CA408 Grantham University Research in Daily Life Discussions This is 8 Discussion. I need one answered every 3 days. Each week, you will be asked to respo

CA408 Grantham University Research in Daily Life Discussions This is 8 Discussion. I need one answered every 3 days.

Each week, you will be asked to respond to the prompt or prompts in the discussion forum. Your initial post should be 75-150 words in length.

Discussion 1

Research in Daily Life

The book discusses research as systemic investigation that is designed to produce public knowledge. This involves collecting data, analyzing results, and discovering or proving knowledge. With this in mind, how does research affect your life? 

In this first forum, introduce yourself and describe what brings you to Grantham and how this course might affect your program and future career. Then identify two ways that research affects your daily life. 

After your initial post, respond to at least two classmates by discussing how their chosen examples of research compare to your own and whether they also affect your life. How is research all around us?

View your discussion rubric. 

Discussion 2

Ethical Research

Our Week Two material explores the rules for ethical research. After completing the assigned chapters and lectures, identify an event from the past when research did not follow ethical guidelines. For your opening thread, share a link to the event you found and explain what happened. Then discuss why ethical research is so important. Why do scientists need to be extra careful with research that uses human subjects? Do ethical guidelines restrict the boundaries of research? Feel free to explain by using the textbook or by doing additional research online. Remember to cite your sources.

When responding to your classmates, consider their reasoning for ethical research. Is there or has there ever been any situation when morality can be abandoned for a really good research project? Why or why not?

View your discussion rubric. 

Discussion 3

Science Reporting

This week’s assigned reading went over the value of specific types of data. For this week’s discussion forum, look through your favorite news sources and identify an article on science reporting. Your example should summarize a scientific article by explaining the goal of the project, its findings, and the reporter’s take on the project. Remember to cite your source.

After providing this summary, analyze the project itself. Are there any weaknesses in this experiment? Use the textbook to discuss potential problems in sample size, variables, collection errors, assumptions, or bias.

While responding to classmates, compare their findings to your own. Why should we be extra wary of science reporting in the news?

View your discussion rubric. 

Discussion 4

Validity and Reliability 

Every project must ensure the data and conclusions are both valid and reliable. Validity refers to the accuracy of the measurement in a test; reliability refers to the stability or consistency of scores. In other words, a test must measure what it says it does (validity), and it must be consistent in its reports (reliability).

For this week’s initial thread, share an example of a test or experiment and discuss the validity and reliability of that test. Your example can come from your daily life, from reading the textbook or looking for online examples, or even from a hypothetical situation.

When responding to your classmates, suggest at least one way to improve either the validity or reliability in their proposed example. Remember to demonstrate the difference between validity and reliability in your posts this week.

View your discussion rubric. 

Discussion 5

Survey Data

Surveys try to measure opinions about populations relating to political beliefs, religious views, diet and exercise, and all manner of lifestyle choices.

For this week’s discussion, search for an online poll. If you don’t have a polling source in mind, you can explore the Pew Research Center, any news source, or fivethirtyeight.com. Share the data revealed by your chosen poll, and draw three conclusions to explain the poll’s results. When drawing conclusions, consider what the poll measures, what big the sample size was, or how trustworthy the results are. Try to use the textbook to look for ways to assess the results.

When responding to your classmates, compare their findings to your own and provide them with feedback on the accuracy of their conclusions. For example, do you find the explanations to be credible? Is there another way to interpret the data? Were the questions poorly written? This discussion forum will help you practice analysis for the final project, so ask yourself questions about each other’s findings.

View your discussion rubric. 

Discussion 6

Interpreting History

Historical interpretation can be particularly difficult, because history never exists in a vacuum. Each event is part of a larger historical arc. In addition, historical events are interpreted differently by individual people. As a result, each event can be interpreted differently depending on context.
 

For this week’s forum, choose a moment in history that interests you. Using a reliable source, summarize the event in 3-5 sentences. Then propose how that event could be interpreted truthfully as a positive development in human history, or a negative event in human history. If we can honestly interpret it both ways, what does that mean about truth in historical research?

