Part D — Connect and Reflect In this lesson, you learned how to develop research questions and conduct research. Now, connect wh
at you learned to the unit theme by responding to the question below. Based on your research, what is one key idea you have learned about what it takes to make a difference? Type your response in the box below.
When you want to conduct research and have already decided what it is you'd like to investigate it is of the utmost importance to open your mind to examining your theory from every possible angle while clearing it of expectations and assumptions. Be prepared to examine all possible results, expected and unexpected. Accept and consider any input given and do not dismiss data because it doesn't fit with the rest. Be prepared to examine every angle of your data regarding cause and effect because “correlation is not causation”. It is incredibly easy to lie with statistics without changing any facts. For example- forgive me for not remembering the study details -when in undergrad behavioral psych class we discussed a world wide study which taken at face value was strongly indicating that the best way to tell if a person was going to use birth control was if they owned a toaster. If you have common sense you know that having a toaster (usually) has little implication on family planning or lack of… but repeated review of the study showed it rremained the number 1 predictor. It was figured out using social psychology that the reason for this was probably due to the size of the study and it including less developed populations. Since the less developed and/or agricultural based counties had a lower economic status there were far fewer families buying toasters instead of (ie) bread- while in the U.S. a toaster is a common item in most households - and healthcare (another can of proverbial worms) is more accessible and condoms are in every corner store. Leaving out a critical factor in an experiment - be it research analysis or a one time run through with a particular setup- or including factors that cannot be controlled or accounted for can give the appearance of proof to others while being unrelated in reality. Dismissing data that doesn't make sense or appear true to you defies the point of scientific research. An experiment is designed to disprove or reinforce the belief in a theory but is also a source of new ideas and new questions. I think it is obvious why this the most important thing to do when you want to conduct research- without genuine unbiased results there is little reason to conduct the experiment. If the results are not accurate they may as well be made up. Without accurate repeatable results we cannot further our understanding.
