The final results of a major international study of the potential link between cellphone use and cancer were published last week. The finding: Using a cellphone seems to protect against two types of brain tumors.
Even the researchers didn't quite believe it.
The apparent shield of cellphone radiation, most likely fictitious, illustrates how hard it is to analyze, let alone quantify, the potential for a small elevated risk in a rare disease from a widespread, mundane activity.
"They found that ever having used a cellphone appeared to be protective [against] brain cancer," says David O. Carpenter, director of the University at Albany's Institute for Health and the Environment, in Albany, N.Y. "And that just simply makes no sense."
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NUMGUY
Reuters
A trader attached to his phone. A bumpy study shows how hard it is to gauge the impact of a widespread activity on the risk for a rare disease.
NUMGUY
NUMGUY
The Numbers Guy Blog
* The Search for Cellphone-Tumor Link
The study was funded in part by the Mobile Manufacturers' Forum and GSM Association, two wireless industry groups. The researchers had protections in place they say guarded their independence. Most criticisms of the study haven't focused on the funding.
The researchers conducting the study, which was called Interphone, were flummoxed at nearly every turn. They tried to find a control group that matched participants who had suffered a brain tumor, but potential subjects were reluctant to participate, for various reasons. Then there were subtle behavioral differences between individuals with and without brain tumors. Internal squabbling over how to interpret the results delayed publication for so long that usage patterns of study participants didn't match those of mobile users today.
The Interphone researchers acknowledged in their resulting paper, published online last week by the International Journal of Epidemiology, that something had probably gone wrong with the controls.
The study tracked cellphone use across 13 countries. It looked at a group of adults 30 to 59 years old who had been diagnosed with glioma or meningioma, types of brain tumors that can be either benign or malignant, between 2000 and 2004. They were compared with control subjects, people selected to match the individuals with tumors in terms of age, gender and place of residence.
Then both groups were interviewed extensively about their cellphone use. If the two groups matched in other ways, and the group with brain tumors used cellphones more frequently, that would suggest that cellphone use might have caused the tumors.
But they didn't really match. For one thing, just 53% of people selected to participate as controls agreed, and a survey of those who declined showed that they were less likely to use cellphones than those who participated. That may have artificially raised cellphone use in the tumor-free control group and made mobile phones seem less dangerous than they are.
The result is a strange set of numbers. Many levels of cellphone use appeared to reduce the chance of developing a tumor. Only the people who talked on cellphones the most had a significantly greater chance of developing glioma—40% greater—than those who didn't use cellphones.
Yet, as some of the study's authors themselves pointed out, if those who never used cellphones—who were more prevalent among those with tumors—were excluded, and the lightest users were contrasted with the more avid ones, then the bizarre protective effect of cellphone use mostly disappeared, and the risk among the heaviest users was 82% greater.
[NUMBGUY_cell]
Even in this analysis, the risk doesn't steadily increase with use, which is what epidemiologists typically look for—a discernible dose-response relationship. "It's certainly less compelling than if you saw some kind of graded response," says David A. Savitz, director of the Disease Prevention and Public Health Institute at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
Disputes about how to interpret these numbers held up publication of the research, says Christopher Wild, director of the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer, in Lyon, which coordinated the study. The study was published more than six years after its conclusion, by which time cellphone use had both surged and changed.
"Interphone made more effort than most other studies to identify and quantify its own flaws," says co-author Martine Vrijheid, a researcher at the agency. "It has thereby also attracted more attention to these flaws."
A U.K. study under way will take a different approach, tracking cellphone users over time to see if heavy use is tied to a greater incidence of cancer. But the study will still need to enlist hundreds of thousands of volunteers to yield useful results, and it could take decades to spot any divergence in cancer rates.
Epidemiologists say such research may be difficult and expensive but is important.
"Even if you think it's very, very unlikely that it's a problem," Dr. Savitz says, "it's always worth some effort to make sure you haven't done something really terrible" as a society by enabling widespread cellphone use. Such open questions, and the difficulty of solving them, he says, "keep epidemiologists in business for a long time."
