Lecture 2 2010

Introduction to Research Design DAVID NANA ADJEI

Flaws in thinking as part of everyday life

Telling anecdotes a personal story to support or refute a general point Refers to instinct or laws of nature or what everyone knows Uses correlational data as causal (there has been a huge increase in crime since mothers started working) Uses emotional language instead of reason and evidence (dumping babies in child care to be looked after by a stranger has to be harmful)

3 Goals of Health Science

Description

Careful observation of events and the conditions under which they occur. Step one in the development of a theory
Defines when events will and will not occur May allow us to identify magnitude and frequency and perhaps make judgments of importance Specify cause and effect Many causes maybe identified each with a varying degree of influence (e.g. the causes of heart disease)

Prediction

Explanation

What defines a solvable research question?

Is there life after death? Does sin exist? Is there a God? Is water diviing a good way to find water?

The principle of falsifiability

Theories must be stated in ways that make it possible to refute or disconfirm

Predict what will/will not happen

All Ashantis are black

The next Ashanti you see is white

is this a good test of your theory?

The next Ashanti you see is black

Is this a better test of your theory?

Basic and Applied Research

Basic Science knowledge for its own sake.

The development of logical thought in children Memory for different kinds of word lists Perception of transparency, depth, motion, light etc. Facial features and mate selection Bodily odours and sexual attraction

Each may start out as an interest of groups of researchers the findings of which may or may not be developed for practical use.

Practical uses of basic research

Development of logical thought

a test for diagnosing developmental disability

design of specialised vocabularies for communication (e.g. aviation) environmental design to warn of hazards (e.g., warning lights)

Memory for word lists

Perception of depth

Facial features

advertising
- perfume

Bodily odours

Applied Research Questions

In Clinical settings What type of therapy alleviates depression? In Educational settings What is the best way to teach children how to read? In Sports Physiotherapy How does training regime impact on performance? In Organisational settings What form of management style motivates employees?

Sources of ideas for Research

Theory-confirmation, refutation, comparison, merger Practical Problems-problem definition, solution seeking, validating Practitioners' assumptions Prior Research-case studies, conflicting findings, overlooked variables, setting and expanding boundaries, testing alternative explanations Logical Analysis-analogy, looking at things backwards Everyday Experience

Formulating a Question

Characteristics of a Good Research Question: has the potential to expand our knowledge base

How well grounded the question is in the current knowledge base (the problem must have a basis in theory, research, or practice (we need to know what is already known so that we can judge how much it can add to the knowledge base; gives us an anchor) How researchable it is (how easy it is to formulate clear operational definitions of the variables involved and clear hypotheses about the relationships between the variables) Importance: the more information the answer to a research question provides, the more important it is

Stand on the Shoulders of Giants

What information will a review provide?

relevant theories (be sure you know all relevant theories than can explain a phenomenon); look for information on what has been previously done on your research question (you want to know what has been done, what has not been done, and what still needs to be done); information concerning methodology (can borrow from methods previously used and can make changes in your design based upon what did not work well in the past); information on data analysis (need to know how you are going to analyze your data to be sure that you can actually answer your research questionanalytic techniques must match the data that you collect) A way of turning an interest into a sensible question If you have a question you can generate hypotheses.

Reviewing the Literature

To provide a scientific context for the research and to validate it against the three criteria for a good research question; To avoid duplication of effort (if a question has been addressed in numerous ways and the answer is always similar then it might not be worth pursuing further; or, you might want to try to examine the question in a new way (new setting, new population, etc); To identify potential problems in conducting the research (knowing in advance the potential problems that can arise in the research can help you to avoid them)

Hypotheses should take two formsa research hypothesis a statistical hypothesis

Research Hypotheses: states an expectation about the relationship between variables; this expectation derives from and answers the research question, and so is grounded in prior theory and research on the question Statistical Hypotheses: transforms the research hypothesis into a statement about the expected result of a statistical test (directional); must accurately represent the research hypothesis

Designing the Study

How will the study be conducted?

Choose a research strategy and a specific design within the chosen strategy

What will be studied?

Choice of operational definition for the hypothetical constructs you're studying

Where will the study be conducted? Who will be studied?

When will the study be conducted?

Time factors? Cross-sectional or longitudinal?

Research Methods

Three broad types Descriptive Methods Relational Methods Experimental Methods

Appropriateness depends on the question

Descriptive Methods

Observational Studies

Naturalistic courting behaviour in nightclubs Participant/Action Research Laboratory Observation observation of children in a playgroup (allows some manipulation) N=1 in depth analysis (Freud, Piaget) Is generalisability and replicability a problem?

Case Study Methods

Descriptive Methods II

Survey Methods
Mail, Phone, Web Large samples often used

Problems include:
Opportunism Response rates Gaining access Difficult to assign causation

Predictive Relational (correlational) Methods

A step up from description in the demonstration of co-variation the correlational method

If a correlation can be demonstrated then predictions can be made from the knowledge of one variable only.

Questions about the Correlational Method

Height and weight are correlated - what can you not conclude? Pain experienced in child birth and foot size are strongly correlated can you conclude anything? After watching a violent TV program children are more aggressive. What can you conclude? But - You can infer causation from correlation under some circumstances using a combination of sophisticated methodology and statistical techniques

Next Lecture

The experimental method

Its strengths Its weaknesses