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Part 3: Research Designs

Chapter 9: Quantitative Research Designs

Review Questions

Review Questions


This activity contains 12 questions.

	A nurse researcher is interested in the behaviors of people who spend time in intensive care unit waiting rooms. No research could be found about this topic in the nursing literature. What kind of study would be appropriate to study this topic?   Exploratory Descriptive Experimental Explanatory

	Differentiate between internal and external validity of research designs.   External validity should be considered before internal validity. Internal validity is a factor to be considered in all research designs. External validity is more important than internal validity because the researcher always wants to generalize study results. As the researcher controls for internal validity, external validity usually decreases.

	Which of the following threats to internal validity is most difficult to control?   Maturation Selection bias Mortality History

	Differentiate between the pretest–posttest control group design and the nonequivalent control group design.   Selection bias is the greatest threat to internal validity in the pretest–posttest control group design. In the nonequivalent control group design, subjects are not randomly assigned to groups. Sample sizes are always smaller in nonequivalent control group designs compared to pretest–posttest control group designs. In the pretest–posttest control group design, subjects are not randomly selected from the population.

	How does a researcher control for the reactive effects of the pretest (also called measurement effect)?   Use a pretest–posttest control group design. Use a Solomon four-group design. Only administer a pretest if it is absolutely necessary. Randomly assign subjects to the experimental and control groups.

	A correlation coefficient of –0.80 between the number of hours studied for a test and the scores on the test indicates that   as the number of hours studied decreases, test scores increase. there is a strong correlation between the number of hours studied for a test and test scores. the number of hours studied is correlated with test scores. as the number of hours studied increases, test scores increase.

	A researcher is interested in studying child abuse in families where the mother was abused when she was a child. Which of the following designs would be most appropriate to study this phenomenon?   Pre-experimental Correlational Ex post facto Survey

	When reading a quantitative research report to determine if the design is appropriate, it is most important to read which part of the research article?   Abstract Methods section All of the research article Results section

	A researcher is studying the use of a new realistic model of the human breast to teach women how to perform breast self-exam (BSE). Six weeks later, the researcher will test the women’s recall of the information taught. Select the situation from those listed below that would concern the researcher most about the validity of her study.   The researcher has just learned that the new BSE model is difficult to find and purchase. An actress had to have a mastectomy and made a statement on television that it is important for women to know how to perform BSE. The American Cancer Society has just announced that the incidence of breast cancer has increased slightly in the past five years. Three of the participants dropped out of the study.

	One of the biggest advantages that a quasi-experimental design has over a true experimental design:   This type of research is less expensive to conduct than true experimental research. There is no real advantage of a quasi-experimental design over a true experimental design. By conducting research with naturally occurring groups, the “real world” is more closely approximated. This type of research is easier to conduct than true experimental research.

	Explain the use of the term “manipulation” in experimental research.   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.

	Discriminate between internal validity and external validity.   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.

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