Research methods part 2

Question 1

Types of surveys

Answer 1

Retrospective surveys- look back in time

Prospective surveys- explore patterns over time
Same people (cohort design)
Different people (trend design)

Cross-sectional designs: This is survey that gives a snapshot in time.

Question 2

Questions used need to be piloted first, what does this mean?

Answer 2

Test them out on a small group first
And get them to tell us whether they work (do they understand the question

Question 3

Questions of a questionnaire are called what? and what are the types

Answer 3

items
Closed- Structured
Quantitative data
Simple Y/N answers
Easy to analyse
NO interpretation

Open- Unstructured
Qualitative data
Shades of grey
Depth
Interpretation required

Question 4

Pit falls of questions

Answer 4

Items must not:
◦ Be ambiguous
◦ Be double barrelled
◦ Be too general
◦ Contain acronyms & jargon
◦ Use double negatives
◦ Use leading questions
◦ Be too long
◦ Be directed to the wrong person?

Question 5

How would a researcher lead to bias in research.

Answer 5

Researcher- their individual views does it influence the way they view the data. E.g the effect of sweets on tooth decay and the researcher is a dentist.

Question 6

What is a sample

Answer 6

a small part or quantity intended to show what the whole is like.
The sample is representative of the population.

Question 7

Sampling methods for random

Answer 7

Random- picking randomly out of a population can be impractical as not everyone is available to do research

Systematic random sampling- Taking every 10th person for example can make it more manageable

Stratified random sampling- look at a population and take a sample from each group to make it representative

Question 8

Non-random sampling, types

Answer 8

Risk of bias

Examples
Convenience sampling- Is an easy, quick and inexpensive method of selecting a sample but is prone to bias through non-representativeness as it involves selecting the most easily accessible members of the research population.
Quota- get a certain amount of people
Cluster- get samples form different locations

Question 9

Sample size

Answer 9

LARGE
 Survey
 Core purpose is to
generalise

SMALL
 Case study
 Aims at
transferability

Question 10

What is Randomisation?

Answer 10

Randomisation is a method used to randomly allocate participants to the different parts (arms) of a trial AFTER they have
been sampled.

Question 11

A sample size too big or too small means?

Answer 11

> A sample size which is larger than required is unethical because more people than necessary will be exposed to the
intervention.
A sample size which is too small is also unethical because an effect which may exist may not be demonstrated
statistically.

Question 12

What is the control group and what is the experimental group

Answer 12

Control group The control group is the group that receives the existing treatment, or placebo.
Experimental group The experimental group is the group that receives the new treatment.

Question 13

What is double blinding

Answer 13

Double Blinding With double blinding both the researcher and the research participants are unaware of who is in the
experimental group or the control group for the duration of the study. This is desirable but not possible where it is obvious
which group is which (say with a radiotherapy technique), blinding is most often used in drug trials.

Question 14

What is content analysis?

Answer 14

Content analysis: This is probably the simplest approach. The number of times that a word or concept occurs is counted (can
sometimes be done using a computer). As this reduces qualitative data to a numerical form it is not considered to be truly qualitative
by some researchers.

Question 15

What is thematic analysis

Answer 15

Thematic analysis: This approach is not just concerned with how often a word is used. The context in which the word is used is
important too. For instance if we analysed transcripts of interviews with patients about an intervention they were about to undergo
the word ‘worried’ might occur fairly regularly. The number of times it occurs might be misleading if taken in isolation, see the
examples below:

‘I was very worried about having a needle inserted in my arm’
‘the radiographer asked if I was worried about anything’
‘my wife was very worried as I was not very well that day’
In only one of the sentences above did the patient indicate that they were worried. If we only counted the number of times the word
occured or if we said every interview contained the word we might, wrongly, conclude that all three patients were worried.

Question 16

What is Theoretical analysis?

Answer 16

Theoretical analysis: An approach where the researcher develops theories from the data which may be tested against existing
theories or against further analysis of the data. This is also known as analytic induction.

Question 17

How could subjects lead to bias in research?

Answer 17

Subjects- Subject bias, also known as participant bias, is a tendency of participants (subjects) in an experiment to consciously or subconsciously act in a way in which they wouldnt usually. E.g they know they are partaking in research looking into tooth decay overtime, so they start looking after their teeth better than they usually would.

Question 18

How would the Sampling design / method lead to bias in research?

Answer 18

Sampling bias occurs when some members of a population are systematically more likely to be selected in a sample than others. It is also called ascertainment bias in medical fields. e.g only people with healthy teeth can part take in the study about tooth decay overtime. This means that those deemed to have unhealthy teeth are not apart of the sample.

Question 19

How would the research design affect bias?

Answer 19

As an example, a researcher working on a survey containing questions concerning health benefits may overlook the researcher’s awareness of the sample group’s limitations. It’s possible that the group tested was all male or all over a particular age.

Question 20

How would the research instrument affect bias?

Answer 20

One of the most common forms of measurement bias in quantitative investigations is instrument bias. A defective scale would generate instrument bias and invalidate the experimental process in a quantitative experiment.

The way you do the study will affect the results you get. So if you do a method that is not appropriate it would affect the results. E.g for tooth decay, getting children to rate their tooth decay overtime rather than doing observational study collection.
Getting the children to rate it, is not appropriate as they may not understand the scale in which they are rating, subject bias (no one wants to rate their teeth as bad)

Question 21

How could the data analysis affect bias?

Answer 21

Analytics bias is often caused by incomplete data sets and a lack of context around those data sets.
E.g looking at tooth decay overtime via observational method when children go to the dentist but some children missed more dentist appointments than others. This means there is missing data for certain children during the research time.

Another example is doing a mental health study on undergraduates during exam season, as they are more likely to rate they are feeling low due to the stress of the exams. However, not including the fact its exam season you cant say all undergradutes are feeling sad all the time.

Question 22

What is publication or reporting bias.

Answer 22

Publication or reporting bias
A sort of bias that influences research is publication bias. It is also known as reporting bias. It refers to a condition in which favorable outcomes are more likely to be reported than negative or empty ones. The publication standards for research articles in a specific area frequently reflect this bias on them. Researchers sometimes choose not to disclose their outcomes if they believe the data do not reflect their theory.

Question 23

What is prospective surveys?

Answer 23

Prospective surveys- explore patterns over time
Same people (cohort design)
Different people (trend design)

Question 24

Retrospective surveys meaning?

Answer 24

Retrospective surveys- look back in time

Question 25

Cross-sectional design meaning?

Answer 25

Cross-sectional designs: This is survey that gives a snapshot in time.

Question 26

What does Systematic random sampling mean?

Answer 26

Taking every 10th person for example can make it more manageable

Question 27

What does Stratified random sampling mean?

Answer 27

Stratified random sampling- look at a population and take a sample from each group to make it representative