VCU Project Empowerment Foundations of Research: Foundation, Importance and Key Elements

1. VCU Project EmpowermentFoundations of Research: Foundation, Importance and Key Elements Kelli Williams Gary, Ph.D., MPH, OTR/L Post-doctoral Research Fellow

2. Importance of Research • Someone you know today is alive because of research.

3. Importance of Research • Today you are more aware of the nutritional value of food due to research.

4. Importance of Research • Today you can travel from New York to California in less than 5 hours due to research.

5. Foundations“Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.”Zora Neale Hurston • Definition of Research • Systematic inquiry that uses disciplined methods to answer questions or solve problems.

6. Foundations Vs. Basic Research Applied Research • Designed to extend the base of information for increasing knowledge. • Application of imaging studies • Development of animal models • Studies of genetic variables • Designed to focus on finding solutions to existing problems. • Research on the development of preventative interventions • Research that examines the influence of race, culture and socio-economic status on the etiology • Research that examines mediating and moderating variables in the trajectory

7. Foundations • Action Research • Based on premise that production of knowledge can be political and can be used to exert power. • Participatory Action Research • Researchers work with communities that are vulnerable to dominant group or culture. • Key objective is to produce an impetus that is directly used to make improvements through education and sociopolitical action.

8. Foundations • Types of Variables • Continuous • Can assume an infinite number of variables of values between two points. • Categorical • Small range of values that do not inherently represent a quantity. • Dichotomous variables. • Discrete • A finite number between two points representing discrete quantities.

9. Foundations • Types of Variables • Independent variables • The presumed cause. • Sometimes called criterion variable. • Dependent variables • The presumed effect. • Sometimes called outcome variable.

10. Types of Research Design

11. Types of Research Design

12. Ethics and Research • Institutional Review Board (IRB) • Group of people that monitors research designed to obtain information from or about human subjects. Members of an IRB come from multiple research disciplines and from the communities in which the research is conducted. • Objectively assess the risk/benefits of research to protect research subjects’ rights. • Full review, expedited review, and exempt.