The Process of Research Flashcards
What are the five phases of the research process?
1) THINKING: identifying a problem and purpose; reviewing the literature
2) PLANNING: choosing study design, planning approach to sample, data collection, etc.
3) IMPLEMENTING: recruiting participants and collecting the data
4) ANALYZING: analyzing data (e.g. statistics) and interpreting the findings
5) INFORMING: disseminating results (e.g. journal articles, presentations)
What are the three ways of categorizing research?
1) Paradigm’s
2) Levels
3) Methods
Define paradigms:
Assumptions about how the world works; what we believe to be true about the world
Describe the difference between (post) positivist and constructivist paradigms:
POST-POSITIVISM: positivism is a form of realism, where the world is seen as objective regardless of the human experience (e.g. there would still be an objective reality of the world without humanity). The world is knowable, testable, and nothing can be said to be true without objective data. Post-positivism is this way, but admits that science isn’t always 100% correct, and gives room for error while still believing reality is fixed and measurable.
CONSTRUCTIVIST: the basis of qualitative research, as this view believes that the world isn’t fixed, but rather a construction of how people perceive it. It is focused on the subjective reality of how the world is experienced.
What is descriptive research?
Description of experiences/phenomenon’s
What is correlation research?
Finding correlations (e.g. more sleep and better exam scores are considered a correlation)
What is quasi-experimental research?
- An experiment where you can’t control everything; no such thing as a perfect control group
- When you can’t control all variables (experiments all variables are expected to be controlled in order to find cause/effect)
What is an experiment?
Research where all variables are accounted and controlled for in order to obtain the most correct data possible to find a cause/effect relationship or answer hypothesis
What are the distinguishing methods of quantitative research?
- Test theories
- Control (i.e. controlling as many variables as possible)
- Instruments (what is used to physically gather/test data)
- Numbers (everything gets transformed into a #) (e.g. cultures become numerical groups)
- Statistical analysis (using statistics to interpret data and find significance) (e.g. p values)
- Generalization (taking findings from a study and being able to disseminate to different and/or more groups) (e.g. data about COPD patients being generalized to CF patients)
What are the distinguishing methods of qualitative research?
- Develops theories (to later be tested; the area where observations are gathered and ideas are shared)
- Shared interpretation
- Communication and observation
- Words (focus is rarely on the numbers; more the qualitative experience)
- Interpretation
- Uniqueness
What types of research categories are there for quantitative?
- Randomized clinical trial (RCT) (e.g. pharmaceutical research)
- Survey research (e.g. fill from a scale 1-5)
- Evaluation research (e.g. faculty evals, self-evals)
- Secondary analysis
- Meta Analysis
Describe the difference between a secondary analysis and a Meta Analysis:
A Secondary Analysis goes back to a study already completed, and runs secondary analysis’ on things not tested the firs time (E.g. using a different statistical method to see if there is a new result). A Meta Analysis compiles old data says about the same phenomenon in order to get the big picture from studies combined; can either confirm/deny what small studies have said (since they are fallible).
What types of research categories are there for qualitative?
- Phenomenology (looking at the lived experience, e.g. how was experience of this class?)
- Ethnography (looking at cultures and their values, e.g. nursing culture and first “feeling” like a nurse)
- Grounded theory (social, but processes in the way that people make decisions (e.g. how do peers in nursing help us make decisions? One of the best to develop beginnings of a theory to later be studied quantitatively)
- Historical research (looking back at historical documents/events, e.g. Florence Nightingale’s journals to learn about themes of nursing)
- Meta Synthesis (the same as a meta analysis essentially, but it is focusing on qualitative research only)
What is quantitative experimental?
- Researcher manipulates/controls the variables, and observes effect in other variables
- Evaluates cause/effect relationship
- RCT’s and quasi experimental studies
- E.g. does a pre-op intervention program increase self-efficacy after post-op?
What is quantitative non-experimental?
- Describes or looks at relationships or correlation between variables
- Variables NOT manipulated by the researcher (might be unethical to do so)
- Descriptive, correlational
- E.g. correlation between HRT use and breast CA
What is the quantitative and qualitative terms for the concept of “person contributing information”?
QUANTITATIVE: subject, study participant, respondent
QUALITATIVE: study participant, informant, key informant
What is the qualitative and quantitative terms for the concept of “person undertaking the study”?
QUAN: researcher, investigator, scientist
QUAL: researcher, investigator
What is the quantitative and qualitative terms for the concept of “that which is being studied”?
QUAN: concepts, constructs, variables
QUAL: phenomena, concepts, topics
What is the quantitative and qualitative terms for the concept of “system of organizing concepts”?
QUAN: theory, theoretical framework, conceptual model
QUAL: theory, theoretical framework
What is the quantitative and qualitative terms for the concept of “information gathered”?
QUAN: data (numeric)
QUAL: data (narrative descriptions)
What is the quantitative and qualitative terms for the concept of “links between concepts”?
QUAN: relationships (casual, correlation)
QUAL: patterns of association
What is the quantitative and qualitative terms for the concept of “logical reasoning process”?
QUAN: deductive reasoning (moving downward; starting broad and working down to the more intimate details)
QUAL: inductive reasoning (starting with the details and moving to broader details after)
What is the quantitative and qualitative terms for the concept of “quality of evidence”?
QUAN: reliability, validity, generalizability
QUAL: trustworthiness
What is the quantitative and qualitative terms for the concept of “variable”?
QUAN: independent, dependent and extraneous variables
QUAL: phenomena concept
What is the difference between independent, dependent and extraneous variables?
INDEPENDENT: presumed cause or influence on dependent variable (i.e. cause)
DEPENDENT: outcome, consequence (i.e. effect)
EXTRANEOUS: other factors/causes that impact the dependent variable
What is the quantitative and qualitative terms for the concept of “definition”?
QUAN: independent/dependent variables need to be operationalized (specifiy procedures and tools required to measure variables)
QUAL: phenomena being studied need to be conceptually defied - clarify the abstract or theoretical meaning of the concept of being studied
What is the quantitative and qualitative terms for the concept of “tools/instruments”?
QUAN: how variables are measured; device used to collect data, such as questionnaires, surveys, scales, etc.
QUAL: interview guide, observation
Describe the critical reading phases of reading research:
1) Preliminary: read to gain familiarity, focus on abstract/title, skim the rest
2) Comprehensive: gain understanding of researcher’s intent, methods and findings
3) Critical read: analyze and critique; break content into parts to understand each aspect of the study, and pull together or combine parts into a whole to make sense of it and explain relationships
What makes up an introduction?
- Background to problem
- Lit review
- Theoretical framework
- Identify research questions and purpose of study
What makes up method?
- Describe research design and sample
- Describe data collection
- Instruments used
What makes up results?
- Describe data analysis procedures
- Present findings
What makes up discussion?
- Major findings
- Limitations
- Conclusions, implications and recommendations
