Stats Phobia

This quarter, we are starting to turn our attention to the data collected last quarter. We will of course be looking both at qualitative and quantitative data but are starting with the quantitative portion.

I am reminded of what some describe as 'stats phobia' and the reluctance to engage in conversations about using statistics and what we mean to do with these tools. I was once told, by a previous mentor, that stats is the kind of field where you need to study it for a bit, before most students have that 'ah-ha' moment and it clicks - such that you understand it is truly a means to an end and not a big, awful, fearful end in and of itself. That sounds rather simplistic but I think it is true.

I am a co-leader for my daughter's brownie troop and recently, the mother of one of the brownies found out that I am familiar with statistics and have taught research design. She is in a doctoral program herself and was a bit desperate with regard to time/assignment due date, but delicately asked if I could help her with her near-due assignment; of course, I helped her think through her assignment.

This made me reluctantly recall how I first approached stats (anxiously, making it more than it was). At times, my classmates and I would nervously feed off of each other and make the whole thing worse. Only when I started accepting the term statistics as synonymous with 'tools' was my understanding able to happen.

When I think about the issue of research and the alignment of one's design (about which I wrote last week or so and about which Walden's residencies now discuss), use of statistics is just one more step in that alignment process.

We would only choose a method and data collection techniques appropriate to our question and the statistics we choose to use in turn, fit with the measures we have employed and the intentions demonstrated in our hypotheses and questions. We would not use a regression, for example, if what we want to do is test group differences. So the alignment process continues with the statistics we choose. As a result, I have come to pleasantly see the statistics I choose as an organic, if you will, evolution based upon the question/s at hand and therefore as quite harmless ;-)

AES

New learning

I am finding it very interesting that, as this quarter begins, I am learning a new language. Wile I have always wanted to learn Swahili, this quarter I am learning the language of quantitative analysis. And it is a new language!! I tend to think in circular ways and qualitative analysis comes easy to me. I look at what is being said and can "see" themes emerge. I do not easily see measurement, numbers, what is predicting what, or what is influenced by what. I tend to look at data in terms of questions. If X changed, would Y remain the same? If X is present, is Y higher or lower? If X and Y are present is Z also present?
And yet, that is analysis... it is simply a different way of phrasing it. But if I am looking at doing quantitative analysis, I need to know the terms to make myself understood by others. I cannot ask other researchers to learn my language just so they can understand my findings.

And back to Swahili... if I go to Tanzania, I can state things in English and hope others understand or I can learn the language and know they will understand....Mimi ni kujifunza

Research Design & Alignment - Choice of Variables

As Dr. Lee mentioned, this week we are navigating first steps in clarifying the IV-DV distinction within our research. As a quantitatively trained researcher, this distinction is crystal clear to me. As Dr. Lee notes, this is not always the case for students who don't share my comfort level with such quantitative language. Further, we really don't use these terms (IV and DV) when we are using qualitative 'speak' - qualitative researchers don't use variables in this same way and do not reference IVs and DVs (Creswell, 2009; Creswell & Clark, 2011). Since we are using mixed methods here, we need to be familiar with both approaches!

Sticking with the IV-DV distinction for the moment, the variables we choose to study and which we identify as either an IV or a DV are really quite pivotal when we think about the overall design and alignment of that research design. The IV and DV stem from our study hypotheses which in turn stem from our research questions, which in turn stem from the social issue/problem at hand and the corresponding gap in the literature - something like:

social problem/issue > gap in literature/use of theory > research questions > study hypotheses > distinct variables to be operatioinalized

These IV and DV variables in turn, dictate the measures we choose to operationalize the variables which in turn inform the analyses we run, such as:

variables > measures/surveys chosen > type of analyses run

So the identification of one's IVs and DVs is pivotal in that it informs us both about the research questions and study basis as well as giving us strong hints as to the kinds of measurement and analyses we will use.

Constructs and variables as used for qualitative research questions do not follow this particular path, as demonstrated in the Creswell references.

In keeping with my type-A side, I feel compelled to comment that in correlational research, we often use the terms *predictor* variable and *criterion* variable to denote, correspondingly, the IV and the DV (Jaccard & Becker, 2010, p. 451).

AES

Creswell, J.W. (2009). Research Design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. (3rd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Creswell, J.W. & Plano Clark, V.L. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Jaccard, J. & Becker, M.A. (2010). Statistics for the behavioral sciences (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Summary Week 1

This first week of quarter 2 we have been spending a great deal of time on clarity of language. What does a dependent or independent variable mean in the context of our study? When the faculty say they want each student to become an expert on a variable – what EXACTLY does that mean? Inevitably when instructors give instructions (which we thought were so clear!), we discover that they are murky for people unfamiliar with the topic.

I think this entire issue is one of the major challenges of teaching and conducting research online – you must be willing to acknowledge that your and others’ language may be imprecise; which means negotiating until you both agree on what is needed. I recall one of the interview questions we asked potential students was – if they were given unclear instructions by one or more faculty – how would they handle it? All of the students we selected understood the importance of clarifying, and we have tried to emphasize this throughout our lab – if you do not understand something – ask us again!

Which brings me to an important issue for faculty – you must be open to being questioned by online research students. Yes, you are the “expert”, but you also have to accept that you will have to explain and justify your actions and comments. This can be a big shock to faculty coming from a traditional brick and mortar school – traditionally faculty do not justify. But in the virtual environment you are working with nontraditionally aged students, and they want and need to understand the logic behind procedures and directions.

So my take home message for students: be patient too! Yes, you would like everything to be crystal clear the first time through, and we faculty certainly try, but when we are not: be kind and negotiate the language.

Lee Stadtlander

The lovely time between quarters

This is a nice time for instructors, typically - and perhaps for students as well, in that it gives me a moment to pause. This week I am reviewing my summer quarter work and readying classrooms and am taking stock in lessons learned from this summer so as to inform my fall quarter plans. I am trying to get caught up on loose ends and am enjoying the relatively quiet meeting schedule this week. Having been off for a few days does put a crimp in my normal 'pause' but it is still a nice downshift none-the-less.

I am looking forward to fall quarter and working with our students on analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data. Perhaps I am a tad biased, but I cannot, again, help but think how much I would have loved such an opportunity in my graduate training.

AES

Between quarter thoughts

This week we are officially on break and students have been using the time to get caught up on their interviews. This past week I sent out the end of quarter Research Knowledge and Research Outcomes surveys to both the lab and control group students. I will report to you on this when all surveys are in. This brings up a point that I would like to address today – the problem of participants not actually reading survey instruments. Often as a researcher you may strongly suspect that a person has not actually read the survey – all answers given are the same throughout the survey. This is particularly the case when there are several questions that are reversed scored (where the expected answer should be the opposite of other answers), it really raises questions on the validity of your results. I sent emails to several students asking them to double check their answers because of just this issue. There are still a couple of surveys I really wonder about, but there is little more that can be done from the researcher perspective.

What are the responsibilities of a participant? We assume that people are reading the information that we give them. We also assume that they are being honest in their responses. But truly there is no way to know if either of these assumptions is correct. This is one of the limitations of survey work, and it is important to always keep this in back of your mind as a researcher.

Next week we start the second quarter of the project. We are asking each student to become an expert in one of our variables, they will read articles each week on the variable and how it relates to the oldest old and report back to the rest of the lab. By the 3^rd week of the quarter we should start analyzing the quantitative data in SPSS. Each student will concentrate on their expertise area until we are ready to start correlating various variables together.

Lee Stadtlander

Week 12 Summary

We have made it to the final week of the quarter! I thought I would take this opportunity to summarize what has been done this quarter and some of the highlights for me.

Students spent several weeks learning about research issues with the oldest old, and about interviewing techniques. The training was more difficult than expected, requiring additional practice interviews by the students. Also, the faculty recorded some practice interviews which were available for student review. We have carefully critiqued each recording as it has come in which has proved to be necessary and effective in catching problems early in the process.

