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Sage Research Methods Video

How to Read and Understand a Research Study

Pub. Date: 2016

Product: Sage Research Methods Video

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483396750

Methods: Evaluation

Keywords: challenges, issues, and controversies, comparison, practices, strategies, and tools

Disciplines: Anthropology, Business and Management, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Communication

and Media Studies, Counseling and Psychotherapy, Economics, Education, Geography, Health, History,

Marketing, Nursing, Political Science and International Relations, Psychology, Social Policy and Public Policy,

Social Work, Sociology, Science, Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Medicine

Access Date: March 26, 2025

Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc

City: Thousand Oaks

Online ISBN: 9781483396750

© 2016 SAGE Publications, Inc All Rights Reserved.

ANNOUNCER: Understanding research.

SPEAKER 1: This critique is due tomorrow, I have to do it today. I'm going to get it done. I'm going to

do this. I'm starving. I wonder what's in the fridge.

SPEAKER 2: –Information that is known. It is imperative to be able to read and understand scientific

articles.

SPEAKER 1: Oh!

SPEAKER 2: Join me in this TV special, as I discuss the major components of a scientific paper, and

how to evaluate the quality of the research presented.

SPEAKER 1: This looks really good.

SPEAKER 2: The ability to share scientific discoveries is the basis of the accumulation and advance-

ment of knowledge. A good scientific study builds on and furthers what is already known about a

particular topic. Research papers are divided into seven sections, and include the abstract, introduc-

tion, methods, results,

SPEAKER 2 [continued]: discussion, acknowledgments, and literature cited. In each section, we will

discuss key terms used, and what you should look for to appropriately evaluate the quality of the in-

formation presented. Abstract– the very first section of a paper

SPEAKER 2 [continued]: is the abstract. It is a short summary, usually about 250 words, and is

designed to summarize the research and get people interested in reading the paper. The abstract

should include– what is being studied and why– in order to provide scientific justification– a brief

description of the procedures used,

SPEAKER 2 [continued]: a brief explanation of the major results, and the significance of the results in

a larger context. Introduction– the second section, the introduction, provides background information

on which the research is based.

HAROLD TAKOOSHIAN: The introduction should be fairly short and it has a few essential elements.

[Harold Takooshian, PhD, Psychology Department, Fordham University] One is that it'd state the

problem being tested as a question, and then the tentacle hypothesis– an answer that the researcher

offers before doing the study. It should also contain the literature of at least a few studies that have

been done on the topic in the past,

HAROLD TAKOOSHIAN [continued]: so the reader can understand the background of the problem.

And then it should elucidate why the research is important. In behavioral research, very often, there's

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a social significance that should be stated in the introduction.

SPEAKER 2: A hypothesis suggests a causal relationship or an explanation for a certain phenom-

enon. [Hypothesis- An educated guess attempting to explain a certain phenomenon or causal rela-

tionship] A research study attempts to answer whether or not a hypothesis is true. For example, a

researcher may hypothesize that increasing caloric intake before an exam improves a student's per-

formance on the exam.

STUDENT: Yes!

SPEAKER 2: The study will be designed to appropriately test whether caloric intake before an exam

increases academic performance.

SPEAKER 1: Oh, now I get it.

SPEAKER 2: Methods. The next section in a research paper is the methods section, which describes

the exact procedures that were performed in the experiment, so that someone reading this section

could easily repeat it.

HAROLD TAKOOSHIAN: The methods section in APA publications has to contain three essential

components– the participants who participated in the study, the materials, what items were used–

apparatus or questionnaires– and then the procedure– how the materials were applied to the partic-

ipants.

SPEAKER 2: For the purposes of this special, we will group research studies into three different cat-

egories– observational studies, true experiments, and quasi-experiments.

SPEAKER 1: There are three types of studies? How do I know which one this is?

SPEAKER 2: Observational studies usually involve the observation of ongoing behavior. These stud-

ies are designed to describe behavior in order to generate hypotheses for future study, or to try to

find patterns of relationships among the behaviors being observed. They do not really attempt to de-

termine

SPEAKER 2 [continued]: the cause of these patterns, but merely that they exist.

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO: Observational studies are ones in which the individual is not supposed

to influence anything that is going on in the usual setting. [Kathleen M. Schiaffino, PhD, Chair, Psy-

chology Department, Fordham University] Typically, there are two kinds of observational studies–

one is called "naturalistic," in which there is no way that the observer is involved at all. And the easiest

example would be if somebody was collecting

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KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO [continued]: data about plant growth. The second kind would be partic-

ipatory observation, and that would be in circumstances where the person can't be totally invisible.

