Exam 2 Principles of Quantitative Research Flashcards
Design
Found in the methods section
Sampling plan
Found in the methods section
Data collection procedure
Found in the methods section
implementation strategies
Found in the methods section
data analysis plan
Found in the methods section
What is a design?
Specific features need to be addressed, need to be structured. Step by step
approach. Different kinds of sampling, different kinds of data collection.
Blueprint
says what to collect, how to collect it, and what you’re going to do with it
What is a good design
Appropriate to the purpose
-subjects, setting, protocol and comparisons
-most importantly, must be able to answer the question
Appropriate comparisons
-Also needs to be feasible given realistic constraints
-availability of data…need to be able to find the setting and subjects
Design must also
be effective in reducing threats to design validity
guard against negative influences that may negatively impact data
Major categories of design
Experimental
Most “scientific” gives best information, best evidence
Contains hypothesis. Manipulating variables. cause and effect situation
Make comparisons between real people/real groups that have a real situation occuring
Major categories of design
quasi-experimental
something is preventing it from being a true experiment. ethical considerations. So simulate the “experiement
Major categories of design
Nonexperimental
Not meant to test a hypothesis. meant to describe by collecting numbers, exploring phenomena by collecting. situations in natural habitat. can’t provide hard data…assumptions made
Causality
Basis of cause and effect.
There must be a strong correlation or relationship between I.V. and D.V.
Cause must precede effect
Must be necessary and sufficient (must always be present and requires no other factors)
Must be no alternative explanations
Very hard to prove
Multi-causality
few events of interest to nursing have a single cause
These other multiple, interrelated causes need to be controlled.
Probability
Research on living beings tends ot be multicausal
- Impossible to determine true cause and effect
- probability is best guess given the current information
- addresses relative rather than absolute causality
- a probable explanation is more in keeping with multicausality
control
-to control means to have the power to direct, regulate, manipulate, or statistically adjust factors to achieve a desired outcome on the D.V.
Ways to achieve control
- Control the environment
- Control equivalence of subjects and groups
- Use control or comparison groups
- Control the treatment
- Control the measurement
- control extraneous variables
Manipulation
Important principle of control (alter the I.V. by increasing, decreasing, withholding, adding, etc the I.V.)
- True experiments must be able to control the intervention or treatment being tested.
- Intervention group vs. control group
Bias
is anything that causes a deviation from the truth or that distorts findings. (The results are slanted in some fashion)
-Can be caused by extraneous variables (control variables/confounding variable)