Week 2 Flashcards
what is a quantitative (2) vs qualitative (3) term used to describe the person contributing info in a study
- quantitative = subject, study participant
- qualitative = study participant, informant, key informant
what is a quantitative vs qualitative term used to describe the person undertaking the study
- both = researcher, investigator
what is a quantitative (3) vs qualitative (2)term used to describe that which is being investigated
- quantitative = concepts, constructs, variables
- qualitative = phenomena, concepts
what is a quantitative vs qualitative term used to describe the info gathered in a study
- quantitative = data (numerical values)
- qualitative = data (narrative descriptions)
what is a quantitative (3) vs qualitative (1) term used to describe the connections between concepts in a study
- quantitative = relationships, cause-and-effect, associative
- qualitative = patterns of association
what is a quantitative vs qualitative term used to describe the logical reasoning processes in a study
- quantitative = deductive reasoning
- qualitative = inductive reasoning
what is deductive reasoning
- poses hypothesis based on previously captured facts or variable & relationships that have been captured in theory
what is inductive reasoning
- working from specific observations from the ground up to try to understand what people’s experiences are straight from their own voices
what is quantitative research
- objective approach to explaining and predicting events
- often involves mathematical techniques (numbers) to count or measure variables
what is qualitative research
- uses holistic approach to understand people’s experiences & in-depth understanding of how life unfolds in natural settings & to examine people’s experiences of illness in health care
- studies people’s perceptions of events and experiences
- often done when v little is known abt the topic
- often a precursor to quantitative–> helps us identify key factors or variable that are important for ongoing studies
define: study subject or participant
- people being studies or cooperating in the study
define: study site
- the overall location for a study
ex. Portland
what is the benefit of multisite studies
- tends to yielf to more diverse group of study participants = potentialy enhancing the generalizability of findings
define: theories
- set of relationships composed of constructs and concepts
- knits concepts into a coherent system that purports to explain phenomena
- less abstract
define: constructs
- cannot readily be observed, but you can define or operationalize them w observable features –> measured w multiple variable (concepts)
- slightly more complex abstractions
- not something we can define unless we give it a definition (ex. wealth, everyone interprets it differently)
define: concepts
- a mental image that can be observed both directly (ex. height, weight) or indirectly (age
- abstractions of particular aspects of human behavior or characteristics
what are examples of constructs
- self-care –> underlying concepts of bathing, eating, dressings
- quality of life
define: variable
- a characteristic or quality that takes on different values, that varies from one person to the next
what are 5 types of variables
- independent
- dependent
- confounding
- controlled
- conceptual
define: independent variable, what is another name for this
- experimental variable
- the presumed cause of a dependent variable
- the one things you can change in an experiment
ex. the liquid used to water each plant
define: dependent variable, what is another name for this
- outcome variable –> the outcome being measured
- the presumed effect/outcome of an independent variable
- the change that happens bc of the independent variable
ex. the height or health of the plant
define: confounding variables, what is another name
- extraneous variables
- other factors that influence the results of a study
what is a controlled variable
- everything you want to remain constant
ex. pot used, type of plant, amt of liquid, soil type, etc.
define: conceptual variable
- the abstract or theoretical meaning of a concept being studied
define: operational variable
- the operation (measurements) a researcher must perform to measure the concept and collect the desired info
define: data
- the pieces of info researchers collect in a study
what kind of data is collected in a quantitative study
- numeric data (quantitative data)
what kind of data is collected in a qualitative study
- narrative (verbal) data
define: relationship
- a bond or connection between variables
define a cause-and-effect relationship; what is an examples
- causal relationship
- a relationship in which one event (the cause) makes another event happen (the effect)
ex. cigarette smoking & lung cancer
define a associative relationship; what is an example
- functional relationship
- relationship between two random variables which makes them statistically dependent –> related, but not causal
ex. gender and life expectancy
describe the qualitative study of pattern
- qualitative researchers may seek patterns of association as a way of illuminating the underlying meaning and dimensionality of phenomena of interest
what are the 5 phases in a quantitative study
- conceptual
- design & planning stage
- empirical stage
- analytical phase
- dissemination phase
describe the conceptual phase of a quantitative study (3)
involves:
- formulation of research problem or question
- reviewing the literature relating to the research problem, see what else has been done
- formulating hypothesis