The Case of the Article "Trends in Opioid Analgesic Abuse and Mortality in the United States"

Research Problem

A research problem is that statement that defines a difficulty or troubling question that needs to be answered in theory or practical view. A research problem does not explain how something should be done; neither does it present value for the question (Kothari, 2004). The main problem that the researchers look at in this case is the effects of the various programs that the government has initiated in reducing the prescription-drug abuse. This is the central spine of the research, and it determines the methodology employed. For instance, in the attached article, the research problem is drug addiction and treatment. These research problems are vital parts of the research study that was conducted. They were expected to give an appropriate determination of the direction of the research and how the data was collected. In the article used, the research problem helped the researcher to determine the condition in question-drug addiction. The definition of the state gave a broader perspective on how best the condition can be handled. For instance, the ability to define the condition enabled the researcher to determine the clinical situations that are associated with it. Moreover, the research question gives the researcher a broad platform to focus on the critical agenda of providing the reasons why the condition of drug abuse can be best treated using the methods outlined. They use Mindful meditation as the center of focus in the research to help curb addiction and also sort out the treatment.

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Research Question

Research questions are those that a researcher would like to have them answered or addressed in the study. It critically poses the direction of the study via a general question that will be answered in the research. It helps the researcher to focus on a specific subject with a motive of framing the literature review (Bailey & Burch, 2017). For instance, in the research article, the researcher had the following questions; what is drug abuse? What are the symptoms? What are the best treatment methods for prescription-drug abuse? What are the effects of the government programs initiated at the state and federal level?

Through the Background of the study, the researcher made an effort to define the above by focusing his research on the intended questions. He examined the correlation of the questions and the resultant solutions that could be approached to by the end of the study. Furthermore, in his research, he tried to formulate the best strategies that involved medical and social involvements with an aim to equip his article with the satisfactory answers best needed to answer the research question. He gives a methodological step that could help resolve the scientific uncertainty in question.

One of the key factors that should be kept in mind during the construction of a research plan is the alignment of the problem statement and the research question. The article made a significant effort to ensure that the problem and questions were easily comprehensive and enabled craft the phenomenon of the study.

Sample Population

A sample population is also known as the research population. This is generally a selected collection of individuals or items whose primary focus is the scientific question. The research is expected to formulate a solution that is beneficial to the chosen group after research is done. Since there could be large sizes of populations, researchers find it very hard to test every individual in the locality. Thus they rely on statistics obtained from the sample population (Kitchenham & Pfleeger, 2002).

The study attributed its research to Chinese college students who were randomly assigned to a training group for five days. The researcher explains how one of the methods was implicated on them. The article describes the effects that were displayed from the sample individuals who experienced fatigue and a higher positive feeling for the procedure. They, therefore, conclude that the Mindful meditation method was proven to be highly productive as it showed improved self-control and emotional regulation (Dart et al., 2015). The researchers also conducted a second study on a different group of individuals. They picked 46 undergraduates who were randomly assigned to relaxation groups and conducted brain imaging tests for five days.

Sampling Techniques

Sampling has proven to be one of the most important considerations during a research or survey result. It could either be random, systemic, convenience, cluster and stratified (Acharya et al., 2013). The researcher used various sampling techniques to obtain his data. In this research, systemic sampling was used; they explain how he had to use a smaller population to produce the statistical features. Moreover, the population was evenly sampled out to bring out simplicity. The significance of the technique was confirmed after the researcher stressed that the sampling method used produced useful results. It was not only cheaper but saved on so much time. Thus the technique proved to have made the inferences feasible.

Research Variables

The variables in a research finding represent the measurable traits or characters that can change over the time and course of a scientific experiment. They are measurable and may vary from group to group person to person. The two types of variables include dependent and independent variables. This is what is measured and affected in the experiment. It responds to the independent variable. The second type of variable is the independent variable which is not affected by any variables in the research. The researcher should change it, or it can change on its own. In this study, the dependent variable was the brain defects. This is because the researcher's primary interest was how addiction affected people and the main symptoms of addiction and how the symptoms could be treated. The independent variables in the study were those that the researcher had control over. The independent variables included addiction.

Data Collection Techniques

Observation

This is a type of relational research in which a researcher observes the behavior of the sample. The researcher intentionally placed himself in the group to observe the behavior that would not be easily accessible through any other collection means. Since behaviors are natural, the measurements were extremely valid. The researcher used special machinery to observe brain pattern and record them. Some of the advantages of this method included, Better explanations of the context, it gave the researcher an in-depth validity and the researcher had direct access to the sample individuals. Though with the duration that was indicated, that is, five days confirmed to be time-consuming and too subjective.

References

Acharya, A. S., Prakash, A., Saxena, P., & Nigam, A. (2013). Sampling: Why and how of it. Indian Journal of Medical Specialties, 4(2), 330-333.

Bailey, J. S., & Burch, M. R. (2017). Research methods in applied behavior analysis. Routledge.

Dart, R. C., Surratt, H. L., Cicero, T. J., Parrino, M. W., Severtson, S. G., Bucher-Bartelson, B., & Green, J. L. (2015). Trends in opioid analgesic abuse and mortality in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 372(3), 241-248.

Kitchenham, B., & Pfleeger, S. L. (2002). Principles of survey research: part 5: populations and samples. ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, 27(5), 17-20.

Kothari, C. R. (2004). Research methodology: Methods and techniques. New Age International.