290 likes | 763 Views
scholarly research & resulting products. wed sept 9, 2015. schedule updates…. SPSS Lab – Sept 21 & Oct 26 Davis Library, room 219 “ using information for a purpose ” creative collaboration & narrative storytelling In-class workshop with Zach Ward, Sept 30
E N D
scholarly research & resulting products wed sept 9, 2015
schedule updates… • SPSS Lab – Sept 21 & Oct 26 • Davis Library, room 219 • “using information for a purpose” • creative collaboration & narrative storytelling • In-class workshop with Zach Ward, Sept 30 • DSI Comedy Theater http://www.dsicomedytheater.com/ • Please go see one show ($6-10)
rationale for today’s class… • The more you understand the processes, structures, measures, intricacies, nuances, pitfalls, possibilities and limitations of scientific research, the more sophisticated and informed you become in evaluating the products of research • Understanding the vocabulary of research allows you to talk about research products in a more sophisticated and informed manner Side note: consider taking research methods!
learning outcomes for today • delineate between 3 basic types of research studies (exploratory, descriptive, explanatory) • track down the full-text of a specific article • be able to identify specific components in a scholarly research article
How do you define research and how do you think it has changed and will continue to change throughout the years? In what ways has technology made research easier? Difficult? -Travis
LA Times article exercise • read the piece on food labeling • where does the journalist get her information? • try to identify specific studies that she draws from – write down any clues • with your neighbor, use the library resources (e-journals or academic search complete) to track down one of the original research studies • write down the full citation • read the abstract of the article
What year? What year?
Tandon, P.S., Wright, J., Zhou, C., Rogers, C.B., & Christakis, D.A. (2010). Nutrition menu labeling may lead to lower-calorie restaurant meal choices for children. Pediatrics, 125, 244-248.
one way to think about research approaches is to consider specific goals of the research: • exploration • description • explanation See reading for today, bottom of page 17 (Neuman, W.L. (2009). Understanding research. Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.)
exploratory studies • typically conducted when little is known about a particular phenomenon • often employ a variety of research methods with the goal of learning more about a phenomenon, rather than making specific predictions • often have less structured methods • research questions are typically broad and open-ended and hypotheses are uncommon
descriptive studies • focus on documenting and describing a particular phenomenon • main purpose is to provide benchmark descriptions and classifications • often used to inform other studies • may describe variables and correlations • may aim to build some sort of model or mid-range theory describing phenomenon
explanatory studies • examine the relationship between two or more variables with the goal of prediction and/or explanation • often concerned with establishing causality and because of this require variables of interest to be isolated and studied systematically
prediction vs. explanation • it is possible to build predictive models of events without actually understanding anything about WHY such event occur • very often researchers stop at prediction and do not pursue explanation
Neuman, W.L. (2009). Understanding research. Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon
Will research always lead to accurate findings and how personal or impersonal are these findings? Measures of Quality -Micheline
Validity Reliability is the study actually doing what it says it does internal validity, flaws within the study itself such as design problems or data collection problems external validity, extent to which you can generalize to a larger group or other contexts repeatability reliable across time, that is, if the same researcher would get the same results if he or she did the same study at a different time reliable across samples or across groups of people who are participating in the study
* exploratory /descriptive / explanatory ** participants, data collection, analysis