As of this date we have 18 good interviews, which is exciting! We have allowed students to continue their interviews into next quarter, because of the lengthy training and recruiting time. We are really hoping for 35-40 good final interviews. Most students have been entering their data into SPSS as we go, which is a great experience for them. They typically don’t really have an opportunity to work with real data until their dissertation, so having a supervised opportunity is a bonus.

As supervising faculty, we have really enjoyed the close interaction with the students; it has been a joy to watch them develop as researchers. I am very glad that we had three instructors; it made the supervision much easier and less stressful. We have, sadly, lost a couple of our researcher to illnesses and being over extended. I am not sure how we can prevent this in the future. We screened each student carefully and forewarned them of the time commitment, but the unforeseen occurs.

I was thrilled to see one student mention in her final post of the quarter that she learned that one must “expect the unexpected” in research. This is such a key bit of knowledge about research that so many student researchers do not understand. Anything can and does happen when doing research – people cancel at the last minute, equipment malfunctions, forms are more complex than anticipated, etc. Researchers must be prepared and be creative in solving whatever problems arise.

In terms of assignments and procedures, a number of students have mentioned that they liked both the weekly journal papers and having the blog available. In the journal papers, each student wrote weekly about how they felt about the supervision and questions and issues that had arisen for them. It gave the faculty insights into their experience that we otherwise would not have gained. The blog has in turn, given the student insights into the faculty’s thoughts and provided a different view of the research process for the students.

We are ready to set up the lab classroom for fall. For those following along with us, we are requiring the Creswell and Plano Clark (2011) text and Sternberg (2000). I have recommended that students read over break Snowdon (2002) – a great, easy to read book that discusses the process of doing research with the elderly.

Creswell, J. W. & Plano Clark, V.L. (2011) Designing and conducting mixed methods research, 3^rd ed. Los Angeles: Sage

Snowdon, D. (2002). Aging with Grace: What the Nun Study Teaches Us About Leading Longer, Healthier, and More Meaningful Lives. Bantam

Sternberg, R.J. (2000). Guide to publishing in psychology journals. NY: Cambridge Press.

Lee Stadtlander

The Devil is in the Details :-)

As our interviewers march forward and collect their four interviews, we continue to review their work to check for quality and adherence to required standards. It is no small task to locate potential participants, contact them, and eventually secure the interview. It is perhaps not surprising then, that by the time we get to the actual interviews - they are a bit of a relief, given how much work it took just to get to this point!

This said we need to remember to pay attention to detail when we are interviewing/collecting and recording data. As others have noted, the interviewer is in a unique position to obtain quality data (MacLin & Calder, 2006). As our protocol is about one hour long – there are a lot of seemingly minute steps to take before the data can be considered ‘collected’ and it is important to pace oneself while collecting so as to be sure we have done the best we can at this. Not only do all lines/spaces for data entry need to be clearly filled in, but it is helpful to see notes taken in the margins of the raw data so that we can get a more comprehensive look at our participants.

Data work, including data entry can be impacted by a variety of factors (Marson, Taylor, Ashby, & Cassell, 2005) – including training. Hopefully, the feedback we are providing our RAs will tighten our data collection and overall quality. Making sure we dot our i's and cross our t's is not as fun as interviewing itself and it is not as glamorous, so to speak, as seeing one's name in a journal publication or being able to describe the study that we have 'completed'. Detailed, precise data collection, however, *is* a necessary evil in order for the latter two events to occur and I would argue, it is the best way to respect the time and effort our participants have donated.

AES

MacLin, M.K. & Calder, J.C. (2006). Interviewers’ ratings of data quality in
household telephone surveys. North American Journal of Psychology,
8(1), 163-170.

Marson, R., Taylor, D.M., Ashby, K. & Cassell, E. (2005). Victoria Emergency
minimum dataset: Factors that impact upon the data quality. Emergency
Medicine Australasia, 17(2), 104-112.

Summary Weeks 10 & 11

Sorry for neglecting the blog - life got complicated for me! I got home from visiting my daughter and new grandson and we then have had company. They had never been to Montana, where I live, before so we had to do the tourist thing.

In the lab in week 10 we introduced the idea of having students pick an article related to our study and aging. While the articles were very good, we had some problems with getting students to give sufficient detail in their posts. So in week 11 we required that they follow the same structure as our earlier article report form. This seems to be working much better! This week's discussions have been interesting, because I have been trying to get the students to think beyond the article they are reviewing and to speculate on related issues. For example, one students discussed an article set in Japan, we had her speculate on how she thought things would be the same or different in the US. It is important for students to get out of the mindset that everything is done with a particular article. Science is based upon building on previous research, and students need to begin to think about how the results might change by altering different variables.

So far we have 13 completed interviews that look great! Nine have been sent to the transcriptionist so far. We had 2 students who didn't quite follow the directions and will have to redo the interviews. Hard for me to waste participants, but that is the way of research. The quarter is wrapping up, next week is the final week of the quarter and our last conference call of the quarter. We have decided that students will have to have all 4 of their interviews completed by the beginning of the third week of the next quarter so we can have them begin to analyze data. It will be exciting to see how things come out!

Aging and the Importance of Choice

We recently had a family member pass away. She was in her early 80's and had been having serious health problems for the past year or two. One of the complications from her problems was that her ability to eat was compromised. Earlier in her decline, she and her husband made the choice *not* to inject nutrients through a pump to be inserted within her stomach. Instead, they chose the more labor intensive route of making all of her food (solids/liquids) a consistency somewhere in-between. Ultimately, this contributed to her health demise, because she lost considerable weight and nutrition consumption.

What struck me about this was that she and her husband *chose* this path, knowing it would further hinder her decline. They did so with the understanding that inserting a pump and having the husband inject liquid nutrients was 'no way to live'.
The funeral services for this woman were pleasant in the sense that everyone seemed to know/appreciate that her passing was coming and indeed, everyone was grateful that she was no longer suffering.

This highlighted for me, the powerful, powerful presence of choice in our lives and how fortunate we are if we can maintain that choice throughout our lives.


AES

Week 9 summary

The 9th week was a difficult one (evidenced by this late post!). I have been traveling, Dr. Marty has been busy and Dr. Amy got stuck doing most of the work in the lab (thanks for covering for me, Dr. Amy!). Students were quite philosophical as Dr. Amy's blog post mentioned. The article brought out a lot of concerns about parents and the elderly in general, I think it is important that students have such a mechanism as the discussion board to vent their feelings and concerns.

We have 8 finished interviews, although we are still waiting on paperwork on some of them. I sent off the first batch of interviews to the transcriptionist which makes it feel more official. It is exciting to be getting in data, I am having the students enter their own data in SPSS. So far, things have been going well with it.

Lee Stadtlander

Ageism

This week, we have been having an interesting dialog about the assigned reading from Baltes & Smith (2003) whose final line of the abstract provides a reasonable summary of the thrust of their article, when they write:

"Future study and discussion should focus on the critical question of whether the continuing major investments into extending the life span into the fourth age actually reduce the opportunities of an increasing number of people to live and die in dignity " (Baltes & Smith, 2003, p. 123).

This article has stimulated provocative commentary from our RAs as the authors are discussing the issues of quality of life relative to social and technological attempts to extend lifespan. In one post, a student used the term 'stigma' which got me thinking about ageism, as one potential product of stigma.

According to Nelson (2009) 'Ageism is defined as prejudice against anyone based on his or her age' (p. 432). Nelson continues to define both malignant ageism and beningn ageism; the former is when we can sense in someone/some entity we are observing 'an extreme dislike toward the older person' and the belief that 'the older person is worthless'(p. 432). In contrast, benign ageism occurs when we 'view the older person through prejudice and stereotypes due to (our) own feelings of fear of aging' (p. 432).

A point Nelson makes, which I find particularly intriguing, is that apparently we are more likely to report negative attitudes against older individuals in general yet when we are asked to discuss attitudes toward an older individual we know (e.g. our grandparent, elderly relative/friend), our attitudes are more positive. The author notes that research in this area is young, so we must consider such findings in this light (Nelson, 2009).

