Summary of the book Trochim- Research Methods.
A comprehensive summary of Chapter 1 till Chapter 12.
Literally read this summary a couple of times in advance to the exam, and obtained an 85.
Chapter 1: Foundations of research methods
1.1 Research enterprise
1.1a What is research?
- Research: a type of systematic investigation that is empirical in nature and designed to
contribute to public knowledge.
- Social research: research which has to do with our society and our lives.
- Research project: project that addresses specific questions, collects specific data, involves
conducting analyses.
o Every research project based on another research.
o No single research gives a complete answer to the research
- Research enterprise: the macro-level effort to accumulate knowledge across multiple
empirical systematic public research projects.
- We accumulate knowledge with the idea that it may contribute someday to something we can
use. It contributes to instrumental knowledge.
1.1b Translational research
- Translational research: the systematic effort to move research from initial discovery to
practice and ultimately to impacts on our lives. (<- translating research into practice)
o “bench to bedside”, “bench to behaviour” , “mind to the marketplace”
o To move research from discovery to impact in the research enterprise
- Research-practice continuum: the process of moving from an initial research idea or discovery
to practice, and the potential for the idea to influence our lives or world.
- Basic research: research that is designed to generate discoveries and to understand how the
discoveries work.
- Applied research: research where a discovery is tested under increasingly controlled
conditions in real-world contexts (with humans).
- Implementation and dissemination research: research that assesses how well an innovation
or discovery can be distributed in and carried out in a broad range of contexts that extend
beyond the original controlled studies.
- Impact research: research that assesses the broader effects of a discovery or innovation on
society.
- Policy research: research that is designed to investigate existing policies or develop and test
new ones.
Figure: Translational research
- The translational process works in both directions.
1
,1.1c Research syntheses and guidelines
- Research synthesis: a systematic study of multiple prior research projects that address the
same research question or topic and that summarizes the results in a manner that can be used
by practitioners.
o Two major types of research synthesises:
§ Meta-analysis: uses statistical methods to combine the results of similar
studies quantitatively in order to allow general conclusions to be made. <- is
always a quantitative synthesis
§ Systematic review: focuses on a specific question or issue and uses
preplanned methods to identify, select, assess, and summarize the findings of
multiple research studies. <- often involves a panel of experts who discuss the
research literature and research conclusions about how well a discovery works
to address a problem or issue.
• Can be a judgmental expert-driven synthesis, meta-analysis or both
o Both types can be technical and are written in a scientific style that typically is cautious
about making formal recommendations for action.
§ To help address problem, research enterprise developed practice guideline:
systematic process that leads to a specific set of research-based
recommendations for practice that usually includes some estimates of how
strong the evidence is for each recommendation.
- Figure: Translational research and research-practice continuum with system of research
syntheses and guidelines included
1.1d Evidence-based practice
- Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a movement designed to encourage or require practioners
to employ practice guidelines.
o Movement represents major attempt of research enterprise to achieve better
integration of research and practice.
o Discussions; some only allow studies based on randomized experimental or strong
quasi-experimental designs into the evidence base, others allow broader range
studies as evidence.
o Should not only be evidence that drives practice, practice should help drive
development of evidence.
2
,1.1e An Evolutionary perspective on research enterprise
- Increasingly we view research as evolutionary system. Based upon idea of evolutionary
epistemology: branch of philosophy that holds that ideas evolve through process of natural
selection.
o Competes with other established and emerging discoveries and survival value
1.2 Conceptualizing research
1.2a Where the research topics come from
- Most common sources of research ideas is practical problems in the field.
o Eg: back injuries among nursing staff <- due to heavy lifting resulting in enormous costs
- Other source is literature in specific field, ideas by reading literature and suggestions from
academic articles
o Other type literature for research ideas: requests for proposals (RFPs): document
issued by government agency or other organization that, typically, describes the
problem that needs addressing the contexts in which it operates, the approach the
agency would like you to take to investigate the problem, and the amount the agency
would be willing to pay for such research.
- Come up by their own research
1.2b The literature review
- Literature review: systematic compilation and written summary of all of the literature
published in scientific journals that is related to a research topic of interest. A literature review
is typically included in the introduction section of a research write-up.
o Review designed to identify related research, to have a theoretical context
o Tips:
§ First concentrate efforts on the research literature
• Put greatest emphasis on journals that use blind or juried peer review
system: system for reviewing potential publications where authors
submit articles to a journal editor who solicits several reviewers who
agree to give a critical review of the paper. No identification of the
author has been made to avoid personal bias. Based on reviewers
recommendations, editor can accept, reject or recommend author to
revise and submit it.
