Today was a day of paperwork. I spent it mostly working on data entry of the LOC data. Also, reminding student researchers of getting their participants' paperwork to me. Not exciting in and of itself - but I always look forward to getting to play with the data once it is all in!
A lesson that I have learned that I will share with you today is the importance of being organized. You need to establish a method of saving all of the data from a study, so you can find it again later. I assign subject numbers (based on the student researcher) and use the participant's first name and the student researcher's name. That gives me a way to keep the data anonymous and yet keep track of everyone. This is a mixed method study (with 52 participants), so we have recording files, transcriptions, survey and demographic data. All of my data for a specific person is stored under both their subject number, their first name, and the researcher's name. So the name of a recording file for the student researcher Laura might be [s201 Mary Laura]. You can use whatever system you want, just be consistent.
As an aside, I have gotten a few emails from students asking questions about research procedures. Please feel free to ask questions here, I am sure other people have the same questions that you do!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
IRB is submitted
I finally submitted the IRB application and all of the supplemental materials today for the oldest olds' relationships with their physicians project. I hope I have found all problem areas! There were 50 pages of supplemental info, just to give you an idea what had to be sent... 5 consent forms (2 pilot studies, one for student researchers since they are part of a study, control students, and for the actual participants), our assessment measures - including the forms to collect demographic info from students and participants, confidentiality agreement from the transcriptionist, our IRB training certificates, and the permission email to use one of the assessment measures.
For the locus of control project, data is still trickling in. I am continuing to enter the quantitative data in SPSS and transcribing the interviews. We are currently at 50 participants - although not all paperwork has been received.
For the locus of control project, data is still trickling in. I am continuing to enter the quantitative data in SPSS and transcribing the interviews. We are currently at 50 participants - although not all paperwork has been received.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
IRB app is almost there!
Today, we want over the IRB application stuff one more time and made some edits to get all of the terminology consistent. I received the confidentiality agreement from our transcriptionist, so I think we are about ready to submit it. I'll go over it one more time in the morning and hopefully send it on it's way.
I have been working with the administration at Walden to arrange for a one credit lab for our students for summer through winter quarter. There used to be one in the catalog but has disappeared in the newest catalog version. We are hoping that the lab will be an incentive for our student researchers because the proof of participation will be on their transcript. We tried doing a lab as an ecampus group where no tuition was required, but lost several students... we are hoping a one credit lab will provide more of a commitment.
Once I get the IRB application submitted, the next stage will be getting the syllabus ready for the labs. We will need to train the student researchers so readings need to be selected that will provide them the level of knowledge they will need to work with the very elderly participants. They will also need information on doing qualitative interviews and the assessment measures that we will be using.
I have been working with the administration at Walden to arrange for a one credit lab for our students for summer through winter quarter. There used to be one in the catalog but has disappeared in the newest catalog version. We are hoping that the lab will be an incentive for our student researchers because the proof of participation will be on their transcript. We tried doing a lab as an ecampus group where no tuition was required, but lost several students... we are hoping a one credit lab will provide more of a commitment.
Once I get the IRB application submitted, the next stage will be getting the syllabus ready for the labs. We will need to train the student researchers so readings need to be selected that will provide them the level of knowledge they will need to work with the very elderly participants. They will also need information on doing qualitative interviews and the assessment measures that we will be using.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Paperwork
Marty Giles and I brainstormed ideas on skype for elements that we want to include in the new Health Efficacy questionnaire. I updated what I had started on it and sent it to my colleagues on the project - Marty Giles and Amy Sickel. I then went back through all of our IRB materials adding in the idea of validating a health efficacy questionnaire.
I thought I would talk briefly today about the idea of research collaboration (for students - think about it in terms of your chair and committee). There are both good and bad aspects about the process of collaboration, let me highlight a few things that come to my mind. Positives are getting multi-viewpoints and knowledge bases, which always benefits any research project. Also, it is just more enjoyable (if you get along with the people), then working in isolation. Negatives are it takes much longer as you wait for feedback (a common student complaint!) and sometimes you don't agree with the feedback. This highlights the importance of deciding who is in charge of the project, although even when you are ultimately responsible you still have to play nice with others and try to reach a compromise. I think it is important that all involved have a similar work ethic, social loafing (when one person does not do their part) can make you crazy. You also have to be respectful of others' time and recognize that your priorities may not be theirs. So thinking in terms of your graduate committee - make sure you understand the dissertation process. An analogy I like is the student drives the ship but the chair is the navigator. They are there to steer you around the dangerous places but you are the one who has to the actual work.
I am very lucky in that my colleagues on the project and I work well together, have similar interests, and mutually enjoy the research process. I have (tried) to work with others where it was not as enjoyable. I'd love to hear to hear what you think of collaboration and particularly would like my colleagues' point of view on the process.
I thought I would talk briefly today about the idea of research collaboration (for students - think about it in terms of your chair and committee). There are both good and bad aspects about the process of collaboration, let me highlight a few things that come to my mind. Positives are getting multi-viewpoints and knowledge bases, which always benefits any research project. Also, it is just more enjoyable (if you get along with the people), then working in isolation. Negatives are it takes much longer as you wait for feedback (a common student complaint!) and sometimes you don't agree with the feedback. This highlights the importance of deciding who is in charge of the project, although even when you are ultimately responsible you still have to play nice with others and try to reach a compromise. I think it is important that all involved have a similar work ethic, social loafing (when one person does not do their part) can make you crazy. You also have to be respectful of others' time and recognize that your priorities may not be theirs. So thinking in terms of your graduate committee - make sure you understand the dissertation process. An analogy I like is the student drives the ship but the chair is the navigator. They are there to steer you around the dangerous places but you are the one who has to the actual work.
