Research Strategies for Studying Behavioral Health

Vocabulary flashcards reviewing fundamental concepts in behavioral health research strategies, article types, empirical report structure, and research search engines.

Research question

The first and most general step in the research process, which must be specific enough that a research project can answer it.

Hypothesis

A tentative answer to a research question.

Prediction

A testable guess about the outcome of a study that follows directly from a hypothesis and includes specific variables and methodologies.

Common sense

A source of research ideas consisting of things we all believe to be true.

Practical problems

A source of research ideas arising from real-world issues that can have immediate practical applications.

Theory

A systematic set of ideas about a topic or phenomenon grounded in actual data from prior research that organizes/explains facts and generates new knowledge.

Literature review

A type of journal article that summarizes previous research on a particular topic without collecting new data or presenting new empirical research.

Meta-analysis

A technique related to literature reviews that uses statistical procedures to analyze results of several studies and draw statistical conclusions.

Theory article

A type of journal article that summarizes and integrates existing research to propose a new conceptual framework.

Empirical research article

A type of journal article that reports on studies where data were gathered and analyzed to answer research questions, contributing new empirical knowledge to the field.

Abstract

A brief summary of a research report (typically 150-250 words in length) summarizing the hypothesis, procedure, and main results or key findings.

Introduction section

The section of an empirical research article that outlines the problem investigated, describes past research and relevant theories, and states formal hypotheses.

Methods section

The section of an empirical research article divided into subsections (such as participants, procedures, and data analysis) detailing how the study was designed and conducted.

Results section

The section of an empirical research article presenting findings through narrative description, statistical language, and tables or graphs.

Discussion section

The section of an empirical research article where the researcher reviews the study from various perspectives, explaining whether results support hypotheses, comparing findings to past research, and addressing practical applications.

Literature cited

A bibliographical list at the end of an article detailing peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and other publications cited throughout the paper.

Peer review

A process in which submitted manuscripts are evaluated by experts in the field to help ensure that high-quality research is published.

File drawer phenomenon

The occurrence where study findings that do not reach statistical significance ($p < .05$) remain unpublished, potentially leading to publication bias.

PubMed

A search database maintained by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Library of Medicine comprising over 36 million citations for biomedical literature.

APA PsycINFO

A searchable digital database of article abstracts in psychology, indexed by topic and maintained by the American Psychological Association.

Google Scholar

A specialized search engine dedicated specifically to locating scholarly literature and sources.

Web of Science and Scopus

Online databases that feature "key article" forward searching, allowing researchers to generate lists of all papers that cite a specific relevant study.