Monodisciplinary, Multidisciplinary, Interdisciplinary, and Transdisciplinary Approaches to Reproductive Health Research William A. Fisher, Ph.D Department of Psychology Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology University of Western Ontario London Ontario Canada Center for Health Intervention and Prevention University of Connecticut Storrs Connecticut USA
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Monodisciplinary, Multidisciplinary, Interdisciplinary, and Transdisciplinary Approaches to Reproductive Health Research William A. Fisher, Ph.D Department.
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Monodisciplinary, Multidisciplinary, Interdisciplinary, and Transdisciplinary
Approaches to Reproductive Health Research
William A. Fisher, Ph.DDepartment of Psychology
Department of Obstetrics and GynaecologyUniversity of Western Ontario
London Ontario Canada
Center for Health Intervention and PreventionUniversity of ConnecticutStorrs Connecticut USA
interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches.
– Provide examples of transdisciplinary approaches.
– Discuss transdisciplinary research team creation and functioning.
Science = Explanation
• The only reason to do something in scientific research is to increase our:– Understanding– Prediction– Control
Monodisciplinary Approaches
• Exploiting the knowledge base, research methodology, and research personnel of a single established scientific discipline.
• Traditional research paradigm.
Monodisciplinary Approaches
• Advantages: cumulative disciplinary knowledge base, mature disciplinary research methodology, availability of experienced research personnel, homogeneous research culture.
• Disadvantages: narrow focus on restricted dimensions of potentially complex and multilevel reproductive health research questions; lack of comprehensive scope to provide complete understanding of reproductive health research problem.
Multidisciplinary Approaches
• Multidisciplinary research involves scientists from different disciplines who work independently and in parallel on different and separate aspects of a reproductive health research question.
• For example, stem cell researcher and an ethicist form a multidisciplinary team to study stem cell issues and publish papers on different aspects of this topic in special issue of a journal.
– After Sorrels-Jones, 1997
Multidisciplinary Approaches• Advantages: more comprehensive
understanding of a reproductive health research question may accumulate; no research approach, knowledge base, or research culture heterogeneity to challenge researchers.
• Disadvantage: “Discoordiante parallel play” fails to exploit and integrate scientific viewpoints and expertise of multiple disciplines; gains in comprehensiveness somewhat random and at best additive.
Interdisciplinary Approaches
• “Interdisciplinary research is a cooperative effort by a team of investigators, each expert in the use of different methods and concepts, who have joined in an organized program to attack a challenging problem. Ongoing communication and reexamination of postulates among team members promote broadening of concepts and enrichment of understanding. Although each member is primarily responsible for the efforts in his or her own discipline, all share responsibility for the final product.”
• Advantages: Exploits an array of relevant disciplinary knowledge bases, methodologies, and perspectives to gain comprehensive understanding of complex and multilevel reproductive health research problem.
• Disadvantages: Leaves unanswered the question of how the multiple relevant disciplinary aspects of the reproductive health research question will be identified and how the interdisciplinary contributions will be reassembled to represent a complex understanding of the reproductive health problem.
• Transdisciplinary research involves active and collaborative analysis of a reproductive health research question to:– identify its potentially multiple relevant disciplinary
dimensions; – identify the interdisciplinary team needed to address the
problem;– construct a working model of the multiple determinants
and consequences of a reproductive health condition or treatment
• Transdisciplinary research incorporates and goes beyond interdisciplinary approach.
Transdisciplinary Approach to Reproductive Health Research
Reproductive Health Research
Question“Before”
Transdisciplinary Analysis
--What are the significant biological, behavioral, social, economic, ethical, and legal dimensions of the research problem?
--What are the disciplines, conceptual models, research methodologies that must be recruited to comprehensively address the problem?
What is the transdiciplinary working model?Results in “Interdisciplinarity Done Well”
Transdiscipliary Analysis
Reproductive Health
Research Question
“After”
Transdisciplinary Approach
• Advantages: actively identifies a working conceptual model incorporating multiple relevant determinants of reproductive health phenomena and multiple relevant outcomes of reproductive health interventions.
• Advantage: Provides comprehensive understanding of reproductive health research question.