So then you usually have somebody actually be a participant in the situation while collecting data. A

really typical example of that kind of study

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO [continued]: would be in a daycare setting, where perhaps you want to

observe aggressive behavior in children on the playground, and you have the daycare teachers col-

lect the material. If you had a stranger sitting in the playground, then the children would know some-

thing was going on and they might be on their best behavior. If the teachers are there, it's ordinary,

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO [continued]: and they won't take any notice, and what you get is the

usual behavior that happens.

SPEAKER 1: Definitely not an observational study. What's next?

SPEAKER 2: In addition to observational studies, there are also true experiments.

HAROLD TAKOOSHIAN: A true experiment is one that's done in a highly controlled environment,

let's call it a lab– but it could be in an office, or a classroom– a highly controlled environment. [Harold

Takooshian, PhD, Psychology Department, Fordham University] And the true experiment would have

an experimental and a control group, so that we can compare the behavior of the two after the treat-

ment is heard. The independent variable is what the researcher manipulates

HAROLD TAKOOSHIAN [continued]: in a true experiment, and the dependent variable is the expect-

ed outcome– the behavior that result from the manipulation.

SPEAKER 2: One example is a researcher wants to examine whether energy drink consumption

causes an increase in academic performance. In this case, "energy drink" is the independent vari-

able.

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO: In an experimental study, what you need to have is an experimental

group, and that's the one where the independent variable is manipulated– something is done to that

group and then a behavior will be observed. [Kathleen M. Schiaffino, PhD, Chair, Psychology Depart-

ment, Fordham University] You also need to have a control group, which is a group that's the same

in every other way, except that they don't

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO [continued]: get that independent variable, they don't get the manipu-

lation. It's possible to have more than one treatment group. My control group would get no energy

drink, one of my experimental groups would get just one of the drinks, and then I can have another

experimental group that has two or three of the drinks, and we can see if the amount of the indepen-

dent variable

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KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO [continued]: makes a difference.

SPEAKER 2: In assessing the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable, it is im-

portant to ensure that the only difference between treatment and control groups is the independent

variable.

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO: It's important to minimize the difference between the subjects in the

control group, and the subjects in the experimental group, and the most effective way to do that is

using something called "random assignment." [Random Assignment- Each participant has an equal

chance of being assigned to treatment or control groups.]

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO [continued]: Random assignment refers to having a group of subjects

available to you, and then using a toss of a dice or a computer-generated list of numbers to randomly

assign people to either the experimental group or the control group. Random selection is based on

the idea that I have a particular, full population available to me,

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO [continued]: like all of the freshman at a college, and I have a system

to randomly select people who are going to participate in my study.

SPEAKER 1: I'm pretty sure it was a true experiment, but I don't think there was random assignment.

SPEAKER 2: In addition to observational and true experiments, there are quasi-experiments. Like

true experiments, quasi-experiments test for relationships between variables, but they differ from true

experiments because subjects may not be randomly assigned due ethical or practical limitations.

HAROLD TAKOOSHIAN: For example, research on desegregation, where you had one school was

fully desegregated, the other was partially desegregated, this would be a quasi-experiment because

there is a manipulation– we're looking at an independent and dependent variable– but the true ex-

periment is not there, there's not total control of the environment.

SPEAKER 2: Quasi-experiments cannot make true causal statements, but only serve to establish

more closely predictor relationships by identifying consistent correlational patterns. Well, how do I

know if the design of the studies is any good?

SPEAKER 2: When evaluating the quality of the design of a study, there are several things to look

for which may be applied to all three types of research– were the measurements reliable and valid?

How large was the sample size? How were the subjects selected? What did the experiment control

for?

SPEAKER 2 [continued]: [Factors for Evaluating a Study- Reliable and Valid Measurements, Sample

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Size, How Subjects Were Selected, What the Experiment Controlled for]

HAROLD TAKOOSHIAN: Reliability is whether the experiment is internally consistent. For example,

if we did the same experiment over and over again, would we get the same results? [Reliability-

Refers to the stability of the measurement] A shorthand definition of reliability is whether the method

correlates with itself. That is, whether we're finding something that has meaning, as opposed to va-

lidity, which is whether what we're finding correlates

HAROLD TAKOOSHIAN [continued]: with real-world behavior.

