Lecture 3: Research Process Flashcards
What does disciplinary mean?
- of or relating to a particular field of study
- a branch of a study
What does multidisciplinary mean?
combining or involving more than one discipline or field of study
What does interdisciplinary mean?
involving two or more academic, scientific, or artistic disciplines
What does transdisciplinary mean?
Research is defined as research efforts conducted by investigators from different disciplines working jointly to create new conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and translational innovations that integrate and move beyond discipline-specific approaches to address a common problem.
Good questions are…
1) Ones you feel passionate about answering (i.e., they intrigue you!)
2) Are empirical (i.e., you can use observations and measurements to test the question)
• Please brainstorm some examples of both…
• What is an example of a non-empirical question?
What is empirical research?
Empirical research is research using empirical evidence. It is a way of gaining knowledge by means of direct and indirect observation or experience. Empiricism values such research more than other kinds. Empirical evidence can be analyzed quantitatively or qualitatively.
What is non-empirical research?
Non-empirical research is research that is conducted without data: quantitative data, which is when you analyze numerical data, or qualitative data, which is when you use non-numerical data such as observations and interviews to base claims off of.
What is the purpose of background research?
- Help us gain understanding
- Ask better and more specific questions
- Ultimately advance overall knowledge
What is a descriptive research?
Descriptive research is used to describe characteristics of a population or phenomenon being studied. It does not answer questions about how/when/why the characteristics occurred.
What are some information sources?
- Newspaper article
- Websites
- Popular articles
- Government reports
- Books
- Journal articles
- Interview transcripts
How to know if a source is reliable? What are the questions that should be asked?
- Current?
- Relevant?
- Accuracy?
- Authority?
- Purpose?
What does CRAAP stand for?
- Current?
- Relevant?
- Accuracy?
- Authority?
- Purpose?
What is the purpose of popular articles vs scholarly articles?
Popular articles:
• Entertainment
• Current awareness
• Research summaries
Scholarly articles:
• Report original research
• Review previously published
studies
What is the audience of popular articles vs scholarly articles?
Popular articles:
• General public
Scholarly articles:
• Students
• Scholars
• Researchers
Who are the authors of popular articles vs scholarly articles?
Popular articles:
• Journalists
Scholarly articles:
• Researchers
• Academics
What are the characteristics of popular articles vs scholarly articles?
Popular articles: • Short(er) articles • Contain advertisements/photos • Published daily, weekly, or monthly • Proofread/reviewed by editors • Sources often not cited, or cited with little detail
Scholarly articles:
• Describe research methodologies
• Contain charts, graphs, tables
• Published quarterly or annually
• Reviewed by editorial board/peer-reviewed
• Sources cited in reference lists/bibliographies
What is a hypothesis?
An educated guess, based on observation, about the causes or outcomes of an event (how variables are related); can be disproven but not proven to be truth
What is a theory?
summarizes hypothesis (or group of hypotheses) supported with repeated tests; an “accepted hypothesis”; can be disproven
What is are the differences between hypothesis and theory?
possible vs. certainty; substantiated vs. not; limited data vs. lots; specific observation vs. general
What are the similarities of hypothesis and theory?
testable, falsifiable
What are the reasoning strategies in generating hypothesis?
- inductive reasoning
- deductive reasoning
What is inductive reasoning?
- Use specific facts to form a general conclusion
- E.g., gather specific information on your patients symptoms and then form a hypothesis
- E.g., gather facts from past research studies
What is deductive reasoning?
- Derive a hypothesis from a theory; use a general principle to reach more specific conclusion
- E.g., if you have a stomach ulcer, THEN this additional medical test (e.g., barium swallow) should yield the following result (e.g., ulcer visible on X-ray)
What are the strategies in generating hypothesis?
• Introspection
- what would I do? think? feel? Leverage your biases!
• Focus on the exception to the rule
- Virtually no outcome is true 100% of the time
• Matter of degree
- Gray areas; focus on variables in terms of amounts
(quantity, strength, volume, time, etc.)
• Change the direction
- Chicken or the egg?
What are the features of a good hypothesis?
- Justifiable and grounded in observations OR theory (inductive or deductive?)
- Be testable (or, is it possible to gather all evidence to disconfirm it)
- Predict a relationship between two or more variables
- Not vague – concepts should be clearly defined and based on sound reasoning
Give examples of casual and associative hypothesis
- Causal: Dieting men who are participating in a formal exercise program will have greater weight loss than those who are not
- Associative: there is a positive relationship between the amount of exercise and weight loss among men who are dieting
Give examples of simple and complex hypothesis
- Simple: Infants born to mothers who had iron- deficiency anemia during pregnancy have lower birth weight than infants born to mothers with normal iron levels
- Complex: Infants born to mothers who had iron- deficiency anemia during pregnancy have lower birth weight, are at increased risk of pre-term delivery, and have more neurological complications than infants born to mothers with normal iron levels
Give examples of directionality hypothesis
- The incidence of decubitus ulcers (bed sore) is related to the frequency of turning patients
- Patients turned at least every two hours have a lower incidence of decubitus ulcers than patients turned less frequently
Give examples of null hypothesis
- There is no relationship between gender and knowledge of the food pyramid among teenagers
- Teenage girls are better informed about the food pyramid than teenage boys
What are the types of hypothesis?
- casual
- associative
- simple
- complex
- directionality
- null
What is an independent variable?
manipulated; controlled in experiments; explanatory/predictor variable in non- experimental designs; influences the dependent variable
What is a dependent variable?
influenced (dependent upon) by IV; is measured; outcome variable; Y-axis
What are the steps in testing hypothesis?
- Key variables
- Study design
- Research protocol
- Analyzing the data
What is a research protocol?
- Detailed series of steps on how to conduct the
experiment - Proven? Novel?
- Chemicals and equipment? Scripts and surveys?
How to analyze data?
- Bring together distinct pieces of information
- Set by hypothesis and experimental design
- Basic features of data –> descriptives –> more complex
What is Knowledge Diffusion (KD)? Give examples
- “Passive” dissemination (though we “push” it out)
- Potential users need to seek out (“pull”) information
Examples:
• Publishing scientific peer-reviewed articles
• Present findings in academic meetings (talks, posters)
What is knowledge translation (KT)?
• A dynamic and iterative process that includes the synthesis, dissemination, exchange and ethically- sound application of knowledge to improve the health of a population, provide more effective health care services and products, and strengthen the health care system.
Why do knowledge translation?
- 1/3 of patients do not get treatments of proven effectiveness
- 1⁄4 of patients get care that is not needed or is potentially harmful
- Up to 3⁄4 of patients do not get the information they need for decision making
- Up to 1⁄2 of physicians do not get the evidence they need for decision making
How to do knowledge translation?
- Creating Knowledge (see other slides)
- Applying Knowledge
- Identifying the problem, and identifying, reviewing and selecting knowledge
- Adapting knowledge to local context
- Assessing barriers & facilitators to knowledge use
- Selecting, tailoring and implementing intervention to address barriers to knowledge use
- Monitoring knowledge use
- Evaluating outcome of knowledge use
- Developing mechanisms to sustain knowledge use
What are the common problems in getting funding?
- Lack of new or original idea
- Diffuse, superficial or unfocused research plan
- Lack of knowledge in published works
- Lack of experience in the essential methods
- Uncertainty about future directions
- Questionable reasoning in experimental methods
- Failure to discuss potential obstacles or alternative methods
- Absence of an acceptable scientific rationale
- Unrealistic large amount of work
- Lack of sufficient experimental detail
- Uncritical approach