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
First Half Final Spring 2010
Linda Freedman, LCSW, LMFT, PhD
Final Exam, May 18, 2010
The author of Freakonomics looks critically at previous research and then presents questions for new research.
Choose any of the chapters discussed in Freakonomics, reread it, and address the questions below.
(1) What is the research question in the chapter?
(2-3-4) Name are three variables of study?
(5-6-7) How is each measured (operationalized)?
(8) What was the theory driving the research?
(9) What did the researcher expect to find, based upon the theory?
(10) State what the researcher expected to find in the form of a hypothesis.
(11) What were the ethical issues in the study, if there were any?
The following is a problem that begs research. Your job is design a qualitative study for inquiry.
Juvenile delinquency and adolescent fatherhood are highly correlated, and both predict future continued involvement in the criminal justice system.
Approximately one-quarter of teens who break the law (males) become fathers before they are twenty years old, as opposed to 4-7% of the general teenage male populace.
Because the offenders who are also dads are incarcerated, this poses economic and social problems to the mothers of these children, and puts children at risk.
A lit review tells us that quantitative data indicates that young father offenders also repeat crimes at a higher rate than offenders who are not fathers. But qualitative studies indicate that being a father is a reason these young dads proffer as an incentive not to repeat crimes.
It would seem that there need be more inquiry into the beliefs of incarcerated teenage fathers about their roles as fathers, and their transition into paternal roles in light of their criminal involvement.
The literature also suggests that (a) offenders who form strong bonds in the workplace and have marital partners tend to desist from crime at a higher rate than offenders who do not form such bonds, (b) being in jail interrupts that bonding process, and this often has to do with problems between the child's mother and the offending teenage father, and (c) mothers often discouraged a relationship between the offending father and his child.
Now.
(12-13-14) Pose three questions for the subjects of your study that you feel will inform professionals about this issue.
(15-16) Assume you have access to 29 incarcerated young men, 9 of whom are fathers, 7 of whom have files that already contain data about their attitudes and experiences. Some might choose only to use these 7. Why? What kind of methodology is that?
(17-18-19) How will you collect date if you use the incarcerated men?
(20-21-22) What kinds of themes (name five) do you guess will be coded when you begin to analyze your data?
(23) What kinds of ethical issues do you anticipate?
A random study of NASW members explored violence in the workplace. Three thousand members were queried to participate, but only 1029 returned their surveys.
The researcher used a modified version of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2) to measure physical and psychological assault. Questionnaires asked the respondents which of the specific acts or events they had ever experienced, had experienced in the past year, and how many times they had experienced each act in the past year, a total of 20 items on the scale. Respondents were asked about being both a victim and a perpetrator.
(24) What do you think of that return rate?
(25) Name one internal validity issue that strikes you as a problem using this instrument, the CTS2.
(26) How do you imagine the researcher checked for reliability of the CTS2?
Before querying social workers, the researcher did a literature review and found that studies indicated between 42%-62% of the social workers studied had been verbally abused; 17%-25% were physically threatened, and 3-23% had been physically assaulted, depending upon the study.
The results of this study, however, found an overwhelming number of social workers had experienced violence in the workplace (most were in private practice, by the way)-- 86%. And one quarter were perpetrators in some way or another!
(27-28-29) Why do you think there seems to be a jump in the numbers? Do you feel there might be a reliability or validity issue? If so, what kind?
(30-31) What kind of a study was this? Which research design, what type?
(32-33) What was the risk/benefit, (IRB consideration) you would have to tell your subjects about before you started your inquiry.
Good Luck!
Final Exam, May 18, 2010
The author of Freakonomics looks critically at previous research and then presents questions for new research.
Choose any of the chapters discussed in Freakonomics, reread it, and address the questions below.
(1) What is the research question in the chapter?
(2-3-4) Name are three variables of study?
(5-6-7) How is each measured (operationalized)?
(8) What was the theory driving the research?
(9) What did the researcher expect to find, based upon the theory?
(10) State what the researcher expected to find in the form of a hypothesis.
(11) What were the ethical issues in the study, if there were any?