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO: The most important thing about reliability in observational study is the

reality that you typically have two or three people doing observations, and we have to have agree-

ment between those people. That agreement is called "inter-rater reliability." For example, if I was

doing an observation of children

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO [continued]: in a daycare center and I was measuring aggression, be-

fore I even started, I would need to make sure that we both had a common understanding of what we

were going to call "aggression–" a touch, a push, a slap. Once we have that agreement, then we can

have some confidence that we're both going to be seeing the same thing, and we're going to have

high inter-rater reliability.

SPEAKER 2: Validity refers to whether or not the test actually measures the characteristic that it

is intended to measure. [Validity- Refers to whether or not the test measures what it is intended to

measure] It also refers to one's confidence that the findings of a particular experiment represent the

truth of the situation. There are two main types of validity that can be evaluated when examining the

methods

SPEAKER 2 [continued]: section of a research paper– internal validity and construct validity. [Internal

Validity- The degree to which the design of the experiment allows the questions to be tested by elim-

inating outside influences]

HAROLD TAKOOSHIAN: The internal validity is how real the experiment is in the laboratory, whether

the participant believes what's happening and is truly a part of it.

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO: Suppose we were doing a study and wanted to look at the effect of a

drug on anxiety. If, for our experimental group, we gave them the drug and then they attended some

kind of rock concert, there would be changes in their behavior that might be because of the drug and

might be because of the rock concert.

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO [continued]: If our control group wasn't tested under the same circum-

stances– if they didn't attend the rock group– then there'd be no way to know which of the two things

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caused the changes, and we would not have good internal validity.

SPEAKER 2: Construct validity describes how well the test measures what it is believed to be mea-

suring. [Construct Validity- How well the test measures what it is believed to be measuring] For exam-

ple, if a researcher is measuring intelligence by counting the number of bumps on a person's head,

the measurement may be reliable– you will get the same number of bumps every time–

SPEAKER 2 [continued]: but it may not necessarily be an accurate measurement of intelligence.

Another thing to consider when examining the quality of the study is the sample size. In general, the

larger the sample size, the more reliable and less likely conclusions are drawn due to chance, error,

or extenuating

SPEAKER 2 [continued]: circumstance. If a study attempts to describe mating behaviors of vampire

bats, but only observed a few bats from a particular community, then those observations are not likely

to be representative of the whole community. It is also important to notice how the subjects in the

study

SPEAKER 2 [continued]: were selected and assigned.

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO: Experiments often have both true experimental components and qua-

si-experimental components. One example of a quasi-experimental aspect of a study would be if I

was looking, for example, at the differences in male and female performance on some kind of a video

game. Male and female– I can't assign somebody to be male or female,

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO [continued]: however, I can make it more of an experimental design if,

within the males and within the females, I then randomly assign one kind of video game or a more

typical kind of video game. Then I'd have an experimental component.

SPEAKER 2: Results– the results section follows the methods section of the paper, and includes the

data that was collected and analyzed in a study.

HAROLD TAKOOSHIAN: The results section should be brief and it should be concise, not wordy.

Perhaps tables, graphs, charts express things much better than the narrative word. But the idea of

the results section is simply to show, quantitatively, whether our hypothesis was correct or not. Just

enough information to tell us whether we accept or reject

HAROLD TAKOOSHIAN [continued]: the hypothesis.

SPEAKER 2: A result is significant when it is most likely not due to random chance. [Significant Re-

sult- The outcome is most likely not due to random chance] There are several different statistical tests

that experimenters may use to determine if their results are significant. A common way is through the

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use of P-values. [P Value- The probability that differences

SPEAKER 2 [continued]: between control and experimental groups are due to chance]

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO: P-value refers to the probability that the results that you got could hap-

pen by chance alone. And in most social science research it's agreed upon that a probability of 0.05,

which means a less than 5% chance that what you see in the data could have happened by chance

alone– that is generally

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO [continued]: considered to be sufficient proof to say that what hap-

pened is because of the study and not a coincidence.

HAROLD TAKOOSHIAN: If I were undergoing cancer therapy, I would want to know that the medicine

being used on me was significant in probability– less than 0.05– that if I am given this medicine,

there's a 95% chance that I'll be cured.

SPEAKER 2: Discussion– the discussion follows the results section of the paper.

