What is reliable research?

What is a reliable study?

 

What I do know about research is that if it is not published in a journal review it is not legit. I have been a volunteer, along with my daughter Marissa, for the ABCD study. This is a longitude study of teens mental health. Marissa started this at the U of U in 2017 and they did MRI scans, tests and questionnaires every year. Needless to say there have been multiple studies released. The website is informational and it is the most in-depth study on teens to-date.

 

Last week some of their data was breeched and someone is going to post "studies" from ABCD and they will not be true or in the least they will be skewed.

 

"A media article was published about unauthorized access to NIH-supported data by individuals who have misused the data to promote an unethical agenda. The ABCD Study is named. No personally identifiable information was compromised, and there has been no data breach. The misuses and misrepresentation of the data are fundamentally inconsistent with the study’s goals, methods, and values. ABCD is designed to advance rigorous and ethical research and opposes discriminatory, stigmatizing, or harmful uses of the data. We have reached out to all ABCD participants and invited them to contact us directly with any questions or concerns."  

 

I am very skeptical of published studies and research. How can we know that people filled out the questions on a good day. Many variable can effect our answers to questions. I like to observe and form my own opinion. However, our own biases will also effect our opinions. Then can we only look at facts? This is where I will turn to my gut. Many people have a problem with me following my gut. I believe my brain will trick me for than my gut feeling. What do you think? 

For example, Jonathan Haidt's, 

The Anxious Generation

How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness

is  written all with a bias for negative effect from phones. I liked the book but read it all with the fact that he firmly believes phones are the cause of mental illness. 

Another example, Jean L. Briggs'

Inuit Morality Play the emotional education of a three year old

This study was appreciated because it was simply observation given with her opinion. The book follows the life of one little girl in the Inuit culture. Jean is an anthropologist who is "interested in both the textures of individual lives and the contours of societies often experience a tension between these two concerns".

And like Jean states: the trouble is that when all the rich detail of individual lives, the essence of individuality, is left out, our ability to understand these lives is greatly reduced. Jean uses "guess and by gorry and with remarkable acumen." This is my take also. I will do the best to observe, but I will use guess and gorry, God (or as I said in another lame man term, Gut.)

I am skeptical.