Health research may be either basic or applied. Regardless of the nature or focus, however, research must be scientific and rigorous in order to advance knowledge.

This week, you will be introduced to the scientific approach to research, and you will review important research methodologies used in the health sciences. Finally, the critical elements of a comprehensive and effective research proposal will also be identified and explained.

You will begin the process of developing a research proposal by selecting a research topic from eight problem areas. From these areas, you will apply standard criteria to the potential problem to determine the feasibility of the research effort.

You will also be introduced to methods for writing a statement of the problem and research questions.

Many steps comprise the research process, but the first step is to determine a topic. You can find a topic through personal or professional interest and that is directed toward solving a problem. For the purpose of this course, you will select one of the eight topics presented below.

• Cultural impact of posttraumatic stress disorder

• This chapter introduces the scientific approach to research with a focus on discovering cause-and-effect relationships between variables. You should pay special attention to the section on science and theory, as one goal of scientific inquiry is to formulate theory.

• Chapter 2, "Developing the Research Proposal"

The foundation of a research study is the research proposal. The proposal allows the researcher to specify the problem and formulate a study in terms of the appropriate study design and methodology. This chapter will assist you in selecting a research problem and writing a statement of the problem.