Introduction
You now have a better understanding of the scientific method of research. Armed with this new knowledge, go to the homepage for the Gerontological Society of America (link is given below).
See if you can figure out what kind of research they conduct? Surf around their site and see what you can glean about their methodology from their site and its links. What can you tell about the Gerontological Society's research methods just from reading their articles? What type of publications do they generate?
Remember to look for applied versus pure research or natural versus social science. How would you find out what qualitative versus quantitative research is? Here is a big hint: qualitative research records stories (also called non-experimental) and quantitative research records numbers. Check out this site for more help http://www.simplypsychology.org/qualitative-quantitative.htmlAlso look to see if you can figure out if the study was longitudinal or cross sectional.
Assignment
Post to the discussion board in two or three paragraphs your findings to the following questions.
 | Choose one article that captures your interest. Tell us the name of the article (please choose something your colleagues have not posted about). |
| What methods did they use (survey, observational, longitudinal or cross sectional etc.)? |
| What do you base your conclusions on? Tell us about the study . |
| Can you attempt to describe any of these? Applied, pure, natural, social, qualitative, and quantitative research? Give one or two a try! |
| Also, post your reaction to the two theories presented (disengagement and activity theory). How has activity theory affected how we care for older adults? Use your text (you will have to look in the index or the web for info.) |
Resources
| Gerontological Society of America
http://www.geron.org/Publications |
| Find their publications (On-Line Journals Link) for abstracts. You don't need to purchase
anything. What is an abstract? |
| E-mail a colleague (get e-mail address from class roster) or post questions to the discussion link with the word " HELP" in in subject line. |
Adapted from Hilliar and Barrow, Aging The Individual and Society, 1999
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