When responding to classmates, identify different groups of people who might benefit from one or the other interpretation. Groups could be organized by politics, religion, gender, urban versus rural, American versus international, or any other category. Keep in mind the question of how this tells us more about “truth” in historical research.

View your discussion rubric. 

Discussion 7

Academic Literature

When we speak of research, we often think about laboratory conditions. However, research affects all careers and all walks of life, including business, administration, politics, education, customer service, and criminal justice.

For this week’s forum, search online for the name of a research journal that might be important to your program at Grantham or your future career. Share the name of that journal and describe what kinds of articles, research, and data it publishes.

When responding to classmates, compare their example to your own and try to suggest specific ways you or your peers could use the information that journal to become better at our future jobs. How is research important to our specific careers? It might be useful to mention your major or career goals during this week’s forum.

View your discussion rubric. 

Discussion 8

Peer Review and Reflection

Share your Final Project presentation here. Write a 3-5 sentence summary of your project and attach the submission into the discussion forum thread.

When responding to your classmates, draw from concepts throughout this course to analyze their presentation. Feel free to ask each other questions, and try to monitor your own thread in order to answer the questions anyone poses to your own presentation.

View your discussion rubric. CA408 Research Methods
Discussions
Each week, you will be asked to respond to the prompt or prompts in the
discussion forum. Your initial post should be 75-150 words in length.
Discussion 1
Research in Daily Life
The book discusses research as systemic investigation that is designed to
produce public knowledge. This involves collecting data, analyzing results, and
discovering or proving knowledge. With this in mind, how does research affect
your life?
In this first forum, introduce yourself and describe what brings you to Grantham
and how this course might affect your program and future career. Then
identify two ways that research affects your daily life.
After your initial post, respond to at least two classmates by discussing how their
chosen examples of research compare to your own and whether they also affect
your life. How is research all around us?
View your discussion rubric.
Discussion 2
Ethical Research
Our Week Two material explores the rules for ethical research. After completing
the assigned chapters and lectures, identify an event from the past when
research did not follow ethical guidelines. For your opening thread, share a link
to the event you found and explain what happened. Then discuss why ethical
research is so important. Why do scientists need to be extra careful with
research that uses human subjects? Do ethical guidelines restrict the boundaries
of research? Feel free to explain by using the textbook or by doing additional
research online. Remember to cite your sources.
When responding to your classmates, consider their reasoning for ethical
research. Is there or has there ever been any situation when morality can be
abandoned for a really good research project? Why or why not?
View your discussion rubric.
Discussion 3
Science Reporting
This week’s assigned reading went over the value of specific types of data. For
this week’s discussion forum, look through your favorite news sources and
identify an article on science reporting. Your example should summarize a
scientific article by explaining the goal of the project, its findings, and the
reporter’s take on the project. Remember to cite your source.
After providing this summary, analyze the project itself. Are there any
weaknesses in this experiment? Use the textbook to discuss potential problems
in sample size, variables, collection errors, assumptions, or bias.
While responding to classmates, compare their findings to your own. Why should
we be extra wary of science reporting in the news?
View your discussion rubric.
Discussion 4
Validity and Reliability
Every project must ensure the data and conclusions are both valid and reliable.
Validity refers to the accuracy of the measurement in a test; reliability refers to
the stability or consistency of scores. In other words, a test must measure what it
says it does (validity), and it must be consistent in its reports (reliability).
For this week’s initial thread, share an example of a test or experiment and
discuss the validity and reliability of that test. Your example can come from your
daily life, from reading the textbook or looking for online examples, or even from
a hypothetical situation.
When responding to your classmates, suggest at least one way to improve either
the validity or reliability in their proposed example. Remember to demonstrate
the difference between validity and reliability in your posts this week.
View your discussion rubric.
Discussion 5
Survey Data
Surveys try to measure opinions about populations relating to political beliefs,
religious views, diet and exercise, and all manner of lifestyle choices.
For this week’s discussion, search for an online poll. If you don’t have a polling
