Evidence Based Research : Dilemmas and Debates in Health Care Inquiry

by Brown, Brian; Crawford, Paul; Hicks, Carolyn

• ISBN13: 9780335211647
• ISBN10: 033521164X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-12-01
• Publisher: Open University Press

Summary

"A most valuable resource setting health care research into a contemporary philosophical setting" Dr Colin Thunhurst, Course Director, University College Cork* Why is the philosophy of science important for health care research?* What impact do world-views and paradigms have on the research process and the knowledge it generates?* Why do some kinds of concepts get replaced by others?This book covers the major perspectives in the philosophy of science and critically discusses their relevance to health care research, using examples of paradigms, concepts, theories and research findings in the health sciences. It makes sense of the bewildering variety of assumptions, world-views and epistemiological implications of the different research methods. It enables the reader to become an informed consumer of scholarship on health care issues.The authors describe how health care research has been influenced by positivistic and interpretative approaches, and how it has recently been challenged by postmodernist philosophies. All of these approaches have research methods aligned with them which have taken their place in the panoply of tools at the disposal of the health scientist. Written in a clear and accessible style, Evidence-Based Research demonstrates how the different philosophical bases to research impact in real-life health care work and research. It is key reading for the growing number of people involved in health care research in universities and health settings, and is particularly suitable for advanced undergraduate and masters students researching in the health care sciences.

Author Biography

Brian Brown has worked as an emergency 24 hour lecturing service in a number of Midlands universities before joining De Montfort where he is programme leader in psychology.

Paul Crawford trained as a psychiatric nurse before completing a PhD in English Literature at the University of Birmingham. He is author of the critically acclaimed novel, Nothing Purple, Nothing Black and a work of literary criticism, Politics and History in William Golding.

Carolyn Hicks has pursued a long and distinguished career spanning disciplines such as educational psychology, health psychology and health service studies. At Birmingham university she combines her interests in these topics by specializing in the study of education for health service personnel and is involved in producing educational materials for health care researchers.

Table of Contents

Introduction: theories of science and theories of society
Epistemology I: positivism they dont build epistemologies like that any more
Concepts and theories I: what is a concept in the health sciences?
Concepts and theories II: operationalism and its legacy
The philosophy of experimentation
Experiments in medicine and the health sciences
Epistemology II: interpretationand hermeneutics
Philosophies of description
The post-modernist challenge
Philosophy and research design in practice
References
Index.