§ Second do the review early in research process
o What look for in the literature review?
§ Studies that are similar to yours.
§ Prior research helps you to include major relevant constructs of study.
§ Help you find and select appropriate measurement instruments.
§ Help you anticipate common problems in research context.
1.2c Feasibility Issues
- Considerations come into play. Many involve making trade-offs between rigor and practicality.
o Ideal circumstances for research seldom exist and always forced to look for best trade-
offs to get rigor they desire.
- Several considerations in mind regarding feasibility:
o How long will the research take to accomplish
o Whether any ethical constraints require consideration
o Acquire the cooperation needed to take project to successful conclusion
o Determine the degree to which costs will be manageable
3
, 1.3 Language of Research
1.3a Research vocabulary
- Theoretical: pertaining to theory. Social research is theoretical, meaning that much of it is
concerned with developing, exploring, or testing the theories or ideas that social researchers
have about how the world operates.
- Empirical: based on direct observations and measurements of reality.
o Most research blending of these two terms; comparison of theories about how the
world operates with observations of its operation
- Probabilistic: based on probabilities (= waarschijnlijkheden)
- Causal: pertaining to a cause-effect relationship, hypothesis, or relationship. Something is
causal if it leads to an outcome or makes an outcome happen.
o Cause-effect relationship: when you evaluate whether your treatment or program
causes an outcome to occur, you are examining a causal relationship.
o Important to go beyond passively observing descriptive or relationships, so causal
1.3b Types of studies
1. Descriptive studies: study that documents what is going on or what exists
a. Public opinion polls of voting elections to describe the situation
2. Relational studies: study that investigates the connection between two or more
variables
a. Public opinion polls that compares proportion of gender vs voting preference
3. Casual studies: study that investigates a causal relationship between two variables
a. Public opinion polls that determine a recent political advertising campaign
changed voter preferences, you would study whether the campaign (cause)
changed proportion of voters (effect)
- Are all cumulative; so first describe and then on to the next type of studies
1.3c Time in research
- Cross-sectional research: study that takes place at a single point in time
o Take a slice of what you are observing
- Longitudinal studies: take place over multiple points in time
o Measure your research participants on at least two separate occasions or in time
o Measuring more points: measuring multiple waves of measurement
o Repeated measures: two or more waves of measurement over time
o Time series: many waves of measurement over time (usually when you have at least
20 waves of measurement)
1.3d Types of relationships
- Nature of relationship
o Correlational relationship: two things perform in synchronized manner. The level on
one variable is related to the level on the other.
§ E.g: inflation and unemployement are related, but does not mean that the one
causes the other à if there is a cause it is a causal relationship
o Third variable or missing variable problem: an unobserved variable that accounts for
a correlation between two variables.
§ Think about another variable that might have effect on both variables that
have shown a change.
4
Voordelen van het kopen van samenvattingen bij Stuvia op een rij:
Verzekerd van kwaliteit door reviews
Stuvia-klanten hebben meer dan 700.000 samenvattingen beoordeeld. Zo weet je zeker dat je de beste documenten koopt!
Snel en makkelijk kopen
Je betaalt supersnel en eenmalig met iDeal, creditcard of Stuvia-tegoed voor de samenvatting. Zonder lidmaatschap.
Focus op de essentie
Samenvattingen worden geschreven voor en door anderen. Daarom zijn de samenvattingen altijd betrouwbaar en actueel. Zo kom je snel tot de kern!
Veelgestelde vragen
Wat krijg ik als ik dit document koop?
Je krijgt een PDF, die direct beschikbaar is na je aankoop. Het gekochte document is altijd, overal en oneindig toegankelijk via je profiel.
Tevredenheidsgarantie: hoe werkt dat?
Onze tevredenheidsgarantie zorgt ervoor dat je altijd een studiedocument vindt dat goed bij je past. Je vult een formulier in en onze klantenservice regelt de rest.
Van wie koop ik deze samenvatting?
Stuvia is een marktplaats, je koop dit document dus niet van ons, maar van verkoper laurenfloor. Stuvia faciliteert de betaling aan de verkoper.
Zit ik meteen vast aan een abonnement?
Nee, je koopt alleen deze samenvatting voor €5,99. Je zit daarna nergens aan vast.
