Capella Impact of Diversity & Cultural Competence in The Workplace Essay

Write a 6–8-page evaluation in which you describe a research topic (Please make sure that the topic is something relating to diversity in the workplace and cultural competency) that is an important aspect of your professional life or an issue related to your specialization that could benefit from research. This may be a topic that you can use later for the research project in your capstone course. Use five research articles you found on the topic as support, discuss why this research is needed from professional, practical, and scientific standpoints.Preparation

Identify a research topic related to your specialization, professional life, or area of interest, and locate at least five recent (within the past five years) research articles on your selected topic.Instructions

In 6–8 pages, write an evaluation in which you complete the following:Begin your paper with an introduction that explains the purpose of the paper and its contents.Identify and describe your research topic.Synthesize your professional experience and the articles you found on your topic to justify the importance of doing research on this topic. Discuss some of the limitations in the findings of the research articles you identified and how future research could add meaningful information to the knowledge base.Identify one or more theories used by researchers of your research topic. Discuss how future research could help advance theories in your field of study.Based on the designs used by researchers in the articles you found, discuss the research procedures that you think would be best in investigating the research topic.Explain why each component of scientific merit is important in determining the quality of research.End your paper with a summary and a conclusion.Additional RequirementsAs much as possible, the assessment should be written in your own words; it may include paraphrased information that is properly cited in the current APA style. If you need to quote, do so sparingly, and make sure you have cited quoted material according to the current APA style.Your assessment needs to demonstrate your understanding of the material, not how well you can quote someone else’s work.Write in a professional tone, without writing errors.Include a title page and references page, using the current APA style and format.Write 6–8 pages with 1-inch margins, plus a title page and references page. An abstract is not required.Include at least 5 current scholarly or professional resources.Use APA-style headings to organize your paper.Use Times New Roman font, 12 point.Double space.

Assessment 1 Context: Things that may assist with the writing question

In order for research to have scientific merit, it must achieve three things:It must contribute something new to the scientific knowledge base in the field—in this case, psychology. In order for research to do this, a researcher must conduct a thorough literature review to identify a research problem. A research problem is something that has not been addressed by previous research and would be meaningful to the field of psychology. Often, the research problem is referred to as a “gap in the literature.”The research must contribute to psychological theories in a particular field of study. Theories are the primary tools by which science organizes its knowledge—the tools that allow psychology researchers to explain previous and current findings and predict future ones. Research that has scientific merit can advance theories in several ways, including confirming, extending, refuting, or proposing theories.The research must meet the hallmarks of good research. This is the component that is most emphasized in this course as you learn about the defining characteristics of the two methodologies and the various approaches of both. A researcher who has conducted high-quality research has only met this criterion of scientific merit to the extent that the research design and procedures—such as sampling, data collection, and data analysis—allowed the research problem to be solved and the research questions to be answered.

It is crucial to remember that the purpose of research is to solve a research problem by investigating something that has not been previously researched—that is, to fill the gap in the literature. Research methods are simply tools that researchers use to do this. When researchers effectively use research methods to solve a research problem, then we can say that the research has met the hallmarks of good research.

Professionals in many fields are called upon to use research findings in the literature pertaining to that field. In order to do so, it is the responsibility of the researcher to evaluate the scientific merit of the research that produced those findings

While most research published in peer-reviewed journals can be trusted to have good scientific merit, it can be risky not to evaluate research for yourself, especially research findings most pertinent to your work and career.SCIENTIFIC MERITINTRODUCTION

Scientific merit is the degree of quality of a research study. When the scientific merit of a research study is high, this means that the research has contributed valuable, meaningful, and valid information to a scientific discipline. This presentation will explain the basic components of scientific merit so that you so that you can evaluate the work of others as well as your own.WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC MERIT

There are three dimensions to scientific merit, and each will be discussed in turn. The three dimensions include advancing the current knowledge base, contributing to theory, and meeting the hallmarks of good research.ADVANCE KNOWLEDGE BASE

The first requirement for research to have scientific merit, is that is must advance the knowledge base in the field of study. That is to say that for us to value the research, it must contribute new knowledge to one’s discipline, such as psychology. In order to determine whether research advances the knowledge base, we should ask, “Does the study address something that is not known or has not been studied before?” If the study only replicates previous findings, then it does not advance the knowledge base. In order to know whether or not research addresses something that has been studied before, you need to read and have an understanding of the literature, meaning the primary research articles on the topic. Knowledge represented in a literature review tells us what IS known. Once we understand what IS known, then we are in a position to see what is NOT known. The gap in the literature is also called the research problem. Research that is published in journal articles will present a pertinent literature review in the Introduction section of the article so that the reader can understand the current knowledge in the field.

We should also ask, “How does the research study make new contributions to the empirical knowledge base about the specific topic?” The manner in which information is gained in order for it to contribute to the knowledge base is important. Research in psychology must be empirical, which means the data collected is based upon observations that can be made and measured by anyone under the same conditions. We should also ask, “How is the research study extending the information to what is known in the literature already?” That is, we need to know how the research study connects to, relates to, or fits in, with other research findings. By extending information, we increase our depth of understanding about a phenomenon.

