The article to be summarized and analyzed in the discourse of this paper is by Husk et al. (2016). The purpose or objective of the paper is to assess and analyze the health impacts on adults as a subsequent study after taking part in conservation and enhancement initiatives regarding the environment. The background of the paper is aimed at systematically reviewing and examining whether participation in environmental enhancement activities can bolster individuals’ mental and physical health. The null or general hypothesis is that people living in contact with the natural environment are subject to having better health and well-being. On the same accord, those who live within green spaces such as parks or countryside are thought to have better mental health through healthy activities than those that do not. Thus, the paper is aimed at testing the hypothesis and determining whether the natural environment can enhance public health.
The methods used in the study included both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The quantitative designs were classified under variant tenets including randomized controlled trials, quasi-controlled trials, cluster randomized controlled trials, cluster quasi-randomized controlled trials all of which were controlled prior and after the study. Moreover, cohort studies (retrospective or prospective), interrupted time series, case-control studies, and the uncontrolled before and after studies (uBA) were used. On the other hand, qualitative research technique was used for general qualitative data collection such as the impacts of litter-picking and subsequent analysis of the data through the same. The selection criteria for participants in the study only considered adult volunteers or those who were referred by a healthcare professional. Ultimately, the Effective Public Health Practice Project tool was used to review the quantitative studies and data whereas the Wallace Criteria was used for qualitative studies. Due to the heterogeneity and poor reporting intervention specifics, qualitative studies were synthesized using thematic analysis rather than meta-analysis.
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Regarding results and findings, a total of 19 studies inclusive of both quantitative data and qualitative data (interviews) were found viable. Of the total number, a significant part of the quantitative studies found no effect on well-being and health. There was minimal evidence to prove that participation yielded positive outcomes regarding the quality of life, personal health, or physical activity levels. In fact, some of the participants reported heightened mental fatigue and increased anxiety feelings. Qualitatively, the participants documented their experiences and perceived benefits of taking part in the study. As such, participants reported feeling better further pointing out that they enjoyed the opportunity to increase social contact especially the mentally ill who spent most of their days in isolation. Finally, some participants documented attaining a sense of achievement for being around nature and the daily structure provision.
Regarding limitations, the research methods used did not substantially show that participation led to any change in health. As such, the research quality regarding reporting and study design was low. Ultimately, the authors could not reach any definitive conclusions and recommend further research to fully comprehend how and why the activities in the study could benefit health.
The scientific method is a procedural technique used by scientific investigators to respond to or answer certain questions regarding the natural world. The method effectively makes use of scientific steps such as systematic observation, formulation of questions and hypothesis, experimentation, results or findings, and conclusion.
Observation: Scientific method begins by observing something of interest. The observation can be about anything as long as one wants to know more about it.
Questions : Once an observation has been made, one must formulate a question concerning what has been observed. It should explain the goal to be accomplished in the research being conducted.
Hypothesis: It is an idea suggested to explain a natural event, experience or specific condition and testable through an experiment that can be defined. It explains the purpose of the research variables used as well as the outcome expected.
Experiment: An experiment is designed to test the hypothesis that has been developed. Of importance is to design a controlled variable to make comparisons and observations between the controlled variable and independent variable.
Results: It is here that whatever happened in the experiment is reported, that is, detailed observations and data made during the experiment.
Conclusion: This is the final step applied in research. One should analyze all the results from the experiment, and a determination is reached about the hypothesis.
The article made use of scientific steps such as observation, hypothesis, experiment, results or findings and conclusion. The article uses observation as a step of the scientific method in the sense that the study was aimed at observing the health and well-being of the elderly group based on the physical activities they took part in. The observations made in the article raised further questions which subsequently translated to the hypothesis of the article. On this accord, the hypothesis of the article is to test whether participating in physical environmental activities can bolster the health and wellbeing of the participants. Moreover, the authors use experimentation as a scientific step by taking participants through the environmental activities such as picking litter to collect enough experimental data; both qualitative and quantitative. Furthermore, the article makes use of the results and findings section to elaborate on what the results the experiment has yielded. Ultimately, from the results, findings, and analysis of both the qualitative and quantitative data, the article draws fundamental conclusions such as what the quantitative and qualitative data means to the study. To this end, the article fully utilizes the scientific method to its study intimately including the scientific steps to guide its study.
A scientific method of research is one that is used to investigate observations as well as bring answers to questions. The method can relate to human services in the following way; Research is required in all fields of human services. For instance, in case there is an increase in unemployment, child abuse or poor housing, replies offering results will be expected to give answers related to the reasons for the upsurge. The only way to achieve this is by conducting research.
Quantitative research is where a problem is identified based on trends in that field. To do this, an investigator has to carry out a study in which he seeks to establish a general pattern of responses from people. It has characteristics such as, description of a research problem by describing trends, the suggestion of research questions that will be asked, analyzing trends, developing purpose statements and writing reports. Qualitative research, on the other hand, is used to tackle a research problem in which the variables are unknown. Research questions are stated to best study the participants in the research. A single phenomenon is studied and stated in the purpose statement. Characteristics include giving the purpose of the research and research questions in a general manner, data collection based on words from a small sample of individuals for the participant's views to be obtained, data analysis and interpretation to get the wider meaning of the findings (Creswell, 2012).
What makes the two processes similar is that they both are conducted following the six steps of research. They also can adopt similar methods of collecting data for example observations or interviews.
What makes them different is that, in a quantitative study, the research problem is used to determine the type of question or hypothesis to be asked while the other is used to determine the main idea.
To decide which method is appropriate to use, it is important to compare the approach to the research problem. For quantitative research, problems involved are those that require making of trends or explanations while for qualitative research, problems need to be studied thoroughly to establish a deeper understanding (Creswell, 2012).
It is also important to compare the approach to training one has acquired, for example, a quantitative researcher has training in statistics, measurement and data collection while qualitative researchers will require experience in field studies such as information gathering as well skills of observation and interviewing people. Research designs for example grounded theory and narrative research are also helpful in this regard.
A mixed method of research is a procedure for collection, analysis and combining both quantitative and qualitative data in a single and double phase series of study. This helps one give priority to data like what is to be collected first, the order to be followed or how best to mix the data. This method is best suited in advocacy in social services since the data gathered is helpful in guiding the study and mixing the methods of collecting information will involve both approaches.
In this article, studies of adults (aged ≥ 18 years) were included. Also, studies of voluntary or non-voluntary participation were included. Even though participation was purely voluntary, there were those that were non-voluntary or at least presented a constrained choice, for example, offenders doing community service (Husk et al., 2016).
An ethical issue raised is that there needs to be respect given to the person reading the data hence it is up to the researcher to report honestly. According to the article, there were a minimal number of studies which had poor quality and most often than not were reported poorly. Studies were mostly uncontrolled and were not only subjected to high levels of bias but also conducted internally and funded by the provider. The qualitative studies were also of a poor quality and failed short of reporting details.
References
Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research (4thed.)
Husk, K., Lovell, R., Cooper, C., Stahl ‐ Timmins, W., & Garside, R. (2016). Participation in environmental enhancement and conservation activities for health and well ‐ being in adults: a review of quantitative and qualitative.
