Research Methods for Social Epidemiology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Research Methods for brotherly Epidemiology - Essay ExampleObservational research involves descriptive and analytical studies. First, participant observation (in which the observer is taken for granted(predicate) to and involved with the subjects) is less valid than a questionnaire would be for sensitive data. Second, the observers expectations affect what he or she sees and reports, trim down the validity of the data. Validity is thus diminished when the observer reports seeing either everything or nonhing. In its turn, data-based epidemiology involves the following types of research descriptive studies, ecological studies fallacy, cross sectional studies and cohort studies (Oakes and Kaufman 2006).In participant observation, the police detective is a regular participant in the activities being observed while in non-participant observations, the researcher is not a participant in the ongoing activities being observed. Second, structuring the observation increases validity by f ocusing the wariness of the observers on certain characteristics and events. Third, placing the observation on a scientific foundation by stating a hypothesis up front increases validity by avoiding distortion. Using observation only for studying those epidemiological phenomena that argon appropriate to this method (e.g., nonverbal behaviors and social interactions) increases validity (Beaglehole et al 2007).In contrast to observational epidemiology, experimental design involves ra