The following is a problem that begs research. Your job is design a qualitative study for inquiry.
Juvenile delinquency and adolescent fatherhood are highly correlated, and both predict future continued involvement in the criminal justice system.
Approximately one-quarter of teens who break the law (males) become fathers before they are twenty years old, as opposed to 4-7% of the general teenage male populace.
Because the offenders who are also dads are incarcerated, this poses economic and social problems to the mothers of these children, and puts children at risk.
A lit review tells us that quantitative data indicates that young father offenders also repeat crimes at a higher rate than offenders who are not fathers. But qualitative studies indicate that being a father is a reason these young dads proffer as an incentive not to repeat crimes.
It would seem that there need be more inquiry into the beliefs of incarcerated teenage fathers about their roles as fathers, and their transition into paternal roles in light of their criminal involvement.
The literature also suggests that (a) offenders who form strong bonds in the workplace and have marital partners tend to desist from crime at a higher rate than offenders who do not form such bonds, (b) being in jail interrupts that bonding process, and this often has to do with problems between the child's mother and the offending teenage father, and (c) mothers often discouraged a relationship between the offending father and his child.
Now.
(12-13-14) Pose three questions for the subjects of your study that you feel will inform professionals about this issue.
(15-16) Assume you have access to 29 incarcerated young men, 9 of whom are fathers, 7 of whom have files that already contain data about their attitudes and experiences. Some might choose only to use these 7. Why? What kind of methodology is that?
(17-18-19) How will you collect date if you use the incarcerated men?
(20-21-22) What kinds of themes (name five) do you guess will be coded when you begin to analyze your data?
(23) What kinds of ethical issues do you anticipate?
A random study of NASW members explored violence in the workplace. Three thousand members were queried to participate, but only 1029 returned their surveys.
The researcher used a modified version of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2) to measure physical and psychological assault. Questionnaires asked the respondents which of the specific acts or events they had ever experienced, had experienced in the past year, and how many times they had experienced each act in the past year, a total of 20 items on the scale. Respondents were asked about being both a victim and a perpetrator.
(24) What do you think of that return rate?
(25) Name one internal validity issue that strikes you as a problem using this instrument, the CTS2.
(26) How do you imagine the researcher checked for reliability of the CTS2?
Before querying social workers, the researcher did a literature review and found that studies indicated between 42%-62% of the social workers studied had been verbally abused; 17%-25% were physically threatened, and 3-23% had been physically assaulted, depending upon the study.
The results of this study, however, found an overwhelming number of social workers had experienced violence in the workplace (most were in private practice, by the way)-- 86%. And one quarter were perpetrators in some way or another!
(27-28-29) Why do you think there seems to be a jump in the numbers? Do you feel there might be a reliability or validity issue? If so, what kind?
(30-31) What kind of a study was this? Which research design, what type?
(32-33) What was the risk/benefit, (IRB consideration) you would have to tell your subjects about before you started your inquiry.
