Scholarly Research Final

• Moves from the specific to the general
• e.g. A headache is an altered level of health that is stressful. A terminal illness is an altered level of health that is stressful.
• Therefore, all altered levels of health are stressful

• Moves from the general to the specific
• Generalizing
• e.g. All human being experience loss. All adolescents are human beings.
• Therefore, all adolescents experience loss

A statement of the proposed relationship between concepts

• A formal, objective, systematic process in which numerical data are used to obtain information about the world
• Pretest-posttest
• Randomized clinical trial - experimental group vs. control group

• A systematic, subjective approach used to describe life experiences and situations
• Gives them meaning

• Examining the end result of patient care (subjects and providers)
• May involve multiple studies and designs
• Determining changes in health status for the patient
• 1. What's the patient response?
• 2. Improvement of the patient's health
• 3. Financial outcomes
• 4. Patient satisfaction

• The exploration and description of phenomena in real-life situations; discovers new meaning, what exists, frequency of event
• A type of quantitative research

• The systematic investigation of relationships between variables
• -1 = perfect negative correlation
• 0 = no relationship
• +1 = perfect positive correlation

• Conducted to determine the effect of a treatment
• Determines the effect of one variable on another
• Lacks strict control, sample, and setting

• Examines causality between the independent and dependent variables under highly controlled conditions (e.g. lab)
• Needs randomly assigned control and experimental groups
• Predicts and controls phenomena in nursing practice

• Striving for excellence in research
• Discipline, adherence to detail, strict accuracy
• Needs precise measuring tools, a representative sample, and a tightly controlled study design

• An aspect of rigor
• Encompasses accuracy, detail, and order

Systematic identification of a problem, determination of goals, planning approaches to achieve goals, implementation of approaches, evaluation of goal achievement

• Assessment
• Diagnosis
• Planning
• Implementation
• Evaluation

Conceptualizing a research project, planning and implementing that project, communicating the findings

An area of concern where there is a gap in knowledge

• Identifies the specific goal of the study
• Generated from the problem

• Theoretical basis that guides development of study
• Enables the researcher to link findings to nursing's body of knowledge
• A testable theory

• Provides an abstract variable or concept with theoretical meaning
• e.g. physical symptoms are 'behavior manifestations of blah blah blah'
• connotative

• Developed so that the variable can be measured or
• manipulated in the study
• e.g. physical symptoms are measures with ASI Questionnaires

Statements that are considered true, even though they have not been scientifically tested

• A blueprint for the conduct of a study
• Maximizes control over factors that could interfere with study's desired outcome

• Population: all individuals that meet certain criteria for
• inclusion in a study
• Sample: a subset of the population that is selected for a study

• Describes experiences as they are lived
• “What is the meaning of one's lived experiences?”

• Discovers the problems that exist in social scenes and the process that people use to handle them
• Based on social interactions

• Studies cultures
• Emic approach – studies from within
• Etic approach – studies from outside

Determines validity of source material

Examines the reliability of the document

Generalizablity

Do results of a study reflect reality rather than extraneous variables?

The researcher explores personal feelings and experiences that may influence the study and integrates this understanding into the study

• Suspending or laying aside what the researcher knows about the experience being studied
• Using reflexive thought

Openness, scrupulous adherence to a philosophical perspective, thoroughness in collecting data, and consideration of all the data

• A clear, concise, declarative statement
• Present tense
• Usually focuses on one or two variables

• A clear, concise interrogative statement
• Present tense
• Guides implementation of study

Formal statement of the expected relationship between variables

• Proposes relationships among variables that exist together in the real world (they are related)
• e.g. predicts the relationship between symptoms and functional performance in COPD

States a relationship (associative or causal) between two variables

States a relationship (associative or causal) between three or more variables.

States that a relationship exists but does not predict the nature of the relationship

States "There is no relationship between ______"

• Alternative to the null hypothesis
• States "There is a relationship between _______"

Is manipulated by the researcher

• Outcome or response that the researcher wants to predict or explain
• Depends on the independent variable

Extraneous variables that are recognized but cannot be controlled for

• Conceptual model: broadly explains phenomena of interest, most abstract
• Middle range theories: linked to clinical practice, less abstract
• Practice theories: proposes specific approaches, least abstract

• fabrication, falsification, or forging of data
• dishonest manipulation
• misrepresentation of findings
• plagiarism

• respect for person: self-determination, freedom
• beneficence: do good, "above all, do no harm"
• justice: subjects should be treated fairly

• disclosure of essential study information
• comprehension
• competence to give consent
• voluntary consent

Describes variables and examines differences in variables in naturally occuring groups

• tracking individuals and group variance from a specific pathway
• goal is to decrease preventable variance
• aka, help patients achieve optimal outcomes

expected difference between subjects in a sample

• subjects in a sample are systematically different than the rest of the population
• aka. systematic bias

randomly selecting subjects from a list of population members

ensures that all identified variables (age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconimoc status, diagnosis, region, type of care, etc) are adequately represented in the sample

• selects from a random sample of areas in a study
• certain cities, or institutions, or organizations, all with potential identified population

selecting ever nth individual from a complete list of the population

• Probability sampling: every member of a population has an opportunity for selection in a sample
• Nonprobability sampling: not every member of a population has an opportunity for selection

subjects are included in the study becase they're in the right place at the right time

• convenience sampling + an attempt to include an underrepresented population
• e.g. females, minorities, elderly, poor, rich, undereducated

capacity of the study to detect differences or relationships that actually exist in a population

• researcher consciously selects certain subjects
• used in qualitative research

• "snowball sampling"
• uses social networks to recruit more subjects
• used in qualitative research

• conducts one interview, forms theory, seeks another source if necessary, etc
• used in grounded theory research

categorizes data

• ranked categories
• intervals are unequal

• interval scales, with equal numerical distances between intervals
• no absolute zero
• e.g. temperature

• ordered ranks, equal numberical distance between intervals, has an absoluate zero
• e.g. weight, length, volume

consistency of the measurement technique

how well does an instrument reflect abstract concept being examined

• If a measurement method is not reliable, validity becomes a moot issue
• If a measurement is not consistent, it wont reflect reality

accidental discovery of something useful or valuable

score in the exact center of the frequency distribution

average

• Probability theory: deductive, explains a relationship
• Decision theory: inductive, assumes that all groups are compenents of same population in relation to variables

• I: null hypothesis is rejected when it should be accepted
• II: null hypothesis is accepted when it should be rejected