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO: At the end of the manuscript you'll have a discussion section. And in

the discussion section, what they're trying to do is to summarize, in a more global way, the meaning

of the results that they found. They'll try to connect that information back to theories and findings from

previous research– typically, having been cited in the lit. review

KATHLEEN M. SCHIAFFINO [continued]: at the beginning of the study. They'll make an effort to note

consistencies or inconsistencies between what they found and what other people have found. Au-

thors will also use that opportunity to talk about the weaknesses of their study, and also to perhaps

make some suggestions for where future research might go as a result of what they found.

SPEAKER 2: In assessing the quality of the study, it is important to keep in mind external validity.

HAROLD TAKOOSHIAN: External validity is how much that experiment really generalizes to the out-

side world whether what happens in the laboratory has meaning in the real world. [External Validity-

The degree to which findings can be extrapolated to an outside audience]

SPEAKER 2: For example, if a study claims that a particular drug inhibits tumor growth in humans,

but only tested on rats, this conclusion may not be externally valid. It would be acceptable to say that

because the drug halted tumor growth in rats, it may inhibit tumor growth in humans.

SPEAKER 2 [continued]: When evaluating the quality of information in a discussion, here are some

important things to look for– does this discussion explain the results, or just simply reiterate them? A

good discussion explains the results. Does the author spend adequate time discussing the implica-

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tions of all results,

SPEAKER 2 [continued]: or does he or she just focus on a certain aspect of the results? Are the im-

plications from the study that the author is suggesting appropriate? Is the author drawing conclusions

that are too general from what the study currently examined?

SPEAKER 2 [continued]: Acknowledgments– another major section of a research paper is the ac-

knowledgements. Here the authors thank those people who may have helped them, or provided

financial or academic support throughout the course of the study.

SPEAKER 2 [continued]: The final part of a research paper is the literature cited section. It provides

a comprehensive list of all the articles and materials that were referenced in the study. This allows

readers to be able to identify where to find certain articles on studies that relate to the current study.

In the body of the paper, authors

SPEAKER 2 [continued]: use in-text citations to reference past studies, and then provide the com-

plete reference at the end of the paper. For journal articles, which are the most common paper cited

in a research paper, a complete reference usually includes the authors, the title of the article,

SPEAKER 2 [continued]: the journal title, the volume of the journal the article was in, the page num-

bers where it can be found, and the year it was published.

SPEAKER 3: Hey, it's me again!

SPEAKER 1: Hey, how are you?

SPEAKER 3: It's been good. Oh, no!

SPEAKER 1: No!

SPEAKER 3: Sorry! Sorry, I tried to catch. Can you remember what you wrote?

SPEAKER 1: Maybe.

SPEAKER 3: If you remember what was down here–

SPEAKER 1: Do you want to write it down?

SPEAKER 3: Yeah!

SPEAKER 1: We'll write it down. So I'm just going to spit it out.

SPEAKER 3: Just say everything you can remember. First thing–

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SPEAKER 1: So the video divided everything up into different parts of the research paper.

SPEAKER 3: Whoa, slow down! Slow and steady wins the race.

SPEAKER 1: First is the abstract, which should be concise and summarize the research. And next

comes the introduction, which gives perspective on the study, and explains why what is being stud-

ied is important. Oh, and I have to have a hypothesis, or problem being addressed. Then after the

introduction comes the methods section,

SPEAKER 1 [continued]: and this one is long. The methods section has a detailed description of the

procedure, so that the experiment can be easily repeated.

SPEAKER 3: You're going to have to slow down just a little bit.

SPEAKER 1: I'll slow down. To evaluate the methods section, I have to look for several things– how

large the sample size is, if the measurements are valid and reliable, if the subjects were randomly

selected and assigned, and if the experiment controlled for possible external influences.

SPEAKER 1 [continued]: Then, after the methods section comes the results section.

SPEAKER 3: Results– good, good.

SPEAKER 1: So in the results section, the author presents the data that they found, and they usually

perform statistical calculations with a P-value. And if the P-value is less than 0.05, than the results

are significant. And in evaluating the results section, I have to pay attention that the researchers per-

formed the appropriate statistical tests.

SPEAKER 1 [continued]: And then finally is the discussion section. And the discussion section should

explain, not reiterate, the results. And here I have to pay attention that the authors have presented

all the data fairly, not just the ones that support the hypothesis. And I have to make sure that the

authors have not

SPEAKER 1 [continued]: drawn too general conclusions based on the results of the study. And then

there is the acknowledgements, and that's it! And I remembered everything. Oh, my gosh!

SPEAKER 3: You are some kind of information machine! What's wrong with you? That was amazing!

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