Introduction to the Research Process (Course 1)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from the lecture notes for Course 1: Introduction to the research process.

Research process

A sequence of steps used to answer a health sciences research question, including formulating the question, designing the study, collecting data, analyzing results, and interpreting findings.

Three research components

The triad of research design, variable measurement, and statistical analyses that structure and interpret a study.

Research design

The plan for a study, specifying the research question, objectives/hypotheses, research type, and method.

Variable measurement

Deciding what to measure and how to measure each variable (e.g., blood sugar levels, pain levels, recovery hours after an operation).

Statistical analyses

The process of collecting, organizing, summarizing, interpreting, and presenting data to uncover patterns and test hypotheses.

Descriptive statistics

Statistics that summarize the main features of a dataset (e.g., mean, median, mode, variance, standard deviation).

Inferential statistics

Statistics that make inferences about a population from a sample (e.g., hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, regression).

Qualitative (categorical) variables

Non-numeric variables that take on categories; include nominal or ordinal types.

Nominal

Unordered categories; examples include sex, blood group.

Ordinal

Ordered categories; examples include stages of disease, level of pain.

Interval

Differences between adjacent scores are equal; arbitrary zero point (e.g., temperature).

Ratio

Differences between adjacent scores are equal; there is a fixed zero (e.g., height, weight, age).

Qualitative vs Quantitative variables

Qualitative (categorical) variables are non-numeric; Quantitative variables are numeric and can be counted or measured.

Mean

The average; sum of values divided by the number of observations.

Standard deviation

A measure of how spread out the values are around the mean.

Absolute frequency

The count of occurrences of a category or value.

Relative frequency

The proportion or percentage of occurrences relative to the total.

Correlation

A statistical measure of the relationship or association between two variables.

Hypothesis testing

A process to determine if observed data significantly differ from what is expected under a null hypothesis.

Confidence interval

A range around a sample estimate that likely contains the population parameter at a stated probability.

T-test

A statistical test that compares means between two groups.

ANOVA

Analysis of Variance; a statistical test that compares means among three or more groups.

Research type

Categories describing study design: Descriptive, Correlational, or Experimental.

Prevalence

The proportion of individuals in a population who have a disease at a given time.