Good Luck!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Breakdown of Reading Assignments
3/16 pp. 201-304
(ch 10) Constructing Measurement Instruments, causal inference and correlational designs, threats to internal validity, external validity
(ch 11) Experimental designs
(ch 12) Single-case evaluation designs
3/23 pp. 305-414
(ch 13) Program evaluation
(ch 14) Sampling
(ch 15) Survey research
April 17 at the Institute: pp. 390-476
(ch 16) Analyzing available records
(ch 17) qualitative research: General Principals
(ch18) Qualitative research: Specific Methods
(ch 19) Qualitative Data Analysis
5/4 pp. 477-523
(ch 20) Quantitative Data Analysis
ALSO: Read Freakonomics
5/18 pp. 524-632
(ch 21) Inferential Data Analysis Part 1
(ch 22) Inferential Data Analysis Part 2
(ch 23) Writing research proposals
Appendix Using the Library
Statistics for estimating sampling error
Proportion under Normal Curve exceeded by Effect-Size Values
Learner’s guide to SPSS
(ch 10) Constructing Measurement Instruments, causal inference and correlational designs, threats to internal validity, external validity
(ch 11) Experimental designs
(ch 12) Single-case evaluation designs
3/23 pp. 305-414
(ch 13) Program evaluation
(ch 14) Sampling
(ch 15) Survey research
April 17 at the Institute: pp. 390-476
(ch 16) Analyzing available records
(ch 17) qualitative research: General Principals
(ch18) Qualitative research: Specific Methods
(ch 19) Qualitative Data Analysis
5/4 pp. 477-523
(ch 20) Quantitative Data Analysis
ALSO: Read Freakonomics
5/18 pp. 524-632
(ch 21) Inferential Data Analysis Part 1
(ch 22) Inferential Data Analysis Part 2
(ch 23) Writing research proposals
Appendix Using the Library
Statistics for estimating sampling error
Proportion under Normal Curve exceeded by Effect-Size Values
Learner’s guide to SPSS
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Syllabus for Spring 2010
RM 512 Research Process, Distance Learning
Fall 2009
Linda Freedman, LCSW, LMFT, PhD
Office: 773-271-7111
Distance Learning students are scheduled for two sessions on-site at ICSW.
Our usual time will be Tuesdays, 8:00-10:00 pm. Due to the Jewish holiday of Passover, however, our March 30 class will be on March 23. I switched with Dr. Sarasohn.
At the Institute: Feb 14, April 18.
ONLINE: Mar 2, 16, 23, May 4,18 June 1
Readings in Rubin and Babbie
3-16-10: pps. 201-304
3-23-10 pps. 305-414
5-04-10 pps. 415-523 AND read Freakonomics (not the latest edition)
5-18-10 pps. 524-632
Class quizzes will be on March 16 and May 4. You will be able to collaborate on these quizzes.
You'll have a take-home final on May 18, due May 25. Part II of the final will be in-class final on June 1. You won't be able to collaborate on Part II, and shouldn't collaborate on the take-home, either. But that's obviously going to be up to you. You're on your honor.
The final will cover both semesters, so review the first semester's notes to prepare.
Attendance:
This course is taught virtually in a lecture/discussion format on the web.
Be prepared to participate, please because class participation will make up 20% of your grade.
For students who miss more than one class session, except in a documented personal emergency, the overall course grade will be lowered one level. Students who miss more than two class sessions will automatically fail the course. In cases of personal emergency, the student will be asked to withdraw from the course and retake it the following academic year.
Required Texts & Readings
American Psychological Association (2009). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association ( 6th Ed.). Washington D.C.: Author.
Rubin, A. & Babbie, E. Research methods for social work (2nd or 6th
Eds.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.
Levitt, S. D., Dubner, S. J., Freakonomics: a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything Rev. ed. paperback.
Recommended:
Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1990 or later edition). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Locke, L.F., Spirduso, W. W., & Silverman, S. J. (1993). Proposals that work. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Institute for Clinical Social Work web page – http://www.icsw.edu
I'll email you additional readings.
Please note: Required readings and assignments will be posted on the class blog, along with an updated syllabus. It is your responsibility to check often for revisions. You can always email me if you aren’t sure of a class meeting or time. Here’s the URL to the blog. http://icswrp.blogspot.com
Course Description
The purpose of this course is to continue to provide incoming PhD students the opportunity to familiarize themselves and become comfortable with the research process, particularly the doctoral research process.
The underlying aim is to assist students as they design mock-up research proposals. In class, and on the final, students will:
(1) explore problems important to the field of social work
(2) pose research questions about such problems
(3) suggest hypotheses based upon theory
(4) define and operationalize variables
(5) define measurement strategies
(6) propose data collection methodology
(7) know how to present and disseminate research findings.
This course will not provide students with expertise in any one-research area, but will provide a good foundation for further study and education. The hope is to promote flexibility in future research endeavors.
Learning will be a collaborative effort, drawing upon the experiences and expertise of all class members—. 40% of your class grade is based upon weekly quizzes that you will work on together in class time. If you miss the class, you lose these points. I’m sorry.
