Week 1 Flashcards
Define translational research
Translational research is the systematic effort to move research from initial discovery to practice and ultimately to impact our lives.
Define the research-practice continuum
process of moving from an initial research idea or discovery to practice, and the potential for the idea to influence our lives or world
What are the different steps between discovery and Impacts in the research-practice continuum?
- Basic research
- Applied research
- Implementation & dissemination research
- Policy research
- Impact research
Define Basic research
Basic research is designed to generate discoveries and to understand how discoveries work
Define Applied research
Tests a discovery under increasingly controlled conditions in real-world contexts
Define Implementation and dissemination research
assesses how well an innovation or discovery can be distributed in and carried out in a broad range of contexts that extend beyond the original controlled studies
Define policy research
is designed to investigate existing policies or develop and test new ones
Define Impact research
assesses the broader effects of a discovery or innovation on society
Describe a research synthesis
A systematic study of multiple prior research projects that address the same research question or topic and that summarizes the results in a manner that can be used by practitioners
What are the two types of research synthesis?
A Meta-analysis
A systematic review
What are the methods used for meta-analysis?
Sample: search techniques
- Inclusion criteria
- Meta-analytic procedure
What’s a meta-analysis?
Quantitive statistical technique that combines multiple studies
What’s a systematic review?
A research synthesis approach that focuses on a specific question or issue and uses preplanned methods to identify, select, assess, and summarize the findings of multiple research studies.l
Emotional Intelligence is the ____________, and job performance is the ____________.
Independent variable (cause)
Dependant variable (effect)
Describe evidence-based practice:
A movement designed to encourage or require practitioners to employ practices that are based on research evidence as reflected in research syntheses or practice guidelines
Explain the idea of evolutionary epistemology
Branch of philosophy that holds that ideas evolve through the process of natural selection.l
Where do research topics usually come from?
- Practical problems in the field are one of the main causes for research ideas.
eg. research on back injuries among nursing staff since they often get these and this costs a lot
- Literature in a specific field.
- Many researchers also just think up their research topic on their own.
A type of literature that acts as a source of good research ideas is known as?
The request for proposals (RFPs)
Describe an RFP
Document issued by a government agency or other organisation that describes the problem that needs addressing.
Describe the literature review
A systematic compilation and written summary of all the literature published in scientific journals that are related to a research topic of interest. Typically included in the introduction section of a research write-up
What practical considerations does one need to keep in mind to determine a project’s feasibility?
- How long will the research take?
- Are there any ethical constraints
- Will you get the cooperation needed for your research to succeed?
- Are the costs managable
Define the word ‘Theoretical’:
Theory. Social research is theoretical, meaning that much of it is concerned with developing, exploring, or testing the theories or ideas that social researchers have about how the world operates.
Define the word ‘Empirical’
Based on direct observations and measurements of reality.
Define the world ‘probabilistic’
Based on probabilities. The interference made in social research have probabilities associated with them.
Define the word ‘Causal’
About a cause-effect relationship, hypothesis, or relationship.
Something is causal if it leads to an outcome or makes an outcome happen.
What’s a causal relationship?
Cause-effect relationship
Example: When you evaluate whether your treatment or program causes an outcome to occur, you are examining a causal relationship
Research projects can usually be classified into one of the following three basic forms:
- Descriptive studies
- Relational studies
- Causal studies
What are descriptive studies?
Studies that document what is going on or what exists
What are relational studies?
Studies that investigate the connection between two or more variables
What are causal studies?
Studies that investigate a causal relationship between two variables
Describe cross-selection studies
Studies that take place at a single point in time
Describe Longitudinal studies
Studies that take place over time
What’s a hypothesis?
A specific statement of prediction
What’s an alternative hypothesis?
The hypothesis that you support (your prediction)
What’s a null hypothesis?
The hypothesis that describes the remaining possible outcomes
Define a one-tailed hypothesis
A hypothesis that specifies a direction, which means the null hypothesis automatically includes both the no-difference prediction and the predictions that would be opposite of the direction
Define a two-tailed hypothesis
A hypothesis that doesn’t specify a direction.
What’s the hypothetico-deductive model?
Model in which two mutually exclusive hypotheses that together exhaust all possible outcomes are tested, such that if one hypothesis is accepted, the second must therefore be rejected.
What’s a variable in context of research?
An entity that can take on different values.
What’s an attribute?
A specific value on a variable.
Eg. variable gender has two attributes: male and female.
What’s the unit of analysis?
Whatever entity you are analyzing in your study; for example, individuals, groups, artifacts, geographical units, or social interactions
What’s Hierarchical modeling?
A statistical model that allows for the inclusion of data at different levels
What’s the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning?
Deductive reasoning is a top-down reasoning that works from the more general to the more specific.
Inductive reasoning is bottom-up reasoning that begins with specific observations and measures and ends up as general conclusion or theory.
Define ‘Operationalization’
Operationalization is the act of translating a construct into its manifestation - for example, translating the idea of your treatment or program into the actual program, or translating the idea of what you want to measure into the real measure.
You describe your actual program as an operationalized program
Define Validity in context of research
Validity is the best available approximation of the truth of a given proposition, inference, or conclusion.
Name the four types of validity
- Conclusion validity
- Internal validity
- Construct validity
- External validity
What’s conclusion validity?
In this study, is there a relationship between two variables? you could conclude there is a relationship. When you asses the validity of each of these conclusions or inferences, you are addressing conclusion validity
What’s internal validity?
Assuming there is a relationship in this sutdy, is it causal? You want to make a claim that something specific caused the outcomes in your study, and not something else, you are addressing the validity of a causal assertion and addressing internal validity
What’s construct validity?
Did you operationalize the ideas of the cause and the effect well? When your research is over, you would like to be able to conclude that you did a credible construct validity of such a conclusion
What’s external validity
You are likely to make some claims that your research findings have implications for other groups and individuals in other settings and at other times. When you do, you need to address the external validity of these claims
What are threats to validity?
Reasons your conclusion or inference might be wrong.
Why are ethics important in research? (according to Resnik)
- Norms of ethical research promote a variety of other moral and social values
- Ethical research advances the key aims of research itself, such as the generation of knowledge, truth and avoidance of error
- Many ethical principles such as those related to conflict of interest and research misconduct help ensure that researchers who are funded by public money can be held accountable to the public
What are the three principles described in the Belmont Report
- Respect for persons
- Beneficence
- Justice
What were the 3 Immediate outcomes of the National Research Act?
- The Belmont Report
- Related guidelines in ethical research that subsequently emerged
- Institutional Review Boards
Describe vulnerable populations
The term is used to designate those who may not be fully in control of their decision-making, for instance: children and prisoners.
What’s informed consent?
For an individual to make an informed decision, he must have complete information about the study, including the opportunity to ask any questions.
What does beneficence entail in the Belmont report?
Represents the expected impact on a person’s well-being that may result from participation in research.
What does justice entail in the Belmont report?
Means that participation in research should be based on fairness and not on circumstances that give researchers access to or control of a population based on status.
What does privacy mean in research
protection of personal information of participants, often done through anonymity
What are institutional review boards?
IRBs are panels of people who review research proposals with respect to ethical implications and decide whether additional actions need to be taken to assure the safety and rights of participants
What does fabrication mean in context of research papers?
Making up data or results and recording or reporting them.
What does falsification mean in context of research papers?
Manipulation of research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results that the research is not accurately represented in the research record
Describe ‘Fairness in publication credit’
Means authorship credit should be established on the basis of the quality and quantity of one’s contributions to a study, rather than on status, power or any other factors
