Week 9 - Research

Question 1

discuss levels of research involvement

Answer 1

• Level 4: leadership/supervision of the research of others
• Level 3: actively participating by leading research projects
• Level 2: active involvement in research through collaboration with others
• Level 1: evidence based practice, understanding/interpreting/applying research

Question 2

discuss barriers to research

Answer 2

• resources: time and funding
• knowledge and skills
• confidence and self-esteem
• ‘perfectionist’ streak

Question 3

discuss benefits of research

Answer 3

• credible and competitive individuals and discipline
• confidence and self-esteem
• professional fulfilment and vitality
• better practice (enhances acceptance of new knowledge)
• accountability (service providers, clients and the public)
• new collaborations

Question 4

define/explain: quantitative research

Answer 4

• gives answers to research Q in #’s
• measures relationship between variables

4 major elements:
1. Hypothesis – tentative statement about relationship
2 Independent variables – may/may not be controlled by researcher (intervention, treatment, condition)
3. Sample size – large enough to provide statistically significant data; also represents whole population
4. Data analysis – relies on statistical procedures

Question 5

define/explain: major approaches to quantitative research

Answer 5

1. Cross-sectional study, descriptive, disease, risk factors, etc. are measured at one point in time in a given population
2. Cohort study, individuals identified with differing exposures to a suspected factor, observed for the occurrence of certain health effects over period of time
3. Case-control, compares group of individuals w. specific condition (‘cases’) to group of individuals w/o condition (‘controls’)
4. Controlled trial, compares intervention given to one group (treatment) and the outcome to a similar group (control) that did not get intervention, if random assignment, then called RCT

Question 6

define/explain: qualitative research

Answer 6

• gives answers to research Q’s in words
• methodologies based on understanding people’s perceptions and perspectives
• naturalistic approach to understand meanings (“the stories behind the numbers”)
• detailed, descriptive data

Question 7

define/explain: major approaches to qualitative research

Answer 7

1. Narrative research, listen to people’s life stories
2. Phenomenology, understand people’s lived experiences (~10 people)
3. Grounded theory, building theories of social phenomenon by developing new concepts, frameworks
   - collect data, analyze it, collect more data, analyze it, until no new information emerges (~20 – 30 people)
4. Ethnography, ‘inside looking around rather than outside looking in’, interview people, observe events, ‘cultural immersion’
5. Case studies, detailed historical and contextual information about a single person, group, organization, or community

Question 8

define/explain: 4 elements of trustworthy qualitative research

Answer 8

1. Credibility, how well findings represent participants’ actual perspectives (validity)
2. Dependability, instrument or process consistently produces rich & meaningful descriptions of phenomena (reliability)
3. Confirmability, the extent to which others reviewing the data would come to the same interpretations (objectivity)
4. Transferability, findings from rigorously conducted studies can be applied in similar contexts (external validity)