I cannot help but wonder if ageism, in either form, is something we can actually reduce? We understand a good bit more about the stereotype process and about the relationship between stereotypes and discrimination than we did earlier (Stangor, 2009; Gaertner & Dovidio, 2009). To the extent to which our stereotypes about the aged reflect our own fears about aging, I am unsure - can we/ are we willing/able to confront such fears enough to address ageism as a social issue?

AES

Baltes, P.B. & Smith, J. (2003). New frontiers in the future of aging: From
successful aging of the young old to the dilemmas of the fourth age.
Gerontology, 49, 123.135.

Gaertner, L, & Dovidio, J.F. (2009). A common ingroup identity: A categorization-
based approach for reducing intergroup bias. In T. Nelson (Ed.), Handbook
of Prejudice, Stereotyping,and Discrimination ( pp. 489-506). New York,
NY: Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Nelson, T.D. (2009). Ageism. In T. Nelson (Ed.), Handbook of Prejudice,
Stereotyping,and Discrimination (pp. 431-440). New York, NY: Taylor
and Francis Group, LLC.

Stangor, C. (2009). The study of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination with
social psychology: A quick history of theory and research. In T. Nelson
(Ed.), Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping,and Discrimination (pp. 1-
22). New York, NY: Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Blog Survey

The survey will close this Friday. If you have not already done so, we invite you to participate in the survey. It should take about 20 minutes to complete and is anonymous. We really need your input! For those of you who have taken the survey: Thank You so much!!!!

Again, we appreciate your help in this new type of research.
MG

Summary Week 8

This week students have been working on their interviews - we now have data from 4! It has been difficult for the instructors to keep up while traveling, attending faculty meetings, and commencement, but we did have some great discussions about research and were certainly thinking about the lab!

We had our poster session on Wed. 7/27, it went well, but it wasn't until we were there that it occurred to us that students would not really be interested in our sampling method! Oh well, we did have some administrators and faculty come by and talk about it.

I thought that I might talk briefly about the importance of marketing your research, such as at poster sessions. If you are faculty it is important that others (i.e., administrators) be aware of your work - particularly if you want other faculty to have the opportunity to learn from your mistakes and successes. For students, faculty can provide some interesting ideas in a poster session, and it is great experience. For everyone wanting to be in research, it is important to get your name and abilities out their as a working researcher, there aren't many out there and you want to be counted as present!

Lee Stadtlander

Data Quality

I have been thinking a bit this week about the issue of data quality; as our RAs are now wrapping up practice interviews and are starting the main interviews for our research. Research, much like graduate school in general, requires considerable attention to detail, organization, and the ability to sew together parts into a cohesive whole. A veritable feast for the Type-A's among us ;-) Once we get these research protocols down enough to start the main interviews, it seems like a good time to remind ourselves and think about data quality. It is truly not enough to get through such interviews/protocols - to just get them done. We need to be sure that while maintaining standards in research with human participants, we are mindful of how easily and even unintentionally, data can be distorted.

We need to be true to the measurement standards and be sure that our overall interactions with participants are professional. I can readily remember some really challenging interviews that I would rather one of my peers have taken as well as those interviews where my participant was remarkably kind and good spirited. For me, the trick was always to walk that very fine line between collecting quality data and yet still recognizing and enjoying the personal benefits of conducting research interviews.

AES

Summary Week 7

This week students have been finishing up their last practice interview and starting on their 4 official interviews. Some data is starting to come in! Now is the time for organizing everything and putting protocols in place to make sure a faculty member reviews each interview and we do not lose any data.

I am assigning each student to a faculty member who will review all four of the student’s interviews. The faculty will provide comments and be the quality control that each interview is done correctly. I am also keeping a spreadsheet to keep track of who has submitted what and whose interviews have been approved. I have also set up a flash drive where I will save everything and back it up once a week.

I will submit the recordings to the transcription that we will be using weekly. This is complicated by the invoicing process required through the grant. I use a service that works with many people so we will have to get our work in line to be done.

We have decided to have the students enter their own data in SPSS. I set up the file this week with all of the variables labeled. Students will send me a copy of their paperwork so I can double check their data entry. It is great experience to have to enter the data and get a feel for how the file is set up. 

Next week will get complicated because all three of the faculty will be attending faculty meetings in Minneapolis. We are also doing a poster session with the data on our new sampling method (see earlier blog posts, if you want details). On Tuesday we will have our 4^th lab conference call on GoToMeeting. Wednesday we leave for MN. The lab meeting will cover a few areas of concern that have come up in reviewing the recordings, any issues on participant recruitment and the interviews, and we will discuss some plans for next quarter and doing data analysis.

Lee Stadtlander

Psychological Measurement: Good Enough Fit?

An issue that has arisen is that of how well a survey (in this case, a quantitative measure) 'fits' if you will, with individual perception. What do we do, for example, when we have chosen our valid and reliable measure that operationalizes our construct of interest only to find that when we actually give the assessment, our participants seem to balk at certain questions. Participants may, for exmaple, want to/want you to rephrase the question or perhaps give you a non-score (e.g. a 0/zero) when the response format ranges from +3 to -3 with no zero to be found.

This is a challenge we all face. While it is tempting to want to change such measures take a moment to think about doing so and what this really means. We have chosen our reliable and valid measures for that very reason...they are tested with solid psychometric properties. If we change the response format or questions in any way - we do indeed change our psychometrics and therefore should have much less confidence in our findings and have concerns about potentially spurious results.

Is it possible, therefore, that our items and response format can be 'good enough' and that we therefore must leave these items as-is, for the sake of our data collection? I would argue yes. What we can do, however, is help the participant understand the essence of the question, relative to the construct at hand. So if a question in our resilience or LOC scale asks us to rate a statement on our leadership skills and our participant states 'I am not a leader' - instead of getting caught up in semantics, it might be helpful to step back a moment and help the participant understand that in this case (and this depends of course, on the construct and specific operationalization thereof...) we are talking generally or even hypothetically - if the participant cannot identify a specific area of leadership.

Sadly, our psychological assessments are far from perfect. When we discover issues like this - it serves to higlight the importance of assessment development. The other nice thing about this is that once we discover this, we have uncovered a potential gap in the literature - an area that may warrant additional research attention.

AES

Thoughts

We are getting responses to our survey on the blog. Thank you to all of you who have made the time to take the survey. There is a lot of research going on right now regarding social networking and blogging in relation to education. Since we are an online University, I am quite interested in how these types of interactions may help support learning. The survey was developed to look at what works and what doesn't work from a more general perspective. Does reading someone's thoughts and process inform the reader on how to conduct research? Do students learn more than other's when reading this type of blog? So many questions and if I were to put them all in the survey we would have the longest survey in history :)

It seems that the more tools we have the more confusing learning becomes. We talk about scholarly sources in research, but when one Googles a topic there are a million things that come up. Some are scholarly, some help to understand a topic but aren't scholarly, and some are just "junk". I wonder how students navigate all those different resources. I also wonder which tools are most beneficial to learning and why. The research right now points to small studies where the blog is designed to work with students in a specific course. I am wondering if there isn't a way that blogs, twitters, facebooks, and the like, can actually help students to develop skill sets necessary to write dissertations, do research, and develop proposals.

We have so much information available on our computers...do we need to develop specific skill sets just to wade through it all?
MG

Week 6 Summary

This week we had our first lab meeting with the GoToMeeting software - it worked great! I think everyone is very relieved that we have something that works for conference calls and also lets everyone share a computer screen. It let me show students an example of an ecomap and word documents. I am excited to try it next quarter when we get to the data analysis portion of the project, and we can all do quantitative and qualitative analyses together.

Students are working on their final practice interviews with an older adult this week. The faculty will review each one and (hopefully) give the student permission to go on to the real interview. Next week we may be starting to get some data!