source in mind, you can explore the Pew Research Center, any news source, or
fivethirtyeight.com. Share the data revealed by your chosen poll, and draw three
conclusions to explain the poll’s results. When drawing conclusions, consider
what the poll measures, what big the sample size was, or how trustworthy the
results are. Try to use the textbook to look for ways to assess the results.
When responding to your classmates, compare their findings to your own and
provide them with feedback on the accuracy of their conclusions. For example,
do you find the explanations to be credible? Is there another way to interpret the
data? Were the questions poorly written? This discussion forum will help you
practice analysis for the final project, so ask yourself questions about each
other’s findings.
View your discussion rubric.
Discussion 6
Interpreting History
Historical interpretation can be particularly difficult, because history never exists
in a vacuum. Each event is part of a larger historical arc. In addition, historical
events are interpreted differently by individual people. As a result, each event
can be interpreted differently depending on context.
For this week’s forum, choose a moment in history that interests you. Using a
reliable source, summarize the event in 3-5 sentences. Then propose how that
event could be interpreted truthfully as a positive development in human
history, or a negative event in human history. If we can honestly interpret it both
ways, what does that mean about truth in historical research?
When responding to classmates, identify different groups of people who might
benefit from one or the other interpretation. Groups could be organized by
politics, religion, gender, urban versus rural, American versus international, or
any other category. Keep in mind the question of how this tells us more about
“truth” in historical research.
View your discussion rubric.
Discussion 7
Academic Literature
When we speak of research, we often think about laboratory conditions.
However, research affects all careers and all walks of life, including business,
administration, politics, education, customer service, and criminal justice.
For this week’s forum, search online for the name of a research journal that
might be important to your program at Grantham or your future career. Share
the name of that journal and describe what kinds of articles, research, and data it
publishes.
When responding to classmates, compare their example to your own and try to
suggest specific ways you or your peers could use the information that journal to
become better at our future jobs. How is research important to our specific
careers? It might be useful to mention your major or career goals during this
week’s forum.
View your discussion rubric.
Discussion 8
Peer Review and Reflection
Share your Final Project presentation here. Write a 3-5 sentence summary of
your project and attach the submission into the discussion forum thread.
When responding to your classmates, draw from concepts throughout this
course to analyze their presentation. Feel free to ask each other questions, and
try to monitor your own thread in order to answer the questions anyone poses to
your own presentation.
View your discussion rubric.
Foundations of Research Methods
Chapter 1
Chapter Introduction
The Greek philosopher Aristotle reportedly said: “Well begun is
half done.” This chapter is designed to get you “well begun” on
the often-daunting topic of research methods. The good news—
if you believe this saying—is that when you’re done with this
chapter you will be “half done.” The bad news of course is that
it’s not literally true. You have an entire text yet to complete.
But, we were looking for something you might find consoling as
you start out on this journey into research methods.
This chapter begins with consideration of the big picture, what
we term the “research enterprise.” It describes how the tens of
thousands of research projects conducted around the world
over time are increasingly being integrated to provide a more
empirical knowledge base for humanity. Some of the most
exciting and important developments in research are occurring
at this more macro level as we collectively get a more global
view of how we have evolved into a research-based society.
Next, we explore where research ideas come from, the task of
conceptualizing a research project. We consider both the
inspirational and insightful aspects of conceptualizing and the
ways we attempt to build new ideas on the research literatures
that preceded our work. Following that, we begin to provide you
with the basic tools you will need to navigate the research
terrain, the beginnings of a vocabulary that will enable you to
understand and speak the language of research. Here we
consider some of the most basic terms and concepts that you
will need throughout the text as you acquire vocabulary that is
even more advanced. Then, we consider the idea that every
research project has a structure: a beginning, a middle, and an
end. We introduce the basic components that make up the
typical research project and describe how they fit together.
Finally, since research is concerned with learning about the
world around and within us, we end by introducing the basic
idea of validity in research, how we judge the degree to which
the research we conduct is an accurate depiction of our world.
