http://sinaealice.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/research-into-cyber-bullying/#comment-81
Apr18
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Mar25
ABA programs for children with autism.
Autism in theUKeffects boys more than girls, and occurs in approximately 1 in every 100 children. It is a requirement under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 1990, that schools provide necessary education for these children. This law however doesn’t state that the children must be educated to their highest potential. A study by Howard et al (2005) used an Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) program consisting of one-to-one instruction for 40 hours per week on one group of 29 children. In the second condition, 16 children received eclectic treatment: speech therapy, SPEECH program, and integration therapy for 30 hours a week. In the third condition, children received the standard treatment in schools at 15 hours a week. Results showed that after 14 months of treatment, the children from theABAcondition had gained 1 year of development. This lends support to the use ofABAprograms for children with autism, and suggests that they could develop further than assumed with intense 40 hours a week therapy if it was made available and compulsory. A similar study by Lovaas 1987 found that in an intervention group where 40 hours a week ofABAtherapy was received for over 2 years, 47% of them seven years later were able to participate in mainstream education classes. This was compared to the standard treatments available and a group receiving less than 10 hours ofABAa week. This shows that increasing the hours ofABAtherapy programs has lasting effects on development as the children become older. However if 40 hours a week of this type of therapy was compulsory for all autism sufferers, it would be extremely expensive and time consuming and invading in relation to families. Therefore this is unlikely to realistically happen. However the effects of such consistent and intensive therapy cannot be denied. These programs do not cure autism but they treat the negative developmental effects of it, so perhaps they should be invested in.
http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec04/autism.aspx
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16740758
http://www.lovaas.com/research.php
Howard et al – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15766629
Mar14
Comments Week 8
Mar11
Measuring the Earth’s population
At the beginning of the 20th century, the world’s population was just 1.65 billion. As of October 31st 2011, it reached 7 billion (http://www.worldometers.info/). How do we know these figures are correct, and how are they measured? I suggest that many unreported births mean that this figure is distorted.
Currently, births are reported by parents registering their child within 42 days of the birth. This can occur in any register offices for births/deaths/marriages, or it can be possible for registration to occur through the hospital. However, not all births are reported and I think that this causes population figures to be inaccurate.
Unreported births in Northern Vietnam were studied in 2005 by Målqvist et al (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2292136/). Using many record sources, and group interviews for each part of Northern Vietnam, 15 full-time researchers collected data from April to June. The Provincial Health Bureau stated that there were 16551 births in the province of Quang Ninh in 2005. This study found evidence of 17519 births (1461 of them did not occur at health facilities).
Reasons found for the under reporting of births include a lack of understanding of the importance of registering births by health staff and families, poor access to registrars, poor report forms, parents failing to properly and completely register a birth sometimes assuming health facilities will do so.
This leads me to believe that reported populations are actually a lot larger than reported. In this study, just one part of a country’s births were unreported by a thousand. Perhaps this occurs with greater discrepancies in many parts of other countries.
The New Straits Times posted an article on September 9th 1990 about the failure of people reporting births and deaths (http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1309&dat=19900903&id=3aNUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=F5ADAAAAIBAJ&pg=5137,708660). They described 12% of births as being unreported due to transport problems (in remote areas).
So how can the Earth’s population be accurately measured if there are areas where births are regularly unreported by families and health staff, communities where women give birth without medical services, and families that live far from any registry offices? …It can’t. We can only realise that this statistic cannot be accurately reported unless there is a legal obligation for every birth to be correctly registered, and even if there was there is no guarantee that it would happen!
I wonder what the Earth’s population really is…
Feb20
Blog comments [week 5]
Feb17
How researchers use internet sources to gather data for qualitative studies, and is it ethical?
Online data can be found through internet communities. These are a communication point for members of similar groups, they include chat rooms, news groups, blogs, discussion boards and mailing lists.
There are 3 ways to research internet communities for data:
- passive analysis: studying or observing patterns of interaction and information online without getting involved
- active analysis: the researcher is involved in communicating with the group being studied (this can involve deception as the rest of the group believe the researcher to be someone who has experienced what they have, or someone who shares the same beliefs and opinions).
- In the 3rd way of researching internet communities, researchers identify themselves as an observing researcher and invite individuals to participate in online interviews & surveys, or they use this method to gather participants for recruitment to take part in research.
The 3rd method is often problematic as members of the group are resistant towards individuals outside of the group-for example a support group for survivors of domestic abuse do not like the idea of another joining their group discussion, when they have not experienced domestic abuse and are not a survivor, whether they are a researcher or not.