I am very lucky in that my colleagues on the project and I work well together, have similar interests, and mutually enjoy the research process. I have (tried) to work with others where it was not as enjoyable. I'd love to hear to hear what you think of collaboration and particularly would like my colleagues' point of view on the process.
Monday, February 21, 2011
A new idea?
We have been searching for a health efficacy scale that approaches it from the aspect of assertiveness, but have had no luck in finding one. Amy Sickel suggested designing our own and validating it in the study. Cool idea although validating survey measures can be tricky. The self efficacy measure (not health focused) we currently have by Schwarzer & Jerusalem (1995) captures the assertiveness aspect that we are looking for. Perhaps we can modify it? Things to consider...
Friday, February 18, 2011
Back at it
I returned from my trip and started working again on the IRB application. Marty Giles and I talked about adding / modifying some of the demographic questions. I was asked by a reporter from Walden's Ponder newsletter to do an interview on the new study. I am really hoping to get the IRB application submitted early next week...
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Making decisions
Today we received the comments on the interview questions. The reviewer had some great suggestions, that we are incorporating. I hope to get the IRB sent out soon. I will be out of town for the next week, more then.
Friday, February 4, 2011
A set back?
On the oldest old /dr. study had a minor set back. We have been considering possible health efficacy scales. But have been unable to find one that gets at the aspect we are interested in - how the person deals with the medical system. I asked the Walden librarian for help in coming up with possible search terms that I have not considered, but wasn't much more help. I am leaning to going with the original self efficacy scale that we used in the LOC - it at least gets at the assertiveness aspect of their personality...
Beginning in the middle
Our thanks to Cindy for suggesting that a blog of our thinking about the lab and our research may be of interest! Martha Giles, Amy Sickel and I are currently involved in two different research projects - my hope is to use this space as a place to share our thinking about the progress and also a place to share data and ideas that develop.
Currently we are finishing up one project on locus of control and mental age across the lifespan (I will call this the LOC project). We are also just starting another one on the oldest olds' (over 85 yrs of age) relationships with their physicians (I'll refer to this one as the oldest old / Dr project).
In the LOC project we have collected about 40 interviews and assessments. All of the assessments have been entered in SPSS, I have transcribed about 30 of the interviews. Our research assistants tell me they will have about another 10 in the next week (thank you for all of your hard work!). I have looked at the demographics of the sample which is terrific! About half are white and the rest are made of different minorities, which we had hoped for! The only negative to using our current sampling method is that we tended to get people that had had at least some college, it would have been nice to get more high school grads.
With the oldest old/dr. project we received a Presidential Research Fellowship from Walden for the project. Their interest is in the lab portion of the study - in which students will participate in the lab over 3 quarters where they will assist with data collection, analysis, and writing a (hopefully) publishable paper and be coauthors. The project that the students will work on is a mixed method study of the oldest olds' relationships with their physicians. So far I have completed the paperwork for the fellowship, and we are working on the materials for the IRB. It is very complicated because of the different layers in the project - in a sense we are doing a study within a study. We have to make sure that we have covered everything (consent forms, recruitment, any measures that we will use) for both the lab portion and the oldest old portion. It looks like we may have found and gotten permission to use the assessment measures that we need yesterday. We are also trying to determine the best way to recruit students for the project. I sent off our interview questions yesterday to Marydee Spillett in the research office - she offered to take a look at them and make suggestions.
That pretty much brings us up to date - I hope to have data to share soon!
Currently we are finishing up one project on locus of control and mental age across the lifespan (I will call this the LOC project). We are also just starting another one on the oldest olds' (over 85 yrs of age) relationships with their physicians (I'll refer to this one as the oldest old / Dr project).
In the LOC project we have collected about 40 interviews and assessments. All of the assessments have been entered in SPSS, I have transcribed about 30 of the interviews. Our research assistants tell me they will have about another 10 in the next week (thank you for all of your hard work!). I have looked at the demographics of the sample which is terrific! About half are white and the rest are made of different minorities, which we had hoped for! The only negative to using our current sampling method is that we tended to get people that had had at least some college, it would have been nice to get more high school grads.
With the oldest old/dr. project we received a Presidential Research Fellowship from Walden for the project. Their interest is in the lab portion of the study - in which students will participate in the lab over 3 quarters where they will assist with data collection, analysis, and writing a (hopefully) publishable paper and be coauthors. The project that the students will work on is a mixed method study of the oldest olds' relationships with their physicians. So far I have completed the paperwork for the fellowship, and we are working on the materials for the IRB. It is very complicated because of the different layers in the project - in a sense we are doing a study within a study. We have to make sure that we have covered everything (consent forms, recruitment, any measures that we will use) for both the lab portion and the oldest old portion. It looks like we may have found and gotten permission to use the assessment measures that we need yesterday. We are also trying to determine the best way to recruit students for the project. I sent off our interview questions yesterday to Marydee Spillett in the research office - she offered to take a look at them and make suggestions.
That pretty much brings us up to date - I hope to have data to share soon!
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