Week 5 -- 9/24/12 1

-Ethics and SW Research-Introduction to Measurement

Week 5September 24, 2012

Week 5 -- 9/24/12 2

From Aging with grace: What the Nun Study teaches us…”[The researcher has just been given approval to study cognitive and physical correlates of dementia with nuns from of the Sisters of Notre Dame by Sister Carmen, a leader of the order. Sister Carmen is instructing the researcher.]

“No matter what you do, I want you to remember who these women are. They are real people. Very dear to us. They are holy people, too. I don’t want you to treat them as research subjects. Get to know them. Understand that many of the older sisters were the teachers or mentors of the younger sisters, and we treat them with the care and respect they deserve. We will expect nothing less from you.”[1] (p. 15)

[1] Snowdon, D. (2001). Aging with grace: What the Nun Study teaches us about leading longer, healthier, and more meaningful lives. New York: Bantam Books.

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Here’s a dilemma…

• You are interviewing a research participant, to whom you promised confidentiality. The study and interview concern parenting skills. In the course of responding to a question, the parent reports having recently hit his 7-year old son in the face repeatedly, since that’s how he (the father) was disciplined. – What is your responsibility as a researcher? – What steps should you have taken to prepare for this

potential scenario?

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Student report 1

Why is it important to protect research subjects? What areas need protecting?

Valerie

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Why we have protections

NOVA film on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLc9T6mr6bE&feature=player_embedded#!

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Informed Consent

• Similar to, but separate from, informed consent for treatment

• Components of IC:– Brief purpose of study– What is expected of participant– Direct benefits of participation, if any– Potential risks of participation– Alternative procedures available, if any– Confidentiality assurance (and any potential exceptions)– Voluntary nature of participation– Assurance that refusal to participate won’t limit benefits, services

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Student report 2

What is the difference between “confidentiality” and “anonymity”? Arlene

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The issue of withholding treatment

• Experimental studies use comparison or control groups—participants who get a different treatment than the experimental one (or, atypically, no treatment at all)

• How do you deal with the ethical issues?– Inform participants about experiment– Address treatment needs in other ways (i.e. study can

compare experimental treatment to “treatment as usual”)– Make available experimental treatment (if possible) after

study

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Measurement – Review

• What are the attributes of the variable “gender”?• What are the attributes of the variable “Grade

point average”• What are the attributes of the question: How

satisfied were you with Dr. Cohen’s last class?– Highly satisfied– Moderately satisfied– Neutral– Moderately dissatisfied– Highly dissatisfied

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Fun with variables!

“Do behavioral contracts with school-age children diagnosed with ADHD result in improved school performance?”

• What’s the IV? _______________• What’s the DV? _______________• What attributes could we have for “improved

school performance?”

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More fun with variables!

“It is hypothesized that income, level of education, and level of family support reduce the likelihood of re-offending by those who committed a first offense.”

• IV __________________________• DV _________________________

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Even more fun…!

“Can Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in couples counseling reduce marital conflict?”

• IV: ___________________• DV: ___________________• Possible attributes for “marital conflict”? (Hint

—1st let’s define what “marital conflict” means and how it might be measured)

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What do we mean by “measurement”?*

• Identifying concepts to measure—which should be directly related to the research question(s)

• Defining the concepts to identify what, exactly, is being measured

• Identifying exactly how the concept will be measured

• Addressing the reliability and validity of the measures (preview of next week)

*Note—we’re still mainly talking about descriptive and explanatory research here

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Measurement Concepts--Conceptualization

• The process of defining a vague, abstract, or complex concept, like– “Self esteem” – “Depression” – “Acculturation”– “Student success”

• Many concepts in the social sciences have multiple dimensions– A “dimension” is a specifiable aspect or facet of an abstract

concept– It’s a category of the concept, and complex concepts have

several categories of meaning

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The dimensions of “major depressive disorder”*

• Changes in appetite that result in weight losses or gains unrelated to dieting

• Sleep disturbance: Insomnia or oversleeping• Loss of energy or increased fatigue• Restlessness or irritability• Feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt• Difficulty thinking, concentrating, or making decisions• Thoughts of death or suicide or attempts at suicide

*DSM-IV-TR

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Let’s try it…

• How would you conceptualize “acculturation”?– What dimensions would you include?

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Operationalization – the next step

• “Operationalization” – the process of defining a specific variable, and identifying the relevant attributes of the variable

• Example – Depression “loss of energy” dimension– Variable: “loss of energy”– Measured by: During the period when your sadness was

most severe and frequent, did you feel tired or low in energy even when you had not been working very hard?

– Attributes: – Yes – No – Don’t know

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Student report 3

What is “culturally competent measurement” in research? Relate this to one or more (of the 5) areas of the Transcultural Perspective. Elisse

Developing your topic (continued)• Step 1: identify one of these from your own interests

– Target population (i.e. teen mothers), or– Intervention (i.e. teen support groups), or– Social problem (i.e. teen pregnancy)

• Step 2: what would you like to learn about this?• Step 3: How would learning about this benefit the social work

profession?• Step 4: from Step 2, develop one research question for each

approach:– Descriptive approach– Explanatory approach– Exploratory approach

ScWk 240 9/10/12 19

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Concepts to know

• Confidentiality• Anonymity• Informed Consent for Research (components)• Conceptualization• Dimensions of a concept• Relate measurement to The Transcultural

Perspective

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Student reports for next week

1. What’s the difference between “reliability” and “validity” of a measure? Glorialee

2. How is validity related to cultural issues? Dawei

3. What is the main difference between “open-ende” and “closed-ended” questions? Selene