As hopefully you have seen, we are asking readers of the blog to take a short survey. Why are we doing this? There are several reasons. One, we would like to get a feel for the usefulness of the blog not only for our student researchers but also for others who are reading it. Two, a research blog, particularly one that is associated with an online lab is a new, cutting edge phenomenon. We would like to be able to publish an article on the use of the blog, but need to get clear understanding of what you, the reader, are getting out of it. You probably are not aware of it – but we have around 100 readers of the blog everyday! Which leads to the third reason for the survey, we would like to know what you like and don’t like it in it, so we can make sure we are answering your needs.

So why should you take the survey, if you have not done so (and if you have, thanks!)? You have been reading about research – here is a chance to be a participant and see what it feels like. We will also share our findings with our readers at the end of the project; you will be able to get a feel for how your opinions are similar or different than others’.

Which brings me to the final point I would like to make this week, several people have mentioned they hesitate to ask questions or make comments in the blog because “they are just students” or “I just like to hear about the project.” We are doing the blog for you, the reader; we would love to hear your questions or thoughts. As I mentioned in the lab this week, there are really no “right” answers (or questions) when we look at research articles or the blog. You come to this moment with a unique perspective and insights that perhaps we have not previously considered. Who knows your ideas may shape our next project or lead you to ideas for a dissertation!

Lee Stadtlander

Taking the Surveys Ourselves

RAs in lab this week are taking one of our protocol surveys themselves and it is informative to hear first hand student opinion of the surveys we are actually using. In my humble opinion, taking measure ourselves before using them is almost always a good idea so that not only can we familiarize ourselves with the content of these measures but also, so that we get a sense as to what the *experience* of taking them is all about. It is one thing to know what the questions ask but quite another to have to answer them ourselves. In our case, our RAs are much younger than our participants so there is always the added challenge of factoring that into our perceptions. I cannot help but wonder how our research literature may have changed, had every researcher in the past, done this. For example, I wonder how the Stanford Prison Study (Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo, 1973) may have been different if Phil Zimbardo had actually served in the role of 'prisoner'? (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKW_MzREPp4) ;-)


AES

Haney, C., Banks, W., & Zimbardo, P. (1973). Interpersonal dynamics in a simulated prison. International Journal of Criminology and Penology, 1, 69-97.

Please help us with a short survey

Transparent Lab survey
As you all know, this blog is about the development and implementation of research projects. We would like to take this opportunity to do a study on how a blog about research impacts readers of the blog. We (Drs. Giles, Stadtlander and Sickel) would like to invite you to participate in a short qualitative study about this blog. We will post an invitation to the study at the beginning of each of the next 4 quarters, and encourage you to participate each time. At the beginning of the survey, you will be asked to select a 4 digit number that means something to you - such as the last 4 digits of your phone number. We are hoping to track people over time without knowing their name or any personal information, though we are limiting the survey to adults over the age of 18. While there are no direct benefits of participating, you will get an opportunity to see what it is like to be a participant in a study over time and then see the results from everyone who participates.

The survey should take no more than twenty minutes. Your consent to participate is totally voluntary and anonymous. By taking the survey you are consenting to allow us to use your answers to identify themes shared by Blog readers. The survey is truly anonymous; we will have no access to any information that will identify who you are. We appreciate your participation, but if you decide not to participate or not to participate in the future we will not know and there will be no change in your status as a blog subscriber. We will share the results of the study and the procedures within the blog at the end of the project.

Please click on the link below
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How Friendly Should We Be with Participants?

An issue that has come up a few times this past week is that of being 'friendly' (i.e. chatty, etc...) with the participants we interview. Specifically, the question of 'Am I being too friendly?' has arisen.

First, it is always important to remember to review our Research with Human Participant training, whenever we are thinking about interactions with our participants.

Beyond the Human Participant training as foundation, it is important to remember that how we interact with our participants/interviewees *does* matter. Plenty of research demonstrates the considerable effect an interviewer can have on the interviewee (see: Davis, Couper, Janz, Caldwell, & Resnicow, 2010; Hilliard & Macan, 2009; Hoffman, 2008; Kirkevold & Bergland, 2007).

Why? How? Well, think about your interactions with others and with others who may be interviewing you for some reason. How might you respond if someone interviewing you acts more like a pal or friend in the interview? How might this impact your willingness to respond truthfully? How might this impact the credibility you have for the interviewer? Interviewer characteristics and behavior impacts how your interviewer views you and our study, how he/she may respond, and can ultimately effect data quality.

This is true for both qualitative and quantitative interviewing - even though the goals of interviewing in these methodologies may differ (Creswell, 2009). As our study is a mixed methods design - we therefore must be cognizant of both approaches to interviewing. As a reminder, for those in our lab, there are plenty of resources on interviewing skills in our Course Info area.

I am thrilled to hear students asking themselves/others this question - you absolutely *should* be thinking about this.

As Dr. Giles pointed out in class this week, it may be useful to think about how you interact with your interviewees much like you would interact on a job interview; you want to be professional and pleasant and not overly 'friendly'. We want our participants to trust us, to feel safe and comfortable, and we want the best possible data quality as a product of this interaction.



AES

Creswell, J.W. (2009). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Davis, R.E., Couper, M.P., Janz, N. K., Caldwell, C. H., & Resnicow, K. (2010). Interviewer effects in public health surveys. Health Education Research, 25(1), 14-26.

Hilliard, T. & Macan, T. (2009). Can Mock Interviewers' Personalities Influence Their Personality Ratings of Applicants? Journal of Psychology, 143 (2), 161-174.

Hoffman, E. A. (2008). The emotionally challenging open-ended interview. Business Communication Quarterly, 71(3), 387-390.

Kirkevold, M. & Bergland, A. (2007). The quality of qualitative data: Issues to consider when interviewing participants who have difficulties providing detailed accounts of their experiences. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health & Well-Being, 2(2), 68-75.

Summary Week 5

This week, students explored several survey measures that we are using in the study. They read articles about the measures and were asked to take the survey and talk about how it felt to do so.  The faculty also provided feedback on their interviews with a classmate. There were some common issues that we have seen in beginning interviewers, so I thought you might benefit from seeing them.

Slow down. People need time to think about their responses (particularly older people), so you need to provide some quiet, reflection time. When they give you a response give them 10 seconds or so to think if they have any further thoughts.

Take notes. Even if you are recording the interview and do not plan to use your notes, write down key points, names they give you, dates, etc. It will help the conversation if you can refer back to what they said previously, for example, “You mentioned that you did not like Dr. Smith earlier, how would you describe his personality compared to your present doctor, Dr. Jones?”

Keep on track. Some people are prone to going off on tangents, and may never actually answer the question that you asked. There is nothing more annoying than to go through the transcript searching for the answer to a question and realize it isn’t there!  This is also where taking notes help – if you jot down key points they mention for each question, then you are sure that they actually answered it. It is also a way to help you stay focused on the question.

Listen to your practice recordings, Yes, I know – you don’t like to hear your voice (most people don’t!), but you may discover mannerisms or tendencies that you did not realize that you do. For example, one student always said “that’s good” after each answer. The concern with offering an opinion (even if you did not mean it that way) is that the person may start responding in ways they think you want. It is better to keep neutral.

Next week we are going to try some new software for our lab meeting called GoToMeeting. It allows a webinar type of environment in which everyone can see one person’s screen and everyone is able to talk as on a conference call. I will report back on how it goes. It is rather pricey - $50 a month, but if it would let everyone get access, it would be worth it.