Other Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:
• Promote critical analytic skills for developing, implementing, and critiquing research
problems and questions appropriate to all levels of practice, including practice at work sites.
• Select appropriate quantitative and qualitative approaches to guide research on a particular topic, including the use of available data, experimental and quasi-experimental designs, surveys, intensive interviewing, and participant observation.
• Implement procedures for assuring the ethical conduct of research, including the necessity of obtaining informed consent; inclusion of safeguards to insure the confidentiality of research data; assurance of voluntary participation in research; and an appreciation for not using vulnerable populations as research subjects just because they may be more available.
• Use current technology, including the Internet and a variety of existing social science and social work databases for understanding specific human conditions and biopsychosocial interventions.
• Design studies that contribute to knowledge about social work clients, practice, and policy.
• Critique existing research in terms of its ability to rule out other possible explanations for findings.
• Critique existing research in terms of its relevance and generalizability, particularly to women, racial, ethnic, other minority groups, and people from different socioeconomic classes.
• Evaluate research according to principles of social justice, cultural competence, and utility.
• Develop procedures for coping with organizational and sociopolitical issues in agency-based research concerning such issues as how research projects get framed to how data access can be affected.
Course Expectations:
Students are expected to complete assigned readings in advance of class meetings.
We won’t necessarily discuss the readings in class, but you are expected to know the material. For example, you will read the entire APA style citation manual, and you should be able to use it, but we’re not spending time in class on it because it is self-explanatory. But you may be asked to use it on the final.
All students will be held accountable for adhering to academic and nonacademic standards of conduct as described in the ICSW Student Handbook, available on the ICSW website.
Accommodations for Students with Disabilities:
Accommodations will be made for students with disabilities. Students needing accommodations for any type of disability must do the following:
1. Go to the ICSW Office of Disability Services to obtain confidential verification of the disability and a statement of accommodations recommended by that office.
2. Show the ICSW Office of Disability Services accommodation letter to the instructor of the class for which the student requests accommodation.
3. Show the accommodation letter to the instructor at the beginning of the course or before the start of the course.
Questions and Concerns:
I am willing to discuss problems about course work during the week. Please do not try to contract me on Friday nights or Saturdays (the Jewish Sabbath) or Jewish holidays, even if you have what you think is an emergency about a grade. I will understand and make exceptions for you about assignments if you email. Do not hesitate to ask for clarification about anything having to do with this class.
Assignments, Tests, & Grading
The only assignments are your readings.
Class participation 20% of the grade
Class quizzes, 40%
Finals at the end of each semester, 40%
Fall 2009
Linda Freedman, LCSW, LMFT, PhD
Office: 773-271-7111
Distance Learning students are scheduled for two sessions on-site at ICSW.
Our usual time will be Tuesdays, 8:00-10:00 pm. Due to the Jewish holiday of Passover, however, our March 30 class will be on March 23. I switched with Dr. Sarasohn.
At the Institute: Feb 14, April 18.
ONLINE: Mar 2, 16, 23, May 4,18 June 1
Readings in Rubin and Babbie
3-16-10: pps. 201-304
3-23-10 pps. 305-414
5-04-10 pps. 415-523 AND read Freakonomics (not the latest edition)
5-18-10 pps. 524-632
Class quizzes will be on March 16 and May 4. You will be able to collaborate on these quizzes.
You'll have a take-home final on May 18, due May 25. Part II of the final will be in-class final on June 1. You won't be able to collaborate on Part II, and shouldn't collaborate on the take-home, either. But that's obviously going to be up to you. You're on your honor.
The final will cover both semesters, so review the first semester's notes to prepare.
Attendance:
This course is taught virtually in a lecture/discussion format on the web.
Be prepared to participate, please because class participation will make up 20% of your grade.
For students who miss more than one class session, except in a documented personal emergency, the overall course grade will be lowered one level. Students who miss more than two class sessions will automatically fail the course. In cases of personal emergency, the student will be asked to withdraw from the course and retake it the following academic year.
Required Texts & Readings
American Psychological Association (2009). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association ( 6th Ed.). Washington D.C.: Author.