That ought to be enough to get you started. At least it ought to
be enough to get you thoroughly confused. But don’t worry,
there’s stuff that’s far more confusing than this yet to come!
1.1The
Research Enterprise
It is amazing, when you think about it, how much our modern
society relies upon research. Virtually everything we do, see or
come into contact with is the subject of research. Humans carry
out research that takes us into the universe, that explores our
environment, that leads to all of the technologies that we use,
that investigates what we eat and drink and how to produce
these things better, that looks at our cities and towns, that
assesses our interactions and relationships, and that explores
our physical and mental selves. There is almost no aspect of our
world that is not the subject of considerable research.
Sometimes it is difficult to believe that all of this human activity
is a relatively recent invention. Prior to the 1600s there was
virtually nothing that resembled what we would today call
research. In the space of less than 400 years, humanity has
created the idea of research and has seen it permeate into
almost every aspect of our lives.
1.1aWhat
Is Research?
So, let’s begin with a few simple definitions. The obvious place
to start is with the term research itself. Virtually every field of
study involves some form of research. But the term means many
different things across different fields. Research in the field of
history doesn’t look much like research in medicine. Research in
costume design typically won’t resemble research in
meteorology. So what is it that is common to all of these
definitions? Perhaps the most important thing that holds all
definitions together is that research is systematic investigation.
In our everyday life we think about the world around us. We
consider options and make choices. But much of this thinking is
done dynamically, changing and adapting to the circumstances
as they unfold. Research is different. It is a conscious effort to
concentrate our thinking, to do it in a rational, careful manner.
This is the key to the systematic nature of research.
Research also involves collecting data. It is
an empirical endeavor. When you go to the store or to a market
to buy something and you just browse through the aisles seeing
what catches your eye, you may be gathering information, but
you are not doing so systematically. On the other hand, when
you systematically compare products, collecting comparable
information about their features, quality, service history, and so
on, you are engaged in an empirical effort, an effort that is based
upon systematic observation that yields data that you can use in
your decision making.
Research is also typically a public effort. While you might collect
lots of information systematically so that you can make a better
decision, researchers typically conduct research so that it can
contribute to a broader base of knowledge than just their own.
Consequently, it is important that research procedures are
described in a way that enables other people to understand
them, duplicate them and make judgments about their quality.
• So, we might put this together into a simple definition:
• Research is
a type of systematic investigation that is empirical in
nature and is designed to contribute to public knowledge.
In this volume, we focus on a particular subclass of research
known as social research. The topics that are investigated in
social research have to do with our societies, the things we do,
how we interact, how we live, how we feel, and how we see
ourselves. It encompasses much of the research that is done in
fields like sociology, education, public health, criminology,
housing, public welfare, applied and social psychology, and
many more. While much of what this text talks about is relevant
to other fields like biomedical research or engineering, our
focus here is on the social aspects of phenomena.
Typically, when we conduct research, we do a
research project or study that addresses one or more specific
questions, collects specific data, involves conducting specific
analyses, and so on. We virtually never do a research project in
a vacuum. Every research project is undertaken with the
realization that there was prior research that addressed some
aspect of what we are looking at. Even if no one has previously
looked at exactly the question we are investigating in a project,
it’s still likely that someone has previously looked at something
similar, used similar data, or done similar analyses. We also
know that every research project will have flaws and that no
research project on its own is likely to provide a definitive
answer to any truly important question. In every field, we
conduct multiple research projects, addressing important
issues, each project fallible and imperfect, and each one
contributing to the broader accumulating knowledge base.
This text concentrates most on how you learn to conduct a
research project, a specific investigation of a question of
interest. But it is important that you understand the broader
effort that each research project contributes to. We refer to that
broader effort as the research enterprise. The research
enterprise is the macro-level effort to accumulate knowledge
across multiple empirical systematic public
research projects (Sung et al., 2003). In the past few decades, as
