accepted by a person or a group or considered appropriate to a specific field. In psychological research, for example, proper ethics requires that participants be treated fairly and without harm and that investigators report results and findings honestly.
- Research Ethics: the values, principles, and standards that guide the conduct of individual researchers in several areas, including the design and implementation of studies and the reporting of findings. For example, research ethics stipulate that studies involving data collection from human participants must be evaluated by institutional review boards.
Define what is a code of ethics and what is its purpose. Be able to identify at least two Principles from the ASHA Code of Ethics
- Principle 1: Individuals shall honor their responsibility to hold paramount the welfare of persons they serve professionally or who are participants in research and scholarly activities, and they shall treat animals involved in research in a humane manner.
- Summary: prioritize the welfare of the participants/animals.
- Principle 2: Individuals shall honor their responsibility to achieve and maintain the highest level of professional competence and performance
- Summary: maintain professional competence.
- Principle 3: Individuals shall honor their responsibility to the public when advocating for the unmet communication and swallowing needs of the public and shall provide accurate information involving any aspect of the professions.
- Summary: Provide accurate information.
- Principle 4: Individuals shall uphold the dignity and autonomy of the professions, maintain collaborative and harmonious interprofessional and intraprofessional relationships, and accept the professions’ self-imposed standards.
- Maintain harmonious interprofessional practice.
Tuskegee: Syphilis study
- Gave syphilis to population of people, and did not provide them treatment even though one was found throughout the study
- Six hundred low-income African-American males, 400 of whom were infected with syphilis, were monitored for 40 years.
- Free medical examinations were given; however, subjects were not told about their disease.
- Even though a proven cure (penicillin) became available in the 1950s, the study continued until 1972 with participants being denied treatment. In some cases, when subjects were diagnosed as having syphilis by other physicians, researchers intervened to prevent treatment. Many subjects died of syphilis during the study.
- The study was stopped in 1973 by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare only after its existence was publicized and it became a political embarrassment. In 1997, under mounting pressure, President Clinton apologized to the study subjects and their families.
National Research Act:
- 1974 National Research Act (PL 93-348) established the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research
- Due to the publicity from the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, the National Research Act of 1974 was passed. The National Research Act created the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, which was charged to identify the basic ethical principles that should underlie the conduct of biomedical and behavioral research involving human subjects and to develop guidelines which should be followed to assure that such research is conducted in accordance with those principles
Belmont Report:
1979 Belmont Report outlined original three ethical principles
Multiple revisions and subparts for:
All human subjects (1974)
Pregnant women, fetuses, and neonates (1975)
Additional protections for research with prisoners (1978)
Additional rights for children (1983)
Registering Institutional Review Boards (2009)
Common Rule: requires that researchers get informed consent from those who participate in research.
1991 Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects or the “Common Rule” published and codified by 15 Federal departments and agencies (rev. 2018)
Includes common language adopted by most federal departments
DoJ, CIA, and Director of National Intelligence currently not signatories
Codified “Common Rule” (revised subpart A) outlining basic protections, establishing research types (e.g., exempt) and outlining IRB procedures
Identify vulnerable populations who receive extra protections under these laws
Prisoners
Children
Pregnant women
Describe the four basic ethical principles and how they interact. Define ethical dilemma and provide an example
- Beneficence: Doing good, being kind, improving well-being
- Nonmaleficence: Avoid doing harm, focus on NOT reducing wellbeing
- Autonomy (respect for persons, informed consent): A person’s right to make his/her own decisions; competence; the autonomous rights of one person should not infringe on the rights of another
- Justice: Obligation to be fair in the distribution of benefits and risks; fairness – persons in similar circumstances should be treated similarly
