Nres 1: Chapter 3: Key Concepts and steps in Qualitative and Quantitative researchgd

People who provide information to the researcher (quantitative study)

1. subjects

2. study participants

People who provide information to the researcher (qualitative study)

1. informants

2. study participants

People who provide information to the researcher (quantitative study)

1. subjects

2. study participants

People who provide information to the researcher (qualitative study)

1. informants

2. study participants

site

overall location for research

variable

is a characteristic or quality that takes on different values

continuous variables

can take on an infinite range of values along a continuum

Discrete variables

have a finite number of values between two points

Categorical variables

have distinct categories that do not represent a quantity

Dependent variable

is the behavior or characteristic the researcher is interested in explaining, predicting, or affecting

Independent variable

is the presumed cause of, antecedent to, or influence on the dependent variable.

operational definition

Research Data

• information collected during a study

• are the pieces of information obtained in a study

Relationship

is a bond or connection between two variables.

qualitative research

sometimes is rooted in research traditions that originate in other disciplines

Grounded theory

• research with roots in sociology, seeks to describe and understand the key social psychological processes that occur in social settings

• focus on developing social experience

• is the discovery of not only the basic social psychological problem but also a core variable that is central in explaining what is going on in that social scene

Phenomenology

• focuses on the lived experiences of humans and is an approach to learning what the life experiences of people are like and what they mean.

• philosophical tradition developed by Husserl and Heidegger, is concerned with the lived experiences of humans

• what is the essence of this phenomenon as experienced by these people

Ethnography

• provides a framework for studying the meanings, patterns, and lifeways of a culture in a holistic fashion

• engage in extensive fieldwork

• strive to learn from members or cultural group, to understand their worldview, and to describe their customs and norms

IMRAD Format

1. Introduction

2. Method

3. Result

4. Discussion

Statistical test

are procedures for testing research hypotheses and evaluating the believability of findings.

Data being investigated (Quantitative Term)

1. Constructs

2. Concepts

3. Variables

Data being investigated (Qualitative Term)

1. Phenomena

2. concepts

System of organizing concepts (Quantitative Term)

1. theoretical framework

2. theory

3. conceptual framework

4. conceptual model

System of organizing concepts (Qualitative Term)

1. sensitizing framework

2. theory

3. conceptual framework

Information gathered (Quantitative Term)

numerical values

Information gathered (Qualitative Term)

narrative description

connections between concepts (Quantitative Term)

• cause-and-effect, associative

connections between concepts (Qualitative Term)

patterns of associations

Logical reasoning processes (Quantitative Term)

deductive reasoning

Logical reasoning processes (Qualitative Term)

Inductive reasoning

Construct

abstraction inferred from situations or behaviors

theory

systematic, abstract explanation of some aspect of reality

Heterogeneous group

when an attribute is highly varied in the group under study

homogeneous group

the amount of variability is limited

dichotomous variables

categorical variables take on only two values

conceptual definition

present the abstract or theoretical meaning of concepts under study

operational definition

• concept specifies what the researchers must do to measure the concepts and collect needed information

• specifies how the variables will be measured

causal relationship

a cause-and-effect relationship

experimental research

• researchers actively introduce an intervention or treatment-most often, to address therapy questions.

• clinical trial

nonexperimental research

• researchers are bystander-they collect data without intervening (most often, to address Etiology, Prognosis, or Diagnosis questions).

• observational study

literature review

provides a foundation on which to base new evidence and usually is conducted before data are collected

Hypotheses

state researcher’s expectation(predictions) about relationship between study variables

research design

overall plan for obtaining answers to the research questions

population

all the individuals or objects with common, defining characteristics

sampling plan

specifies how the sample will be selected and recruited and how many subjects there will be

abstract

brief description of the study placed at the beginning of the article

introduction

communicates the research problem and its context

method section

lays out methodological decisions made in the design and planning phase and may offer rationales for those decisions

results section

presents the finding from the data analyses and summarizes key findings

Discussion section

researchers draw conclusion about what the result mean and how the evidence can be used in practice