Rubin, A. & Babbie, E. Research methods for social work (2nd or 6th
Eds.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.
Levitt, S. D., Dubner, S. J., Freakonomics: a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything Rev. ed. paperback.
Recommended:
Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1990 or later edition). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Locke, L.F., Spirduso, W. W., & Silverman, S. J. (1993). Proposals that work. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Institute for Clinical Social Work web page – http://www.icsw.edu
I'll email you additional readings.
Please note: Required readings and assignments will be posted on the class blog, along with an updated syllabus. It is your responsibility to check often for revisions. You can always email me if you aren’t sure of a class meeting or time. Here’s the URL to the blog. http://icswrp.blogspot.com
Course Description
The purpose of this course is to continue to provide incoming PhD students the opportunity to familiarize themselves and become comfortable with the research process, particularly the doctoral research process.
The underlying aim is to assist students as they design mock-up research proposals. In class, and on the final, students will:
(1) explore problems important to the field of social work
(2) pose research questions about such problems
(3) suggest hypotheses based upon theory
(4) define and operationalize variables
(5) define measurement strategies
(6) propose data collection methodology
(7) know how to present and disseminate research findings.
This course will not provide students with expertise in any one-research area, but will provide a good foundation for further study and education. The hope is to promote flexibility in future research endeavors.
Learning will be a collaborative effort, drawing upon the experiences and expertise of all class members—. 40% of your class grade is based upon weekly quizzes that you will work on together in class time. If you miss the class, you lose these points. I’m sorry.
Other Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:
• Promote critical analytic skills for developing, implementing, and critiquing research
problems and questions appropriate to all levels of practice, including practice at work sites.
• Select appropriate quantitative and qualitative approaches to guide research on a particular topic, including the use of available data, experimental and quasi-experimental designs, surveys, intensive interviewing, and participant observation.
• Implement procedures for assuring the ethical conduct of research, including the necessity of obtaining informed consent; inclusion of safeguards to insure the confidentiality of research data; assurance of voluntary participation in research; and an appreciation for not using vulnerable populations as research subjects just because they may be more available.
• Use current technology, including the Internet and a variety of existing social science and social work databases for understanding specific human conditions and biopsychosocial interventions.
• Design studies that contribute to knowledge about social work clients, practice, and policy.
• Critique existing research in terms of its ability to rule out other possible explanations for findings.
• Critique existing research in terms of its relevance and generalizability, particularly to women, racial, ethnic, other minority groups, and people from different socioeconomic classes.
• Evaluate research according to principles of social justice, cultural competence, and utility.
• Develop procedures for coping with organizational and sociopolitical issues in agency-based research concerning such issues as how research projects get framed to how data access can be affected.
Course Expectations:
Students are expected to complete assigned readings in advance of class meetings.
We won’t necessarily discuss the readings in class, but you are expected to know the material. For example, you will read the entire APA style citation manual, and you should be able to use it, but we’re not spending time in class on it because it is self-explanatory. But you may be asked to use it on the final.
All students will be held accountable for adhering to academic and nonacademic standards of conduct as described in the ICSW Student Handbook, available on the ICSW website.
Accommodations for Students with Disabilities:
Accommodations will be made for students with disabilities. Students needing accommodations for any type of disability must do the following:
1. Go to the ICSW Office of Disability Services to obtain confidential verification of the disability and a statement of accommodations recommended by that office.
2. Show the ICSW Office of Disability Services accommodation letter to the instructor of the class for which the student requests accommodation.
3. Show the accommodation letter to the instructor at the beginning of the course or before the start of the course.
Questions and Concerns:
I am willing to discuss problems about course work during the week. Please do not try to contract me on Friday nights or Saturdays (the Jewish Sabbath) or Jewish holidays, even if you have what you think is an emergency about a grade. I will understand and make exceptions for you about assignments if you email. Do not hesitate to ask for clarification about anything having to do with this class.
Assignments, Tests, & Grading
The only assignments are your readings.
Class participation 20% of the grade
Class quizzes, 40%
Finals at the end of each semester, 40%
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