Your Bias and You

1. Your Bias and You Dealing With Bias in Research Devin Cassidy SUNY New Paltz

2. So You Think You’re Not Biased • Everyone is Biased. • Everything that you have experienced in your past affects the way you perceive and interpret information in your present. No two people will have identical reactions to a piece of information. • In research, our conclusions are affected by our biases and the experiences we have had in our lives.

3. Don’t Panic • Bias is not (always) a bad thing. • “It’s ok to bring biases to your inquiry – because everyone has them, after all- as long as you openly admit them and continually reflect on how they might affect what you conclude (Falk, Blumenreich 29). • It is only when we try to hide our biases, or fail to acknowledge them, that they affect our research negatively.

4. When Bias Turns Bad •  "...beliefs within the medical profession about the nature of African Americans, sexual behavior, and disease clouded the study. As a result, the health of an entire community was jeopardized by leaving a communicable disease untreated." (Heintzelman, 3) • It wasn’t just that the researchers in this study were biased, it was also that they: 1) Failed to acknowledge that bias and 2) Allowed that bias to affect the results of their study.

5. How to Keep Bias From Dictating Your Research • The important thing to remember is that your life and experiences make up who you are. Hiding yourself for the sake of your research won’t help to make your study more “objective”. • When we own up to our biases, we are able to reflect on how they might affect how we view our results. That allows us to compensate for them and obtain all of the facts we need in order to validate our studies.

6. Questions to Ask About Yourself as a Researcher • What have I experienced in my life that has led me to this particular study? • How do those experiences affect my judgment? • Will those biases affect the conclusions I draw from my data? • Is there a way for me to counteract those biases? • What perspectives must I find in order to have a well-rounded research study?

7. Accepting Your Bias and Moving On • A personal statement at the beginning of your study that explains who you are as a researcher, where you’re coming from and what led you to your question is a great way to be upfront about your biases. • Readers of your research will be able to have a better understanding of why you reached certain conclusions and you will have a better idea of what you need to do in order to present all sides of the story you’re trying to tell.

8. I Dealt With My Bias and So Can You! • When approaching my research question, I had to ask myself what it was that made me interested in this particular topic. The answer, was mainly that I’m a music teacher and want to know what motivates students to do well in an extracurricular. • What I had to acknowledge was that not all students came from the same background as me. Not all students worry about the same things I worried about and maybe music isn’t on their top list of priorities. • And why is that so important to acknowledge in my research? Because it helps me get feedback from all different sources. It helps me to understand that I don’t need to look just at the white-middle-class-suburbs, but also the inner-city and what motivates students there. It makes me understand that my point of view is not the only point of view. As a researcher, that sort of understanding is paramount to honest research.

9. References • Blumenreich, M. & Falk, B., (2005). The power of questions: A guide to teacher and student research. Heineman. Portsmouth, NH. (p. 29) • Heintzelman, C.A., ( 2003). The tuskegee syphilis study and its implications for the 21st century. The New Social Worker, 10(4). Retrieved from http://schillingerinquiry.wikispaces.com/file/ view/Heintzelman_The+Tuskegee+Syphilis+st udy+and+its+implications+for+the+21st+C- 2.pdf