Lee Stadtlander

Thoughts

I had a very interesting experience this week... well interesting for me :) I sensed that students were second guessing themselves on their interviews. This got me to thinking about the experience for student researchers. While Primary Investigators design a project knowing what they want and looking at ways to accomplish that goal; students must learn what the investigator wants, try to please those people, refine their skills, and worry about not doing it right. In that situation, I think students over think what is being asked of them. On the other hand, the investigators cannot leave too much undefined or the results will not be valid. It is a fine line. How to make the student's feel comfortable with their skills and encourage discussion, while maintaining the integrity of the project?
I then thought back to my dissertation: how I knew what I wanted to do but was concerned that my committee wouldn't like it, or they would find fault. I think that is a major part of research; being able to say what you want to do in understandable language and relay that understanding to others. I also think about the IRB process and how one needs to make each step in the research process understandable and clear to the board.
The benefit of working with others is that one is able to voice their concerns and opinions and get feedback. I wonder how independent researchers overcome their isolation in the research arena?
Just some thoughts...
MG

Week 4 Summary

This week students looked into the census records on their state and read about the Mini Mental Status Exam. Many were shocked that the Census does not differentiate by age for the elderly population- everyone over 65 is lumped together. It was also discovered that how states handle the Hispanic/ Latino portion of the population in the census varies.

We had our second lab meeting, with connection problems again. We tried to use skype but there was so much interference it simply did not work. We then went to a conference call.  I am looking into the possibility of doing a webinar with the group. There are some advantages, such as easy access for everyone and the ability to have everyone  see the same documents  together.

Other things this week – we realized after hearing the first practice interviews that students were not clear on the instructions for doing the interviews. So we added another practice one with a classmate. We went through the paperwork again in the lab meeting and had a Q and A session during the call. We are hoping that it will be clearer now. If students do a better job on the interviews, they can interview an older friend/ relative as practice.

The quarter is quickly moving along, so we are hoping to get to the data collection phase soon!

Lee Stadtlander

practice, practice, practice!

In this week's lab meeting, we ironed out questions from students about the research protocol and talked a bit about issues arising from the recordings of students' first practice interview.

Interviewing skills are complex; when interviewing we are required to attend to the human participants in front of us and treat them with respect and care. We are required to present in a professional manner and we are required to maintain the integrity of the data. All of this with someone who is a stranger to us and given our population, who may have physical or cognitive limitations which further test our interpersonal and academic skills. Volumes have literally been written on interviewing skills so it is no surprise that we too need to practice.

Personally, I know that my own interviewing skills were honed by doing hundreds of clinical interviews. It was like interviewing boot camp, in hindsight but it was invaluable. The more I did, the more comfortable I became with both the protocol and anything that the interview threw at me!

AES

Week 3 Summary

This has been a quiet week; students are reading about gerontology and qualitative research and are doing a practice interview with a friend. They are finally getting the hang of the article review form, and are starting to add in the relationship of the article with our study- wonderful practice for writing a dissertation or a journal article!

I would like to follow up on Dr. Sickel’s comments for the week. I totally agree with her that teaching the lab is a difficult form of multi-tasking! It rather feels like being a juggler – trying to keep all of the balls in the air at the same time. For me, the issue is that I tend to want to focus on the research aspect more and training the students in the methodology. But also important is the class portion and making sure the “experience” of the lab works and that students have the information and support that they need. Dr. S and I were talking about this yesterday and considering ways around the multitasking portion. One alternative we may try in the future is to have one person in charge of the classroom part and one person in charge of the research. Hard to always divide it up that neatly though.

I am also always planning ahead for lab meetings, such as next week we will do another conference call. The logistic issues are tricky, we tried using skype last time but it was hard to hear everyone and we ended up switching to the phone. Next week we are going to try skype again and if that does not work go to Yahoo Messenger, which has a call function. We need to avoid the phone if we can, because one of our students lives in Europe, and I do not want her to have to pay ridiculous amounts in phone charges.

Also in planning stages is preparing for the data collection that will be starting soon. I still need to set up a SPSS file for the quantitative data. We also need to make sure the syllabus for next quarter is ready and start working on the 3^rd quarter’s syllabus. I will be traveling for the next week, I am visiting family in Portland OR, and so we will see how good I am at juggling on the road.

Lee Stadtlander

Finding a groove...

This week for me, for whatever reasons, has felt a little all over the place. I think it is because we are now really starting to get into the day to day practice of our lab and research plan. We have the eCollege classroom which is really a lab space but of course still feels like a classroom but with different parameters and expectations than we typically have in our eCollege classrooms; we have this blog space; we have our contact with students both in the class and via Skype/calls and then there is the research study/design itself, around which these other entities revolve.

It is almost like I am trying to get comfortable with juggling these different and parallel cyber spaces which are related through their common goal - this research study but yet this blog does not directly correspond to the lab space.

I like the fact that our 'classroom' = lab is new to Walden and that we can use that eCollege space as we need it for our lab purposes (versus how a tradition course might be run) yet at the same time, all of these differences add up! My role in the lab is different from my role in classrooms. First, I have the pleasure of working with two esteemed colleagues in the lab. This is different; we don't get to co-teach in our regular instruction (but that is a neat idea, as I think about it!).

Second, while the lab is definitely and predominantly educational - it is not the same in content/demand as a 3 credit Walden course, by comparison. I review but don't always grade; I comment on some student work/participation but not always on everyone's discussion, for example. Imagine how overwhelming it might be to get discussion replies from three faculty each week!

As for this blog - I cannot say that I am comfortable yet, with using it but at the same time see its value in helping tease out current issues pertaining to the lab and research work.

As an adequately type-A individual, I like my routines and typically revel in them. The joy of my first cup of coffee at my desk each morning is surely one of life's finer things. I like my work space to be fairly orderly and I like to know due dates as to what is expected of me. I think my feelings of being 'all over the place' are related to these things; I am right now, outside of the box - outside of my usual comfort zone and it is taking a moment to find a new, if you will, comfort zone in this work. This is not a bad thing, mind you - I am just feeling particularly aware of it.

AES

Summary, Week 2

This week we had our first lab meeting / call. We had planned to do it on skype – but that did not work out – too much noise and we couldn’t hear some people. We moved it to a conference call on the phone – the negative is I can’t record it. The call went well and we had an opportunity to do a practice interview for the students – unrecorded. We plan to record a practice interview and post it in the classroom.

We asked the students this week to use an article review form (originally from C. Diebold), which helps them to organize their info about the article. We are planning in week 6 for the students to use the form as a basis for writing literature reviews of the articles they are reading. I have the form if any of our readers would like a copy.

The students read an article on gerontology and one on the ecomaps that we are using to track their social networks. We also asked them to look up their state laws on mandatory reporting for concerns about the elderly and worked up an action plan for informing the faculty of such concerns. The faculty will then assist if a report is needed to be filed.

We started something new this week in the lab - in which we assigned one faculty member as the primary instructor for the week. This week it was Marty Giles. I realized it is hard for me to give up control (not a surprise to those who know me, I am sure).  But it is nice to be able to look at the course from a broader angle rather than from the narrow instructor in charge one.  One issue I realized was developing is that a few students shifted from calling us Dr. as in Dr. Lee to just using our first name. I posted a request that they go back to the more formal version. I think it is important when we are working with students over 3 quarters that the line between supervisor and peer remain clear. The fact is that we are ones who would be penalized if students were not following the protocols established by the IRB and Walden - I want to make it very clear that we are in charge. Although we are open to suggestions, we have to have the final say in the project.

Lee Stadtlander

Research Design & Alignment

I must confess I really like what we are having students do in week two's discussion - where we are asking students to review and article by using answering a list of questions that tease out the key components of the research approach utilized in the article chosen. We will be discussing research design more formally in later sections of this lab, but these questions are a fantastic precursor for those discussions.

I teach research design and it is honestly one of my favorite courses to teach. This list of questions clearly helps the reader understand *what* is being done and *why* certain design elements or parts of the study were utilized. This list of questions gets at that issue of 'Alignment' (a term, by the way, I borrowed from Walden's residencies) in one's research design.

If we find, after having run through these questions, that our answers don't make sense (e.g. the gap in the literature does not 'match' with the research questions being asked or the variables being measured), we know the study lacks in alignment and may be questionable in design.

