chapter
1
Introduction
to Research
in Physical Activity
Chapter Outline
• The nature of research
• Unscientific versus scientific methods of
problem solving
• Alternative models of research
• Types of research
• Overview of the research process
Five Characteristics of Research
• Systematic: plan, identify, design, collect
data, evaluate.
• Logical: examine procedures to evaluate
conclusions.
• Empirical: decisions are based on data.
• Reductive: general relationships are
established from data.
• Replicable: actions are recorded.
Continuum of Basic
to Applied Research
• Level I—Basic research
– Goal: Theory-driven
– Approach: Laboratory
• Level II—Moderate relevance
– Goal: Theory-based using relevant movements
– Approach: Similar to real-world task or setting
• Level III—Applied research
– Goal: Immediate solutions
– Approach: Real-world settings
Quality Research Involves
• Identifying and delimiting the problem
• Searching, reviewing, and writing about the
literature
• Specifying and defining testable hypotheses
• Designing research to test the hypotheses
• Selecting, describing, testing, and treating the
participants
• Analyzing and reporting the results
• Discussing the meaning and implications of the
findings
Reading Research
•
•
•
•
•
•
Become familiar with relevant publications.
Read studies of interest.
Read as a practitioner would.
Read the abstract first.
Don’t worry too much about the statistics.
Be critical but objective.
Unscientific Methods
of Problem Solving
•
•
•
•
•
Tenacity
Intuition
Authority
The rationalistic method
The empirical method
Scientific Method
of Problem Solving
• Step 1: developing the problem (defining
and delimiting it)
• Step 2: formulating the hypotheses
• Step 3: gathering the data
• Step 4: analyzing and interpreting results
Alternative Models of Research
• Normal science
– Previously useful theories
– Scientific method
• Challenges to normal science
– Inconsistent findings
– Alternative interpretations
• Paradigm shifts
– New theories
– New methods
• How knowledge is advanced
Types of Research
• Analytical
–
–
–
–
Historical
Philosophic
Reviews
Research synthesis (meta-analysis)
• Descriptive research
– Questionnaire
– Interview
– Normative survey
Types of Research
• Other types of descriptive research
–
–
–
–
–
Case study
Job analysis
Observational research
Developmental studies
Correlational studies
• Epidemiologic research
• Experimental research–establishes cause and
effect
• Qualitative research–uses a different paradigm
Model for Research
Parts of a Thesis
• Proposal : Research plan
– Introduction
• Problem and hypotheses
– Literature review
– Method
•
•
•
•
Participants
Instruments and measurements
Procedures
Design and analysis
• Completing the thesis
– Results
– Discussion and conclusions