{"id":325,"date":"2016-06-28T12:49:03","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T17:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/ryanjessup\/?page_id=325"},"modified":"2020-09-02T21:32:04","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T02:32:04","slug":"reflection-on-approach-to-research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/rkj95n\/reflection-on-approach-to-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflection on Approach to Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Research: The corps of discovery<\/em><\/p>\n

Even if I needed no job at all, I would conduct research merely for the thrill of discovery. \u00a0When I begin working with a new research assistant I explain to them that researchers are like explorers, the Lewises and Clarks of knowledge. \u00a0In contrast, people who convey information to others but never conduct research \u2013 e.g., medical doctors or teachers \u2013 are like Stephen F. Austin: they lead people to established ground. \u00a0Without doubt, both roles are certainly valuable and many clearly prefer the latter whereas my preference is for the former. \u00a0 As for me, I love the feeling of being the first person to ever have observed or understood something. \u00a0I love designing an air-tight research design \u2013 or as reasonably air tight as can be expected \u2013 and I get a thrill when finding a statistically significant effect predicted solely by a theory that I have proposed.\u00a0 When I find such an effect, it is like finding my own piece of land on which no person could ever have walked before.<\/p>\n

My training at Indiana University, Trinity College Dublin, and Caltech heavily emphasized technical skill training over knowledge acquisition, and I think I have benefited by this emphasis.\u00a0 Furthermore, this training also emphasized high caliber, theory driven and interdisciplinary research.\u00a0 To the extent possible, I have tried to continue these emphases even here at ACU.<\/p>\n

Figure 1.4.<\/strong>\u00a0Levi Ritchie awarded Council of Undergraduate Research – Psychology Division award for best undergraduate research.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

My approach to research at ACU<\/em><\/p>\n

Nonetheless, I believe it is unrealistic for a person at ACU to continue operating near the same level at which they operated while at primarily research institutions. \u00a0So, upon my arrival at ACU I developed a system to continue producing reasonably high quality research, albeit at a slower rate.\u00a0 For each new research project using this approach I attempt to assemble a team that includes one undergraduate research assistant and one programmer.\u00a0 Ideally, the undergraduate researcher desires to get a PhD and is looking for research experience to bolster their application.\u00a0 The idea is to leverage (1) my knowledge of the field and methodological design, (2) the programming ability of a collaborator who can create the experimental protocol, and (3) the willingness and time of the research assistant to recruit participants and collect data.\u00a0 Then I analyze the data with input from the assistant and the three of us obtain a conference presentation at a minimum.\u00a0 If the results are good enough then we even submit to an appropriate peer review journal.<\/p>\n

Although the above process has succeeded in generating quality work, its major weakness is that once the undergraduate enters grad school and leaves ACU they have little incentive to continue working on the project, leaving me, as the field expert, to do the bulk of the work that remains.\u00a0 Due to this issue, I have learned to welcome opportunities to collaborate with faculty members inside and outside ACU, particularly when the duties are divided appropriately and all collaborators are vested in seeing the project through to a journal submission.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, I am satisfied with the systems I have put in place as well as the quality of research it has thus far produced.\u00a0 I am pleased that collaborations with faculty inside and outside of ACU have begun to yield fruit and that the collaborations are quite diverse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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< Reflection on Areas of Contribution<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reflection on Approach to Research\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0List of Contributions<\/a>\u00a0><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research: The corps of discovery Even if I needed no job at all, I would conduct research merely for the thrill of discovery. \u00a0When I begin working with a new research assistant I explain to them that researchers are like explorers, the Lewises and Clarks of knowledge. \u00a0In contrast, people who convey information to others … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7493,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-325","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/rkj95n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/rkj95n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/rkj95n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/rkj95n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7493"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/rkj95n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/rkj95n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1587,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/rkj95n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/325\/revisions\/1587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/rkj95n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}