Introduction to Research Flashcards
- systematic search for pertinent information on a specific topic, a careful, organized and well-planned investigation of a problem
- a problem-solving activity
- sense of inquiry
Research
Research comes from the words, “Re” and “Search,” which means?
repeating search
TOF. As a scientific investigation to discover new knowledge, a
tool that one can use to test this new knowledge.
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TOF. If there is no research, there will be no development and progression in the field of Science.
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Purpose of Research
- To establish the ???.
- To develop new knowledge and ???.
- To add to the ???.
- To improve the ??? for the attainment of better health for the people.
- truth
- technology
- scientific knowledge
- practice of the professiom
Classification of research (3)
- Basic
- Epidemiological
- Clinical
- Uses healthy humans and experimental animals as subjects.
- It aims to develop better understanding of the nature, including relationships, of normal events in the human body.
- It serves as the basis for some future action or application in biomedical sciences.
Basic research
- Uses populations or groups of people, healthy and with disease as subjects.
- Its primary use is in the identification of risk factors and causes of diseases which serve as the basis for the development of preventive measures.
Epidemiological research
- Is done on patients.
- Its objective is understanding of the disease process including the identification of determinants of the outcome of illness.
- It forms a basis for the development of technology for the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
Clinical research
- similar to undertaking a journey
- path to finding answers to our research questions constitutes research methodology
research process
In a research journey there are two important decisions to make:
- What we want to find out about or what research questions (problems) we want to find answers to
- And how to go about finding their answers.
STEPS IN RESEARCH PROCESS
familiarize
- Formulating the Research Problem
- Reviewing the Literature
- Developing the objectives
- Preparing the Research Design
- Determining Sampling Methodology
- Collecting the Data
- Analyzing Data
- Generalizing and interpreting results
- Preparing the Report or Presenting Results- Formal write ups of conclusions reached
- The first and most crucial step in the research process.
- Its main function is to decide what you want to find out about.
- The way the problem is formulated determines almost every step that follows
FORMULATING THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
- After we have identified our research problem, this is the next essential task in order to acquaint ourselves with the available body of knowledge in our area of interest.
- An integral part of the entire research process and makes valuable contributions to every operational step.
- Its functions are:
1. bring clarity and focus to our research problem;
2. to improve our methodology;
3. to broaden our knowledge;
4. and to contextualize our findings.
REVIEWING THE LITERATURE
- the goals we set out to attain in our study
- inform the reader what we want to attain through the study
- extremely important to formulate them clearly and specifically
- can be listed under two headings
DEVELOPING THE OBJECTIVES
Objectives can be listed under two headings
- General objective
- Specific objective
- overall statement of the thrust of our study
- also a statement of the main associations and relationships that we seek to discover or establish
General Objective
specific aspects of the topic that we want to investigate within the main framework of our study
Specific objectives
- the conceptual structure within which research would be conducted.
- to provide for the collection of relevant information with minimal expenditure of effort, time and money
- the preparation should be appropriate for a particular research problem
PREPARING THE RESEARCH DESIGN
The preparation of research design, appropriate for a particular research problem (what research design to use),
involves the consideration of the following:
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➢ the objectives of the research study,
➢ the method of data collection to be adopted,
➢ the source of information and the sampling design,
➢ the tool for data collection;
➢ and data analysis
- Researchers usually draw conclusions about large groups by taking a sample.
- A sample is a segment of the population selected to represent the population as a whole.
- Ideally, the sample should be representative and allow the researcher to make accurate estimates of the characteristics and behavior of the larger population.
DETERMINING SAMPLING METHODOLOGY
- The construction of a research instrument or tool for data collection is one of the most important aspects of a research project.
- Because anything we say by way of findings or conclusions is based upon the type of information we collect.
- And the data we collect is entirely dependent upon the questions that we ask of the respondents.
COLLECTING THE DATA
Processing and analyzing data involves a number of closely related operations;
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- summarizing the collected data;
- and organizing them in a manner that they answer the research questions (objectives)
- last, and for many, the most difficult step of the research process
- informs the world what we have done, what we have discovered and what conclusions we have drawn from our findings
- written in an academic style
- formal and not journalistic
Preparing the Report
