GH Study Design

Question 0

What are the attributes of a good Research Question?

Answer 0

FINER:
Feasible
Interesting
Novel
Ethical
Relevant

Question 1

What are the components of a good research question?

Answer 1

PICO:
Population
Intervention
Comparison
Outcome

Question 2

Types of Research Questions

Answer 2

All ultimately get down to the connections between things:
Causal
Descriptive/Explanatory
Relational

Question 3

Immediate Objectives (Specific Goals):

Answer 3

What must accomplish during research to get to ultimate goal.

Question 4

Hypothesis: What is it?

Answer 4

Testable statement.

Question 5

What are components of a hypothesis?

Answer 5

Indicates dependent and independent variables.
Suggest types of data needed.
Suggests types of study design.

Question 6

Steps in developing a hypothesis.

Answer 6

Strong RQ.
ID variables.
Determine direction to be tested.
Look to other variables, if necessary.

Question 7

Characteristics of a “Causal” Hypothesis.

Answer 7

1. At least two variables.
2. Defines causal relationship or broad cause/effect relationship.
3. Can be expressed as prediction
4. Logically linked to research question and THEORY.
5. Falsifiable!

Question 8

Differences between narrative and systematic. (Talk about lit reviews from broadest to narrowest.)

Answer 8

Narrative - current state of knowledge. To describe a new project and justify new project.
Systematic - Review of everything and draw conclusions from it. Compare findings on a WELL-STUDIED topic.
Meta-analysis - subset of systematic, and finds summary statistic from the systematic lit review.

Question 9

List Parts of Scientific Paper.

Answer 9

Title, Abstract, Background/Intro, Methods, Data/Results, Discussion/Interpretation, Conclusion, References

Question 10

What is a research design?

Answer 10

A construction to link together elements of research (variables, outcomes) to produce a valid assessment according a proposed theory of relationship, and given a set of realistic constraints.

Question 11

Basic vs. Applied Research.

Answer 11

Basic - Builds fundamental / Generates new knowledge.
Applied - Practical solutions to concrete problems, considering constraints and needs of practitioners. Research that gives us good things to do!

Question 12

Levels of data.

Answer 12

Primary - Yours
Secondary - Other people’s data
Tertiary - Review of other data (systematic lit reviews, meta-analyses)

Question 13

Four kinds of research design categories.

Answer 13

Experimental.
Quasi-Experimental.
Non-Experimental.
Literature Review (Systematic)

Question 14

Threats to Internal Validity.

Answer 14

History
Maturation
Testing (Study Design)
Instrumentation
Selection (Bias)
Experimental mortality (loss to follow-up, a form of selection bias)

Question 15

Research has one of/or two goals. What are those goals? (Hint: both start with E.)

Answer 15

Exploratory (What’s out there?)

Explanatory (How does it work?)

Question 16

Types of Exploratory Studies

Answer 16

Usually Observational.
Cohort study - experienced same thing, follow over time.
Cross-Sectional design - looks at whole pop (via a representative subset) at one moment in time.
Case-Control studies - Disease vs. Not, but don’t randomize treatment. Just look at data that exists. Try to look retrospectively to see if there is a common element that differentiates between the groups.

Question 17

Types of Explanatory Designs.

Answer 17

Trying to get to nature of relationship.
Experimental: Random assignment to control/trial groups. Can have different actual execution of testing and measurement, but the key component is the randomization into groups. (Classic is double-blind study.)
Quasi-Experimental: Non-equivalent control group (non-random). Can do similar constructs to experimental studies, but the groups are not matched, and therefore there are threats to internal validity.