Research Flashcards
In what way does research help us?
It helps us stay aware of our biases.
Let’s talk about evidence based practice again. What are some things you need with EBP? (4)
Obviously, you must have evidence.
You must be conscientious (purposeful, detailed use of info).
You must be explicit (making it clear that you’re going to use this info).
You must be judicious (use your judgment, don’t just blindly use research).
Let’s talk about evidence based practice again. What are some things you need with EBP? (4)
Obviously, you must have evidence.
You must be conscientious (purposeful, detailed use of info).
You must be explicit (making it clear that you’re going to use this info).
You must be judicious (use your judgment, don’t just blindly use research).
For EBP, you don’t always have evidence. What do you do in this case?
Go to your colleagues and people who know what’s up. Do the best with what you have (evidence triangle…highest point is high internal and external validity, which is the goal).
Internal validity
What I say happened, actually happened.
Threats to internal validity (history, maturation, testing, instrumentation, statistical regression, selection bias, attrition)
History: something that happens outside of context of study that has impact on the outcome (giving anti-anxiety med and they also win $20,000…what is it that actually lowered their anxiety?)
Maturation: something that happens naturally overtime (reading abilities in children get better naturally as they get older…did they get better because of age or because of what I’m doing?)
Testing: Any time you’re monitoring something, you become more aware of it usually (writing down every time I eat popcorn, damn I eat a lot of popcorn)
Instrumentation: Changes in instrumentation over time (did my test of depression change or did the depression change?)
Statistical regression: the more numbers you have, the closer to the mean they are
Selection bias: it looks like my group of depressed individuals are getting better faster than your group, but it’s because my group started out more depressed, so more room for improvement.
Attrition: Cautious about drop-outs
External validity
Can my results be generalized to the real world?
Threats to external validity (sample characteristics, stimulus characteristics & settings, reactivity or research arrangements, reactivity of assessments, timing of measurement)
Sample characteristics: is a group of uni students representative of the average person?
Stimulus characteristics & settings: can doing the study in the lab translate to the real world?
Reactivity of research arrangements: would you respond the same way in the real world as you do in the lab?
Reactivity of assessment: is knowing that you’re being watched impacting how you’re acting?
Timing of measurement: measuring your mood on a friday is different than on a monday cause friday is the end of the week and monday you’re just getting started.
Case studies
Helps to describe details in clients, treatment process & outcome that may be lost in experimental designs/reviews.
Single case designs
Gathering numbers (quantitative data), seeing one small group of ppl repeatedly to gather data
What two things are important to consider when studying correlational or causal relationships between variables?
Moderation and mediation
Moderation
Does some third variable affect the relationship between the other two?
Mediation
The relationship only exists if the third variable is present.
How do you know if something is causational?
You need 3 things demonstrated. Need to show that one thing happens before the other. There’s no third variable impacting the result. Need experimental design (random assignment, experimental manipulation of one variable…one group gets my treatment, other group is control).
Statistical vs clinical significance
Statistical: degree to which research hypothesis is supported, differences are significant enough that they’re unlikely to be due to chance.
Clinical: the degree to which an intervention has a meaningful impact on the functioning of the participant.
