I’ll be the first to admit it when I have a bias towards a topic. My current research topic directly correlates with what I do at my current occupation. At the beginning of my research I had a bias to back-up my company and its practices, but deep down I have always thought that physical interventions are most likely not therapeutic. I think it is important to address my biases while writing my literature review so I can address them, and eliminate the effect that bias could have on the outcome of my review. I do think that my biases could have an affect on the conclusions in my lit review if I were to just use journals/articles/data from those backing my argument. Being experienced in the field I am aware that there are cross arguments against my topic so I will include them as well to provide balance. To address these biases I think an open discussion in class would help us talk through them at a higher level with peer feedback. There are several ideas in Machi and McEvoy that would help reduce bias especially in my personal case. Research that appeals to emotions could easily be identified if I were to be biased and promote my opinion on the topic, so I will provide an evidentiary position. Drawing concrete conclusions based on evidence based practices rather than jumping to a faulty conclusion based on my experience and skeletal evidence will reduce bias. Having open-ended questions will divert one from having loaded questions that can only elude to assumptions. Overall there is still plenty of work to do but I am confident in my abilities to provide a non-biased approach to my literature review.
SWK512 