more research projects and studies have been done, we have
become much more aware of this cross-project endeavor. This
makes sense. After hundreds of years of conducting individual
research studies and then series of studies, we are now finally
turning our attention to the broader environment within which
all this activity takes place. In the next few sections, we consider
some of the most important aspects of this larger research
enterprise, in order to provide a foundation for understanding
how to conduct individual research projects—the central focus
of the remainder of this text.
1.1bTranslational
Research
So, what are we doing all these research projects for? The
traditional answer has been that we do research studies in
order to contribute to our knowledge. This, of course, leads to
the next obvious question: What are we accumulating
knowledge for? Some would argue that we accumulate
knowledge for its own sake. They would claim that not all
knowledge has to be useful or lead to something. Sometimes
when we learn something we cannot possibly anticipate how
that knowledge could be used. A classic example is of the Post-It
notes that are in almost every office. The creators of the Post-It
note did not set out to create such objects. They were
discovered at the 3M research laboratories in the 1970s when
chemists were trying to create a new glue. The glue they
created, however, didn’t work as they had hoped. It stuck things
like two pieces of paper together, but they could be pulled apart
again, with the glue remaining only on the original sheet. It
seemed like a totally useless type of glue until one of the
researchers hit upon the idea that there are times when you
want to be able to unstick two pieces of paper without doing
any damage to either. The result was the Post-It note. Many of
the major discoveries in research—penicillin, the telephone,
Velcro—happened by accident. The research that led to them
contributed to knowledge that was subsequently used in
unanticipated ways. So, we accumulate knowledge with the idea
that it may contribute some day to something we can use. In this
sense, we are the toolmakers. Our research contributes to
instrumental knowledge that we hope can make our lives or our
world better. That is, knowledge gained from research may at
some point be able to be put into practice.
When we move research from discovery to practice (and to the
effects of that practice on our lives) we can say we are
translating research into practice. Translational research is
the systematic effort to move research from initial discovery to
practice and ultimately to impacts on our lives. There are a wide
variety of clever phrases that are used in various fields to
convey the idea of translational research concisely, such as:
from “bench to bedside”; from “bench to behavior”; from “the
mind to the marketplace”; from “brain to vein”; and from
“bench-to-practice-to-community,” to name but a few. There are
lots of different models of translational research that divide the
process into stages in different ways (Dougherty & Conway,
2008; Khoury et al., 2007; Sung et al., 2003; Trochim, Kane,
Graham, & Pincus, 2011; Westfall, Mold, & Fagnan, 2007), but all
of them convey the central agenda of translational research: to
move research from discovery to impact in the research
enterprise.
We can think of the research enterprise as encompassing
a research-practice continuum within which translation
occurs. In the course of moving through this continuum it is
likely that many individual research projects will be conducted.
Some of these are what might be called basic research and are
designed to generate discoveries and to understand their
mechanisms better. For discoveries that relate to humans, this is
usually followed by a series of applied research projects where
the discovery is tested under increasingly controlled conditions
with humans. If adiscovery survives this applied research
testing, there is usually a process of seeing how well it can be
implemented in and disseminated to a broad range of contexts
that extend beyond the original controlled studies. This is
sometimes referred to as implementation and dissemination
research. Ultimately, many such discoveries are assessed for
the impacts they have broadly on society, what might be
termed impact research. Sometimes discoveries lead to the
development of new policies that are investigated with policy
research in the broader population. The research-practice
continuum might be depicted as shown in Figure 1.1. It is
assumed that different discoveries take different pathways
through this continuum. Some take longer to go through one
stage or another. The bidirectional arrow in the figure is meant
to convey that the translational process works in both
directions. Sometimes insights from practitioners and policy
makers can inform basic and applied researchers and improve
their ability to transform their discoveries to better anticipate
the real-world contexts that they will eventually need to be
implemented in.
Figure 1.1
Translational Research.
1.1cResearch
Syntheses and Guidelines
Typically, during the testing of a new discovery during the basic
and applied research period a number of separate research
projects are likely to be conducted. In the past, it was assumed
that implementers and practitioners of new discoveries would
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