Advantages of using internet sources
- the sources are often personal opinions and not measured responses in an unrealistically controlled research environment
- by using large internet communities such as mailing lists, blogs, discussion boards and chat rooms, researchers can uncover the views of many, not just a few – providing a readily made large sample
- so much time (and effort) is saved by not having to manually find participants then interview then and transcribe their results, when what you want to know is just a click away!
Disadvantages of using internet sources
issues of privacy, consent and confidentiality:
- personal views and opinions may be made public when the individual believed they would remain private to themselves and a select group
- it is difficult to know whether consent needs to be obtained – it depends on whether the data is counted as public or private.
- consent is required “when behaviour of research participants occurs in a private context where an individual can reasonably expect that no observation or reporting is taking place.” (American Sociological Association)…
- but not required if researchers “conduct research in public places or use publicly available information about individuals (such as naturalistic observations in public places and analysis of public records or archival research) without obtaining consent,” (American Sociological Association code of ethics)
- Confidentiality is difficult to secure, especially when using the internet. When using exact quotes from a participant’s source in your work, search engines (e.g. google) may locate the original source of this quote, and other places where it has been published. This may lead you directly to the blog/discussion group where the quote originates which may show the participant’s name and some details including email addresses-meaning their confidentiality cannot be guaranteed.
When looking at the pros and cons, it would seem that using internet sources for qualitative data is unethical. However these sources are so valid to research, as they are detailed personal accounts free from any experimental conditions which may cause confounds. Researchers should use passive analysis when researching a public internet community, but if the community is private and consent must be obtained, researchers should not use active analysis (as they will eventually have to admit they are a researcher who was pretending to be a group member when asking for consent). I believe that internet sources should be used, and are in fact more valuable than data collected in other ways. However, the individuals involved in using these sources should be completely happy to be observed and their views made public-this is suitable for some who want publicity, but not for those who want nothing to do with the research world and disagree with the internet procedures involved :
One subscriber to a Breast Cancer Mailing List, was getting frequent requests from researchers wanting to study patients’ personal experiences with breast cancer, she responded: “Why can’t researchers do it the ‘hard way’ as they used to … and leave us alone on the Breast-Cancer list?”
Feb8
Blog 1 comments [semester 2]
http://frasersstatsblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/can-alcohol-improve-your-revision/#comment-52
(it says ‘your comment is awaiting moderation’ on the above comment, so I don’t know if you can see it yet?!)
http://psucfb.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/theplaceboeffect/#comment-42
http://penguinsandcheese.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/qualitative-vs-quantitative-research/#comment-31
Feb5
1.Should psychology be written for the layman or should science be exclusively for scientists?
What immediately comes to mind when reading this title, is the debate of whether psychology is a science or not. For those who argue that it is, psychology should be written as scientifically as possible. For those who do not believe it is a science, psychology should be written for the layman.
In my opinion, the way in which psychology is written depends on the situation. When psychologists are explaining to patients, findings or results, it is important to describe phenomena on a level that they will understand, which is usually in layman terms. However when writing up a report on a psychological study conducted for your dissertation, of course it should be written scientifically. I think psychology today allows for these situations. This is why the APA exists to guide us on how to write to a scientific standard. Even top scientists were once layman themselves, and expert information givers such as the APA, must understand this in order to provide expertise for those who are on the way from being laymen to scientists.
For many, psychology is a more personal science than other sciences. Psychology can help people understand why they or other people close to their hearts are the way they are. Whereas chemistry science could tell you fascinating facts about the particles that make up gases, but not about things that are personally significant to you. Also, the majority of the population will find a part of psychology that interests them or is important to them in some way, but with other sciences such as biology chemistry and physics-the majority of the population is split in their opinion of which of them are interesting and worth learning about. Perhaps this is why psychology should be, and often is written in layman terms – because all types of people are influenced by it, not just scientific or educational people.
It can be argued that psychology should not be written in layman terms, and should be presented scientifically, in order for it to be taken more seriously as a science. However, in science, many terms come from non-scientific phenomena. An example is when a new type of super fluid was named after a word in a nonsense poem “The hunting of the Snark” by Lewis Carroll. Physicist David Mermin’s reason for naming the fluid “Boojum” were put down to it being a joke, he wanted to see “how silly a word I could get into the vocabulary of science” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12663432). This nonsense word being used in a scientific way became accepted and used in science, perhaps because it was created by a scientist. In relation to psychology, this leads me to believe that psychology should be written scientifically if it is going to be read by scientific professionals who are familiar with this way of writing, and will understand it. If psychology is written for the purpose of being read by students or the general public, it should be written for the layman. The ability for the writing to reach laymen audiences, could interest and inspire them to become more scientific in terms of how psychology is important to them, through researching and writing for themselves, just as we are currently as university students.