In my research design classes, I introduce this overall issue of alignment in the research process because it can be a very helpful road map for understanding a given study. If you attend a Walden residency in the future, you will likely come across this term of ‘alignment’. At times, we may find ourselves wondering why, for example, a particular researcher chose the questions, variables, measures, sample, or analyses he/she chose. Careful consideration of these individual study parts can reveal that all of these parts *should* be connected to the social problem and the gap in the literature that initiated the study in the first place! It is just like a puzzle and can (hopefully) be pieced together.

AES

Week 2- Thoughts

 This week we have our first conference call lab meeting- which is exciting! We are going to try it on skype, mostly because it is much easier for me to record it that way. Also, it gives the students the ability to add another skill to their research tool box of using skype.

I will interview Dr. Giles on the call, I am sure that it will be a tough interview! J  We have done this before, and she loves to throw some strange things at me to deal with. This week we will focus on students learning interview skills during the call – so how to keep the interviewee focused but comfortable with the questions and while being respectful. Also, we will provide examples of a passing and failing Mini Mental Status Exam, and what to do if the person fails it.

Students are learning about gerontology this week in the lab and will read an article about the ecomaps that we will use to understand their social networks. I read and graded the journal papers that were handed in last week, and students seem satisfied so far with the way the lab is going. We had some great reflections and suggestions for the first week.

Lee Stadtlander

Thoughts

I am constantly amazed by the way students see different things in the same material. This week the research assistants (students) had to read a journal article on the oldest old or on virtual labs. Each student pulled something out of the article that resonated with them. Some of the areas they raised, I had not ever considered. It seems that each of us comes to research with our own history, which influences how we see the research project and the readings related to the project. I wonder if so many eyes hinder or help? Do new viewpoints enrich a project or do they delute the focus?

I am not sure what the answer is as yet. I think it will become more clear as we go. My bias is that it will enhance the project. And yes, that would be a hypothesis...but for now it will stay a bias.

I do realize that it will be up to the Primary Investigators to ensure the project stays on track, but it will also be important that we allow for new ways of looking at the project with encouragement. Those new ideas may not happen in this project, but perhaps in future ones.
Just some thoughts
MG

Lab Summary of Week 1

This week students were introduced to the project through reading the grant application and IRB application. They were also required to read the Hinck (2004) qualitative article on the oldest old.

In the first discussion question of the week, students were asked to consider what their goals are for the project, what they hope to gain and their concerns. A number of students expressed concern over doing statistics and trying to fit the research requirements in with their normal class work, and family obligations. Some were worried about working with others in the virtual lab setting and that it would be similar to the notorious “group work” of classes. One person mentioned a concern of interviewing people he/she did not know, while another student question whether he/she would be able to deal with unexpected occurrences.

In the second discussion question the students were asked to comment on the Hinck (2004) article. One student indicated that the article reminded her of her childhood and listening to her grandparents and older relatives. It was determined that the article expressed several things that were important to the oldest old: home, the presence of one's personal physical condition, the role of one's physical condition in impacting daily functioning, the importance of balancing physical needs and staying in own home, and the role of social support in allowing the above 'balance' to happen. One student also commented on the fatigue seen in this age group and the need to provide breaks.

Several people commented on the author’s use of photos as a basis for interviews and we had a discussion about their possible use in studies and the ethics issues that arise with photos. A student brought up the issue that Hinck (2004) had all Caucasians in the sample group, which resulted in a discussion of the lack of diversity seen in this age group and the difficulty in recruiting minorities.

Behind the scenes we have been preparing for our first lab meeting on skype. We are going to have one faculty member interview the other for the students. We have become aware that are really 2 different aspects of research interviewing we need to train: 1) interviewing skills, in terms of keeping the person on track and using clarifying questions and 2) research skills that allow the researcher to make sure the question has been answered. We have decided to do 2 separate example interviews (one in week 2 and one in week 4) that will highlight the different skills each week. We have also clarified the role of each of the faculty members in teaching the class.

Hinck, S. (2004). The lived experience of oldest-old rural adults. Qualitative Health Research, 14, 779-791.

About perfection...

In reading the posts from our lab this week, students are discussing goals and anticipated challenges and one student's post mentioned 'perfectionism' which struck a chord with me both personally and because I think it is a pretty important construct as we discuss research work.

Perfectionism, in my humble opinion and observation, often gets in the way of actually being able to complete projects for some and yet striving for it is really desirable in the detailed world of research work. I think I got hired for a research position once largely because one of the hiring faculty was impressed with the detail of my then CV and its lack of typos and errors. In this case, my own perfectionism had a positive result but certainly this can be a vicious cycle!

I see the quest for perfection play out regularly in my mentoring work. Making mistakes, struggling, and having to work harder at certain parts of our lives makes sense to me--this is poignantly depicted in our dissertation process. You have likely heard at least one person say: 'If it were easy, everyone would have a doctorate'.

So how do we find and accept a balance in this tension, such that we don't make ourselves a wreck in the process? I am still looking for helpful answers here myself, but am thinking that one way to work with this is to look at the signs...our friends, our colleagues, our family, our work product, not to mention, ourselves to take the pulse and in fact measure that balance. When we are off balance - we need to recalibrate. Students in our lab candidly note things about the project that are new/uncertain; I respectfully want to say that your awareness and even apprehension are great and totally normal. This information is useful and helps alert you to all of the exciting things this opportunity can bring. So long as you don't obsess over them ;-)

AES

Different Atmosphere

Building a bit upon what Dr. Lee said: I am so excited about the introductions in the "lab". In so many courses, intro seem to be about how smart, or accomplished, or experienced, or (you fill in the word) the student is. In this lab, students are
talking to each other... sharing both strengths and weakness', sharing photo's, and generally getting to know one another. Everyone seems to be saying that they are here to work and learn, not only from faculty but from one another. It is so refreshing and exciting to see.

MG

Week 1, Tuesday, thoughts

Officially, the lab started yesterday and we have had everyone check in and introduce themselves. I like the way people are working as a team already and offering each other support. Many students have posted photos of their pets and loved ones - which helps us appreciate who they are beyond just a name.

We have already had a few people start posting in the discussions. I really want students to critically analyze the articles that they are reading and think about implications for future research. Personally, I think considering how you could extend the research is one of the most enjoyable aspects of reading a professional journal article. It feels creative and more like play to me than work. I like to consider new methods and if they would work in my areas of interest and what that might look like.

I think one of the things that is hardest for students to understand is that research is not always serious - that it is ok to begin a design by "playing" - thinking about alternatives and what might happen. I think that is one of the problems with only reading finished, published studies and not having the opportunity to do one of your own - it leads you to believe that researchers knew exactly where they were going from step 1 - which is totally not true! You should play with the theory and design: think about ways people might respond with a qualitative approach with interviews - then what would happen if you used a quantitative survey - how could you do that? What different information would you get? What populations could you use? If others have used adolescents what would happen if you used a different group? This is the time and place in research to be creative and get in the research "sandbox" :)

Lee Stadtlander

Thoughts on Teaching a Lab

Students have started showing up in the lab - it is exciting to finally be getting the project started. This seems like a good point to talk a little about what faculty should consider in teaching a research lab like this. I have conducted similar in-person labs and while there is some similarity, there are also some issues unique to the online environment. In-person there was less of a class structure, students were assigned specific tasks and I made sure they understood enough about the project to do their task; I was available in person to help with any issues that came up. Online students are much more isolated and have a variety of levels of knowledge so it is more important to have a class in which to "bring them together" and have a mechanism to train them to handle any problem on their own. The students feel more like co-researchers and less like subordinates.

There is the need for preplanning and preparation of materials. In the current manifestation of the lab, the faculty members need to design the syllabus and set up the course. They need to have the IRB approval and all materials in place - otherwise students are wasting time waiting. It is the faculty's responsibility to make sure all IRB training has been completed by students and any additional paperwork is in. I strongly recommend having students sign a contract so they know what you are expecting from them and issues such as data ownership and publication issues are discussed. We have examples if anyone wants one - we incorporate it into our application for being a research assistant.

