- Explain the nature and advantages of experimentation in health psychology and epidemiological research, with specific examples that demonstrate your understanding
Research alludes to a systematic investigation that aims at contributing to generalizable knowledge. It includes biomedical research, epidemiological studies, the healthcare services research, as well as other factors that impact health. One of the most common methods of health psychology and epidemiological research is clinical trials (Gostin, Levit & Nass, 2009). In the process, patient volunteers to participate in a study to test the efficiency of the new medical mediations being unveiled. The analysis of data, as well as samples collected to aid in diagnostics, treatment, and billing, are used for the research. The latter is used to determine disease occurrences, surveillance of drug safety as well as other genetic studies. The advantage of the experimentation is that it can provide essential information regarding the trend of the disease, the risk factors, the results of the medical interventions applied, the patterns of the health care as well as the costs associated with it.
- Ignoring for the moment any ethical or practical constraints, how might you design a study that would conclusively settle the question of whether smoking causes cancer?
Cancer is considered to be causally related to tobacco smoking. However, this consideration is based on current epidemiological evidence. To study whether conclusively smoking causes cancer, first, I would identify a sample to conduct the research on. The example will be individuals whom I am conversant with their smoking history. I would then draft a questionnaire based on smoking habits and send it to my identified sample for filling. I would record the number of smokers in percentages. Later, I would send other questionnaires occasionally detailing about the smoking behavior changes of the already identified sample and note the number of responses. I would scale the level of responses on percentage and indicate the level of reduction in the rate of reaction over the years. For the individuals who fail to respond due to deaths, I will gather information on the causes of their deaths.