References
Spaghettification and the problem of scientific jargon by Erika Wright http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12663432
The hunting of the Snark poem by Lewis Carroll http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173165
Nov22
week 8/9 comments
Nov22
Qualitative or Quantitative?
One of the main debates in psychology is the one between qualitative and quantitative methods of research and data collection/analysis.
Lets firstly look at quantitative methods. A quantitative research design is “a formal, objective, systematic process in which numerical data are utilised to obtain information about the world” (Burns and Grove 2004). There is an emphasis on numerical data in quantitative design, therefore the research methods used are those which will gather this type of data and measure things numerically, such as:
- structured interviews – with set questions and set answer options
- experiments – where results are measured on a numerical scale such as reaction time or the amount of correct answers
These methods are used to gather results which are used to try and prove or disprove a hypothesis. The hypothesis is presented first, then methods are used to test it further, this is a deductive approach.
When the data has been collected, to analyse it quantitatively, statistical methods are used. Data is often summarised into tables, and the averages, or main variables are plotted on a graph. Data can also be analysed through statistical programmes such as SPSS where you input the data, and the programme provides a detailed output of table summaries and box plots.
Quantitative methods are objective and should allow repetition which produce similar results. Large samples tend to be used to be able to gather a lot of data, and to infer generalisability – which is more suitable to infer when a large sample is used.
Qualitative methods are the opposite to quantitative. They focus not on numerical data, but written results and the meanings of these results. Qualitative research is “all about exploring issues, understanding phenomena, and answering questions” (Gill Ereaut).
A wide range of research methods use this this design: focus groups, semi-structured and unstructured interviews, cast study, observation, questionnaires with open-ended questions, and any method of data collection which gives non-numerical data. Much qualitative research occurs through ethnography-this is where the researcher becomes involved in or part of the group they are studying. There are four types of involvement: participant or non-participant observation (where the researcher becomes a participant in the group or where they do not) and covert or overt observation (where the group know they are being studied and who the researcher is, or where they are not aware that they are being studied).
This type of research design is inductive – the research is conducted first and then a hypothesis is derived from the results found, then more research is conducted to further validate the hypothesis.
Analysis of qualitative data is quite different to quantitative analysis. All of the data is transcribed from however it has been recorded e.g. video recorded, tape recorded. Two of the main methods used to do this are discourse analysis and grounded theory. In both of these methods, the participant’s responses are studied in depth (as well as their use of language, tone of voice and any pauses or distractions), and reoccurring themes are noted for each participant.
It is worth noticing that qualitative design uses less participants, sometimes an in depth study of just one person (case study), and therefore findings cannot be easily generalised to the general population.
When deciding which research design to use, there will be advantages and disadvantages to both…
Quantitative methods will produce lots of data that are reliable and can be generalised. It is an objective and unbiased way of researching. Results can be easily and quickly understood through the use of graphs showing correlations. However a correlation between variables is all that can be shown, cause and effect cannot be proven. Quantitative methods do not take into account individual differences between participants – one participant’s responses could have totally different motives and reasons to another’s responses, but they are measured in the same way. This is an advantage in qualitative methods where each participant’s responses are understood fully and measured individually. Often qualitative methods provide a basis for quantitative ones, as qualitative design ends in the creation of a hypothesis which is needed for quantitative testing to begin. Qualitative methods allow the reasons behind people’s behaviour to be uncovered, which is what psychology is all about isn’t it? There are drawbacks to using the qualitative design too…you can find out why a person is the way they are but not why everybody else who displays similar behaviour is like that too – it is subjective. The issue of subjectiveness can also be applied to the researcher for example in observation, a researcher may class sudden outbursts as erratic, but another researcher may class it as energetic and out-going. This is why these methods are often unreliable.
In conclusion, the quantitative research design is best for generalising research results, and providing conclusions about large sections of the population. Also, this method should be used when you want to generate reliable data – however it is not always valid as it occurs in experimental conditions which are controlled. It is also easily presented to the whole population through statistical graphs. The qualitative research design is best when you want to generate rich data which tells you about aspects of personality and behaviour of one or a small group of people. It is very useful when you want to generate valid findings, as it occurs in natural/field settings.
sources & links
- N Burns & S Grove “The Practice of Nursing Research” 5th edition
- http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/grizzly/432/rra2.htm
- http://www.experiment-resources.com/quantitative-research-design.html
- Gill Ereaut – http://www.qsrinternational.com/what-is-qualitative-research.aspx
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