Organization is critical, you need to keep track of who has returned what forms, which recordings have been submitted and checked, who needs more training or closer supervision. I have several spreadsheets going all of the time with lists of students and notes on issues. I dedicate a flash drive to each project for all of the data so I can keep track of which recordings have been transcribed, submitted to the transcriptionist, and been analyzed. I keep them in separate folders on the flash drive. I try to enter quantitative data in SPSS as it comes in, otherwise it is easy to miss things.

I think it works well to have at least 2 faculty members on the project and in the lab - particularly with qualitative studies with interview recordings. It takes a lot of time to train the students in interviewing and requires listening to many practice recordings and giving feedback. Also, all participant interviews need to be checked so students can be informed if there are problems (and there are always some!). We always assign a faculty member to specific tasks so it is clear to everyone who has to be in charge of what.

A strong active presence by faculty in the classroom is essential. Students need and are looking for leadership in the unfamiliar environment of a research project. They feel very isolated but want to do a good job- so you want them to always be aware that you are there, available for questions, and have them feel accountable for their commitments to the project. Otherwise, the project will not be finished or data will be compromised. Have a discussion (and printed materials) on how to handle unforeseen issues while working with participants (critical with protected populations such as the elderly).

I think we have worked out a lot of the bugs in teaching a lab, but I am sure some new things will arise over the next 3 quarters. To echo Dr, Sickel - this is a unique, cutting edge opportunity, and I am really grateful to have the opportunity to be involved!

Lee Stadtlander

Starting in our Classroom Space

I just posted an introduction in our research lab classroom and it sunk in a bit more, as to how *unique* it is that we will all get to work together toward these research goals in this capacity. Not only is this new to Walden and perhaps most/all online universities, but after attending a recent alumni event at my alma mater, I see that brick and mortar schools are trying to jump on this, the use of eClassrooms and social media for research purposes, bandwagon.

At this alumni event, I was struck by how cutting edge not only Walden truly is but how particularly true that is for this lab. Indeed, use of online learning 'portals' as noted in this Chronicle article (see: http://chronicle.com/article/Online-Learning-Portals-/127694/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en) are increasing so I expect we will see more of these online labs within short time.

That same Chronicle also mentions the use of blogs for graduate students (see: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/announcing-gradhacker/33741?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en) and I certainly would have liked access to a blog when I was in school. My husband is considering buying a new car and has been following blogs on the fuel economy reported by current owners of that car, to get additional data to help his decision. It is a whole new world, almost every day it seems ;-)

So I feel excited on the one hand about starting this project and on the other, I feel honored to be among the pioneers in online research labs. It is an invigorating time to be here!

AES

A few thoughts

Hi all,
I have been busy reading the Creswell text. It is the first text I have downloaded on my Kindle and I am now learning new things about my Kindle: how to highlight, book mark pages, etc. The Creswell text is an easy read in most ways... it does emphasize how important mixed method research is. How can we fully understand an issue by just numbers or words... it makes so much sense that research on individuals should include both.

It amazes me how much "extra" learning one does without realizing it. This was supposed to be a simple research project, but I am learning about blogging, text on Kindle, new ways to approach the library.... who knew there was so much to learn?

With technology comes a whole new learning curve. One wonders about the next generation of "oldest-old".... will they be so computer literate that research can be done on line, the problems of health efficacy will be totally different, social issues will be different, etc? But that is for another study, another day.
Just a few thoughts....
MG

Compulsiveness

I recently had a student submit one of the research surveys and all of the answers were reversed – he or she had not clearly read the anchor choices. This led me to wanting to share with you a reminder of the need for being a compulsive researcher – we cannot control what our study’s participants do, so we must not only check their responses but also check what we do several times.

You should check surveys when someone hands them in to make sure all blanks are filled and do a quick look to make sure that they make sense. If they don’t make sense, or there are blanks – it is perfectly ok to ask them to double check that everything is answered as they wish. They may WANT to leave something blank – which is perfectly acceptable or they may have accidentally left it blank. Once they leave the room/ you can no long double check. Why do you care? Depending on the particular survey, you have to toss out their survey if they have left answers blank.

We also have to check our own work, we too make errors and it is our responsibility to try to correct as many as we can. Think about that when you are entering data into SPSS and go back and check it again, or better yet, ask someone else to check you. The implications for errors become great in research. You are going to make claims based upon your data and you want them to be correct and replicable by others.

For those of you that are going into academics and will be doing research with students, remember you are responsible for their work. Double check everything, because when the results fail to replicate, it will be you that others will be looking at not the students that helped you!

Be compulsive, be professional in research, and be proud of what you have done!

Lee Stadtlander

We have our classroom!

It is *very* exciting to see this project evolve. Now that we have our classroom and are readying it for summer, it feels like we are truly at a new level with this work. In research, where there seems to be a fair share of waiting built into the process, this kind of concrete step forward is always refreshing!

Along with that step comes the 'must make sure the classroom is ready on time' pressure. Doing this with two colleagues is new; typically we have a classroom that is our sole responsibility and I am enjoying the collegial 'feel' to this classroom set up. I am always mindful, when in my teaching classrooms, of creating a positive academic environment for my students and for myself.

I absolutely recall some of my brick and mortar classrooms feeling stuffy and stale. The classrooms always felt academic but not particularly positive (one of our main classrooms for graduate students was rather small and the windows opened on to another building) unless you were just dying to get into the material ;-) It is interesting to me how much physical space can impact one's work/attitude in this regard and even more curious to see how our notions of 'space' and place change with being in an online learning environment.

Hopefully, we will be able to convey/share that positive, collegial, academic feeling with our online student researchers.


AES

Beginnings

 I finally got access to the lab course and have been spending some time getting it set up. Somehow it always takes longer than anticipated! Now I am trying to arrange for Drs. Giles and Sickel to also get access (bureaucracy moves slowly!). I sent out the first research knowledge and research self efficacy surveys to both lab students and control students. I am already getting some back and have started entering the data.

As Dr. Giles and Sickel mentioned last week, we submitted a change in procedure form to IRB, so we could use a different LOC survey. That has been approved so we are good to start.

We are excited to start the lab and finally get the project under way. I thought you might like to know about what the students will be learning this quarter. Everything is structured so that they will get a cram course in topics related to the project. They will start out with getting an overview of the project by reading our IRB forms and the grant application. Then they will begin reading some articles/ book chapters on the oldest old and doing qualitative interviewing. They will read articles about each of the survey measures that we will use. They will have readings from a mixed methods textbook and additional info on oldest old.

Every 2 weeks we will have a conference call. At week 2 they will listen to one instructor interviewing a 2nd instructor. They will then have a chance to ask questions on it. Each student will then be required to do a practice interviews with a friend or family (any age) and submit the recording and all of the paperwork to me. Week 4 they will interview an elderly friend or family member (over age 65) and submit the recording and paperwork. These will be listened to by all 3 faculty and the student given feedback. If approved they will be able to start their 4 interviews in week 6, if not approved they will need to do another practice one.

There are a lot of things to consider, some we have learned the hard way. One thing we learned in a previous study is Walden email objects to large recording files - we continually got error messages on them. I discovered that there is an internet site: yousendit.com that allows students to upload large files in a "mailbox" and I am notified to go and get them. I can then download them to my computer. I am sure that there will be new things discovered in the next few quarters, I'll let you know as they come up!

Lee Stadtlander

Unanticipated Challenges in Research Work

On my mind this week, are some of the unanticipated challenges we can face in our research work.

Dr. Giles referred to one in her recent post, when a valid scale (e.g. for LoC) still somehow does not *fit* our purposes of population. Another is when we discover parameters such as deadlines, technical/software problems that we had not anticipated. Still another is the simple challenge of working with differences in personality/work styles. These issues crop up despite one's best attempts to anticipate and mitigate such events. So be prepared for the unexpected may be the lesson here!