To evaluate how well the research advances the knowledge base, we might ask questions in layman’s terms such as: So what? Why is this research important? Who cares? Seriously, who is interested in the results of the study? Who is the intended audience, and how might they use the results? What change or new understanding do the findings bring? What does this study offer that is new and fresh? As an analogy, think of research findings as individual pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, how and where will this research finding—this piece—fit in? Will it help bridge a large gap, a small one? Is it a piece that will pull together several areas of the puzzle? Is it a piece that might go in a certain area of the puzzle, but not really connect to anything that’s already there? As the French scientific philosopher Henri Poincare noted, “Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science.” Therefore, part of understanding how well a research finding advances knowledge in the field depends on how it fits in with other findings.CONTRIBUTION TO THEORY

Theories are the foundation of a researcher’s toolkit. Theories provide the theoretical framework that underlies research and organize the observations that have been made regarding a particular phenomenon. We all have theories. For example, you might have a theory about effective parenting. Whether you are a parent or not, you have made observations of people parenting their children, seen movies or TV shows of the same, heard about others’ experience, and read books. If you are a parent, you have direct experience with parenting. As we make observations, we think about what is being observed. We organize our thoughts in such a way that beliefs, attitudes, and opinions are formed about phenomenon. These beliefs, attitudes and opinions that are formed from our thoughts about observations can be used to formulate theories about how and why things occur. Researchers use theories as the basis of their research studies; testing, advancing, extending, and even creating new theories that provide insight into a particular phenomenon.

The second dimension used to evaluate scientific merit is the degree to which the research contributes to theory. There are various ways in which research can do this. We might ask if the research provides evidence that generates a brand new theory. We might also ask, does the research finding refine or add to an existing theory? Theories are never perfect, and they are always open to verification. So we might also ask, does the research test to confirm or refute current theory? And last, we could ask, “Does the research expand theory by telling us something new about how it can be applies?” Some theories lend themselves well to practical applications, such as therapy or education. Research might contribute to theory by showing how the theory might be applied in a certain context.HALLMARKS OF GOOD RESEARCH

Like most other human endeavors, research can be well done, or poorly done. Obviously, research that is done well has more scientific merit than research that is done poorly. But how can we evaluate whether research is good? Simply put, research is good when it is based upon sound methodology. Specifically, we can look at whether the research meets certain hallmarks of good research. The first question is, “Can the study answer the research questions with the design and method proposed?” That is to say, the research Questions must address the research problem (the gap in the literature). Furthermore, the research questions must help solve the research problem. The methodology should logically follow the research questions. You might think of the research questions as a direct bridge between the research problem, the gap in the literature, and the actual research study.

The second question is, “Are the research questions aligned with the selection of the design, method, instruments/measures, and data analysis?” In other words, does everything match up? Do the research questions logically correspond to the design and method? Are the instruments used to collect the data appropriate to the methodology and design, and do the instruments generate data that can be used to answer the research questions? Is the data analysis appropriate? Will the data analysis give the researcher an answer to the research question? Notice that what makes research good is not the results that were generated by the study but how the study was conducted, more specifically the methodology, and how well the methodology answers the research questions, which in turn helps solve the research problem.

The third question asks, “Is the study ethically sound?” All research must meet the ethical standards put in place by a researcher’s Institutional Review Board, or IRB, guidelines and regulation required by the American Psychological Association, and federal law. As part of your training as a Capella graduate student, you are required to undergo special training through the CITI program to help ensure you understand the ethical standards required when performing research. How is scientific merit related to ethics?SCIENTIFIC MERIT AND ETHICS

Besides the requirements regarding the ethical treatment of research participants, such as giving informed consent, there is the additional requirement that the research be scientifically valid. If research does not advance the knowledge base, does not contribute to theory, and does not meet the hallmark of utilizing sound scientific methodology, then it is unethical to do the research. Stated another way, it is unethical to do bad or unnecessary research. As Pilkington wrote in 2002, “If a study does not hold substantial promise of answering a significant question, thereby generating valuable knowledge, then there is no justification for exposing persons to the actual or potential risks and inconvenience of participation.”SUMMARY

To summarize, there are the three dimensions of scientific merit. First, the research must advance the knowledge base of the field by contributing new, meaningful information that connects to other findings in the field. Second, the research must make a contribution to theory by providing research evidence that forms the basis of a new theory, or adds to, extends, tests, or demonstrates the applicability of current theory. Third, research must meet certain hallmarks of good research. The hallmarks include the degree to which the research methods are appropriate for answering the research question, and whether the research is ethically sound.

Whether you plan to do your own research or not in the future, it is imperative that as a professional in psychology, you understand as much as possible about the research process. As a professional, you will make use of research findings as part of your work. In order to use them correctly, it is your responsibility to learn about the processes involved in conducting research and how to evaluate scientific merit. You are encouraged to visit these Capella sites to enhance your understanding of research.