Week 5 Flashcards
What is the relevance of experiments and quasi-experiments in nursing research?
Control, causal mechanism, internal validity, random assignment
Lacks the manipulation of an independent variable, random assignment or participants to conditions or orders of conditions, or both
Non-experimental research
What are the types of non-experimental research?
survey, secondary data analysis
Give an example of secondary data analysis.
Using the dataset generated by Statistics Canada and then analyzing it
Using someone else’s data and performing an analysis on it
secondary data analysis
A method of investigation that uses question-based methods to collection information about how people think and act
survey research
What is the purpose of survey study?
Correlational study - relationships among variables
Developmental study - changes over time
How are survey studies classified by duration of study?
Cross-sectional - present - retrospective Longitudinal - Prospective
Name the survey study type based on the description.
A - Collect information at one point in time
B - Ask people to provide information regarding something that happened in the past
C - Evaluate variables along multiple waves
D - Collecting data at this time
A - Cross-sectional
B - Retrospective
C - Longitudinal
D - Present
Compare Prospective and retrospective on the following parameters:
- Cost
- Time spent/duration
- Degree of control
- Selection bias/recall bias
Cost - prospective costs more
Duration - prospective has more time spent
Degree of control - both studies may have many extraneous variables which may confound the data
Selection bias/recall bias - both are threats to validity
What are the advantages of survey research?
Allow us to develop multiple research questions
External validity tends to be strong
Large sample sizes
What are the disadvantages of survey research?
Providing weaker tests of causality
What are the advantages of open-ended questions?
Diversity/richer information source
Autonomy
Qualitative
What are the disadvantages of open-ended questions?
Going off topic
gather unnecessary information
Coding/Analysis (difficult)
Bias in interpretation/misinterpretation
What are the advantages of closed-ended questions?
Precise
easier to analyze/code
easier to answer
Cheaper to administer
What are the disadvantages of closed-ended questions?
Unclear
not exhaustive/mutually exclusive or answer unsuitable
Some researchers suggest what in regards to the use of closed and open-ended questions?
Use open ended-questions as a pilot test to develop closed ended questions
Questions that ask participants to choose a number representing the direction and strength of their response
Rating Qs
What are two types of rating Qs?
Likert scale
Semantic differential
Questions that ask a person to rate a product, brand or service based on a rating scale that has two bi-polar adjectives at each end
Semantic differential
Questions that ask a person’s degree of agreement or disagreement/
Likert Scale
A Likert scale has typically __ options.
5
What are some response formats we learned about?
Skip or contigency Qs Rating Qs - Likert Scale - Semantic differential Rank order (priority test)
A questions that asks you to rank choices based on the most important to the least is an example of which response format?
Rank order - priority test
The proportion of people in the sample from whom completed interviews or questionaires are obtained
Response rate
What are other names for response rate?
Return rate or completion rate
Describe the percentage of response rates and what each means.
50% - adequate
60% - good
70%+ - very good
What are the different ways in which a questionnaire may be administered?
Self-administered - online and mail
Assisted - telephone
What are the ways in which an interview may be administered?
telephone
face-to-face
What are the two types of survey design?
Questionnaire
Interview
Which are the most common types of survey designs?
Mail surveys
What are the advantages of mail surveys?
Lower cost
covers a wide geographic range
anonymity
no interviewer bias
What are the disadvantages of mail surveys?
Lower response rate
no probing or clarification
language illiteracy - incompletion
coverage issues (e.g. homeless people)
What are the advantages of online surveys?
Lower cost
covers a wide geographical range
anonymity
no interviewer bias
What are the disadvantages of online surveys?
Lower response rate
no probing or clarification
Language illiteracy - incompletion
coverage issues (e.g. those without internet)
What are the advantages of telephone surveys?
Covers a wide geographic area
some probing/clarification
higher response rate
What are disadvantages of telephone surveys?
High cost some interviewer bias lower anonymity potential disruption (e.g. background noise) coverage issues (i.e. no phone)
What are the advantages of face-to-face interviews?
Highest response rate
extensive probing
obtain rich data
What are the disadvantages of face-to-face interviews?
Most costly
most time consuming
Great interviewer bias
What are the key points of the face-to-face interview? (i.e. what may lead to bias, or lack thereof?)
Consistency - reliability Probing Interviewer bias Trust between interviewer and interviewee Interviewer training
What are the different factors that may come into play for interviewer bias?
Gender, age, social class, ethnicity/culture/race
What are some general rules to follow when making survey research questions?
Clear, concise, simple
Creative, but scientifically rigorous
What are some common mistakes that make poor survey questions?
1 - Jargon, slang, abbreviations 2 - Ambiguity, confusion, vagueness 3 - Emotional/value-loaded language 4 - Prestige bias/leading 5 - Double-barrelled questions 6 - Sensitive questions at the beginning 7 - Beyond respondent's capacities 8 - Extreme absolutes 9 - Distant future intentions 10 - Double negatives
For the following descriptions, name the survey question issue:
A - unclear frames of reference/lack of a specific context
B - questions that contain emotive or value judgement words
C - Questions that contain expert or authority persons which can affect a person’s response
D - Asking more than one item in a question
E - Questions that contain sensitive items that can discourage participants from responding
F - Questions that are beyond respondent’s comprehension
G - Questions that contain absolute language
H - Questions that contain hypothetical situations that have not yet occurred to study participants
I - Questions that have double negatives
A - Ambiguity, confusion, vagueness B - Emotion/value-loaded questions C - Prestige bias/leading Qs D - double-barrelled Qs E - sensitive Qs F - Beyond respondent's capacities G - Extreme absolutes H - Distant future intentions I - Double negatives
Name the survey question issue based on the description:
A - Do you always observe traffic signs
B - Do you favor or oppose not allowing legalization of sex workers in Canada?
C - Will you immigrate to Canada after finishing your master program in nursing?
D - Can you tell me what can possibly happen when the federal government changes residency calculation methods for permanent residents who attempt to apply for their Canadian citizenship?
E - Have you practiced unprotected sex in the past year?
F - Do you have a well-balanced diet and exercise on a daily basis?
G - Most doctors say that cigarette smoking causes lung diseases. Do you agree?
H - Should car seats be used for our loved ones?
I - Do you smoke regularly?
J - How often do you take double-double for your coffee?
A - extreme absolutes B - double negatives C - distant future intentions D - beyond respondent's capacities E - Sensitive Qs at the beginning F - Double-barrelled questions G - Prestige bias/leading H - Emotional/value-loaded Qs I - Ambiguity, confusion and vagueness J - Jargon, slang, and abbreviations
What are the 5 rules for obtaining usable answers?
1 - Response options need to be mutually exclusive and exhaustive
2 - Keep open-ended questions to a minimum (quantitative)
3 - Time (or other things) must be specified
4 - Consider a “don’t know” response
5 - Provide a meaningful scale
Describe an idea survey design based on the following parameters:
- Question order/sequence
- Context effects
- Layout and format
General –> specific
(sensitive Qs later)
Organize Qs by topic order (may have different sections)
Have easy to follow layout, good font size, highlight key words
The difference between what study participants response in the survey/interview and what they actually behave or act in reality
Response-reality gap
People lying about habits for desirability reasons; i.e. only showing their best self
Response bias
The tendency to exhibit a particular pattern of response regardless of what question is being asked
Response set
What are the different major problems in survey research (3)?
Response-reality gap
Response bias
Response set
Picking agree with OR disagree with consistently
response set