Given the likelihood that some such events might impact one's work and that we cannot always avoid these events, I find myself trying to 'be the research'....I am not sure Buddha would have intended his teachings to be applied in such a manner...but then again - why not?

AES

Thoughts on the past two weeks

Oh, if one could just do research...I have been working on dissertations the past two weeks, plus a residency in Houston. I have had very little time for reading or even thinking about the project. Dr. Lee and I did find a different Locus of Control scale. Rotter's original scale seems very difficult for individuals to understand; especially the older subjects. That is not to say it is not valid, but the wording seems to confuse folks. So we did some investigation and found Levinson's scale to be a lot more readable... face validity, in a sense.
I personally would love to have the time to simply read and digest all of the research out there on LoC, oldest old, health care efficacy, etc. The truth is that "multiple roles" does not end with grad school. But perhaps my graduate work prepared me in ways I didn't know.... I am a lot more able to juggle multiple roles than I was before grad school.... who knew????
MG

One very nice thing about having this 'down' time in research work - these more quiet periods before a project formally starts is that it gives us time to do some reading and reflect further on the larger model and on the concepts within our model. Queued by both Michael's comments to me last week and the book Dr. Lee recommended by Poon and Cohen-Mansfield (2011), I have been reading the chapter by these authors on subjective well being/chapter three.

These authors find support for the evolving definition of subjective well being from a more static, if you will, construct to one that is dynamic or fluid - evolving and therefore relative to individual circumstances, such as aging.

As I understand this, this construct depicts a model by which individuals approach life's challenges, including, as the authors state 'old-old age' (p. 34), In my mind at present, I am likening this conceptualization of SWB to shock absorbers in an auto - how we orient and handle life's terrain; that to which we anticipate and attend as guide to what we will experience.

What remains unclear to me at this time, however, is precisely how SWB as conceptualized in *this* chapter, differs from optimism or other such personality constructs. SWB appears to be conceptualized as more of a system, if you will.

AES

Shmotkin, D. (2011). The pursuit of happiness: Alternative Conceptions of subjective well-being. In Pooon & Cohen-Mansfield (Eds., )Understanding well-being in the oldest old. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Waiting

This is a quiet week, everything is ready for summer quarter and the new project to start. Student researchers have been emailing me that they have received the info/ equipment I sent. So as far as the new project goes - we are poised to begin.

Meanwhile, with the LOC study, we are still waiting for a couple of raters on the earliest memory portion. I received a new book today so I can begin writing a short report on our new sampling technique. For those that might be interested it is:

Knight, G.P., Roosa, M.W., & Umana-Taylor, A.J. (2009). Studying Ethnic Minority and Economically Disadvantaged Populations: Methodological challenges and best practices. APA: DC.

Did I mention that we had a poster on this topic accepted to be in Walden's summer research symposium in Minneapolis? If you will be there - be sure to stop by our poster and say hi. Here is the info and abstract (we are only allowed 50 words) for our poster to give you a sneak peek:

A Multi-Point Referral Research Method Utilizing Walden University Student Researchers
Lee Stadtlander, Ph.D., Martha J. Giles, Ph.D., and Amy Sickel, Ph.D.

Use of a multi-point referral research method is discussed in which 9 student researchers from across the U.S .were instructed to ask for referrals from their social network, with the rule that final participants must not be known. An ethnically diverse sample resulted; implications affect both participant and student recruitment.

In the mail...

I finally got all of the recording equipment for the lab students in the mail. New hint - it takes 10 days to get shipping boxes when you order them from the post office!

Been a frustrating week - but a typical research time- we asked 5 faculty (who agreed) to rate our earliest memory data, only 2 returned them. Don't be surprised when such things happen... annoying? YES! But that is the way of things. We will ask a few more people, and hopefully, eventually we will get this project finished.

I so often see student researchers have elaborate research designs requiring huge numbers of participants, and end up only getting a fraction of the people they need. You must have a Plan B (and may need a Plan C or D) as to how you will get the necessary number of participants. Plan ahead - remember any changes you make from your original design must be approved by the IRB before you can proceed,  resulting in more delays. So think about how will you get the people you need? Where else might your potential participants be? A senior center? A community group? Church? Make sure you consider how these new people may be different/ similar to your Plan A ones.

Repost: How to get email notifications

I have had a number of questions on how to get email notifications of the blog - here are directions again.

We have discovered a problem with email notifications in our blog, The Transparent Lab. If you want notifications and you have NOT received a notification of blogs posted in the last few days, you need to do an additional step. Please go to the blog: http://transparentpsylab.blogspot.com/

At the top right corner of the page click on SUBSCRIBE TO POSTS – choose ATOM

It will take you to another page- at the top of the page will be a box SUBSCRIBE NOW. At the bottom of the box is a link for Get the Transparent Lab delivered by email

If you click that a form will have you submit your email address and have you enter a word to eliminate spam from the blog

Back from Vacay....

I am back from a refreshing week off in sunny Florida with my family...it is always good to get a change of scenery.

Despite being technologically unplugged for the week (critical, in my humble experience, to the 'refreshing' part) going to Florida particularly in the golf community in which my family resides always provides me with anecdotal food for thought with regard to elderly individuals and quality of life. I must confess I was initially one who could never imagine becoming a snow bird - retiring part time to Florida. Each time I visit, however, I see more and more precisely *why* this is so popular. While too much sunshine can make me grumpy ;-), it does get folks outside, moving, social and overall - on the go. It made me want to move more.

Dr. Lee recently shared an interesting article by Infurma et al (2010) which talked about an individual's sense of mastery being important with regard to how old we feel. Anecdotally, I can confirm these findings. The individuals in this community are outside and moving, a lot. While this can certainly introduce other potential confounds (such as physical fitness, exposure to light) with regard to impact on mastery and perceived age, it does not surprise me at all that mastery can directly impact sense of age. I feel greater sense of mastery when I work out regularly in my less sunny Washington DC area surroundings, but suspect certain environments truly enhance this effect for distinct populations.

Anyway, it just goes to show that research is never far from the mind...even while on vacation ;-)

AES


Infurma, F.J., Berg, S., & Zarit, S.H. (2010). The nature and cross-domain
correlates of subjective age in the oldest old: Evidence from the OCTO Study.
Psychology and Aging, 25(2), 470-476.

Serendipity

After reading Dr. Lee's post, it brought to mind how I came into this whole arena. I am a clinical psychologist by training. Aging and the oldest old is not something I thought much about. But Dr. Lee and I were friends and I would share experiences I was having with my in-laws... medical concerns, social concerns, support concerns, and questions about the aging process. I was having difficulty finding relevant research to help me learn about aging and why some folks age well and others: not so much. Surprisingly, Dr. Lee came back to me and said she could not find relevant research either.... so let's do some research ourselves!!!

I came to realize that if one leaves themselves open for new experiences, the options are endless. I don't know that I have answered the questions that first brought me to this research, but I know I have developed some questions that, if answered, will help someone else looking to expand their understandingof the aging process.

What I want to share with all of you is that opportunity comes when you least expect it. It will pass you by if you don't leave yourself open to it!!!

MG

More thoughts

Today we finalized the syllabus and course info for the lab course. As soon as I get access to the course I can get everything posted. I received a lovely book (not a professional one - written for the general public) and thought I would share it with you:

Raines, R. (1997). A Time to Live: Seven steps of creative aging. NY: Plume.

Another book that is a favorite of mine is:
Snowdon, D.  (2002). Aging with Grace: What the nun study teaches us about leading longer, healthier, and more meaningful lives.  Bantam Press.

I particularly like the nun study book because it talks in great detail about research and the serendipity that occurs during the process. We don't hear enough about that! When you read a journal article it sounds like everything went exactly as planned - which is rarely the case.  Many times, you accidentally discover something during the analysis which totally changes the direction of the study. An example was our realization in a previous study that it appeared that we could determine locus of control from people's earliest memories. This was definitely NOT an idea that we went into the project with!

Happy reading!

Lee Stadtlander