How does the lens from which you view the world shape your approach to research inquiry? Why is it important as a scholar-practitioner engaged in research to acknowledge your worldview?

The Learning Resources in this first week will help you answer these questions, and they will provide you with a foundation in the philosophy of science that will help you appreciate various research designs and methods. With this foundation, you will be encouraged to reflect on how your assumptions about the acquisition of truth and the nature of the world influence your approach to the research process.

For this Discussion, you will identify an area of interest for a possible research topic. As you read about the different philosophical orientations in this week’s readings, consider if one of these orientations most closely aligns with your worldview and a particular approach to research.

With these thoughts in mind:

By Day 4

Post a brief description of your topic of research interest. Next, state the philosophical orientation that reflects your worldview and explain the epistemological and ontological assumptions of this orientation. Then, explain how these assumptions lend themselves to one or more research approaches.

RESOURCES FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT; Babbie, E. (2017). Basics of social research (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

• Chapter 1, “Human Inquiry and Science”

Burkholder, G. J., Cox, K. A., & Crawford, L. M. (2016). The scholar-practitioner’s guide to research design. Baltimore, MD: Laureate Publishing.

• Chapter 2, “Philosophical Foundations and the      Role of Theory in Research”

Throughout the discussions in this course we will be focusing on one single condition; gradually unfolding week by week how this condition can grossly affect the entire human body and its systems.

The goal of the course discussions is primarily, to build upon the skill of differential diagnosis and secondary, to give a clear view as to how a single pathological process can possess the ability to affect an entire human organism.

Each week you will be presented with varying components of a new system being adversely affected by the unidentified condition. Your task as a healthcare professional in training, is to thoroughly research and envelop yourself within the process of differential diagnosis to arrive at a definitive diagnosis at the end of the course in week 8.

In phase one of the discussion, you will be tasked with presenting your researched information into a video or written presentation answering the questions below, while also considering your response and symptom presentation from weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Written presentations should be a minimum of 2-3 paragraphs per each diagnosed condition (3 conditions minimum).

Symptom Presentation:

• Adrenalin: Increased epinephrine (catecholamine production) from the adrenal medulla
• Heart Rate: Increased resting heart rate with intermittent bursts of arrhythmia
• Blood Pressure: Systemic hypertension reported over the past 8 months
• Hypertensive Retinopathy: arteriolar constriction, vascular wall changes, cotton-wool spots, yellow hard exudates, and optic disk edema

Previously, you researched and considered three conditions through the process of differential diagnosis that would present with varying abnormalities in homeostasis, metabolism, triglycerides and DNA in week 1. Abnormalities in oxidation, plasma and tissue enzyme activity, inflammation and alopecia respectively in week 2. Increased cortisol and demonstrated bone loss in week 3. Fibromyalgia and muscle atrophy in week 4. Increased glutamate and memory loss in week 5 and neurogenic inflammation in week 6. Given the new symptom presentation above, consider and answer the following questions.