WELNS 670: Wellness Research
Design
Session 2
Review
8 Characteristics of Research
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Originates with a question or problem
Requires a clear articulation of a goal
Follows a specific plan of procedure
Divides the principle problem into more manageable
sub-problems.
Is guided by the specific research problem, question,
or hypotheses
Accepts certain critical assumptions
Requires the collection and interpretation of data in
an attempt to resolve the problem that initiated the
research
Is cyclical, by nature…
From Leedy and Ormrod (2001). Practical
Research: Planning and Design.
The Research Cycle
From Leedy and Ormrod (2001). Practical
Research: Planning and Design.
Research is not…
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Information gathering by itself (information
discovery, reference skills)
Transporting facts from one location to
another (fact discovery, fact reporting)
Rummaging for information (selfenlightenment)
Catchword to get attention (sales-pitch)
From Leedy and Ormrod (2001). Practical
Research: Planning and Design.
Thinking about research…
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Describe an example of the word “research” being
used inappropriately.
In the most rigorous tests of hypotheses,
researchers set out to fail to support a hypothesis.
Why might fail to support be a more rigorous test of a
hypothesis than trying to support it?
As a Masters’ student,
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Think of at least one personal benefit that the you would get
from completing a thesis
Think of at least one societal benefit that follows from your
completing a thesis
What would you study???????
Practical Example
Practical Example
Values of Journalist Added
Where does the Data Come From?
Always try to site the primary
data collector.
Source: National Center for
Education Statistics
Actual Source: US
Department of Commerce,
Bureau of the Census,
Current Population Survey…
by way of CPR, Series P-60.
In Class Activity (groups of 3-4)
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Look through your group’s collection of
articles.
How are these articles similar?
How are they different?
Which articles represent true research
articles as described in Chapter 1 of your
text?
New Material
2 Primary Functions of Research
Methodology
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To control and dictate the acquisition of data
To corral the data after their acquisition and
extract meaning
Research methodology – the general
approach the researcher takes in carrying
out the research project.
Tools of Research
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Research tool – a specific mechanism or
strategy the researcher uses to collect,
manipulate, or interpret data.
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The library and its resources
The computer and its software
Techniques of measurement
Statistics
The human mind
Facility with language
The Library and its Resources
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/
Computer and It’s Software
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Planning the Study
Literature Review
Study Implementation and Data Gathering
Analysis and Interpretation
Discussion
Reporting
Question…
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Do recent technological advances (WWW,
electronic databases) assure that future
research will be of higher quality, or of
greater utility, than past research?
Measurement as a tool of research
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“Measurement is limiting the data of any
phenomenon – substantial or insubstantial –
so that those data may be interpreted and,
ultimately, compared to an acceptable
qualitative or quantitative standard.”
Four Scales of Measurement
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Nominal
Ordinal
Interval
Ratio
The scale of measurement will ultimately
dictate the statistical procedures used to
analyze the data.
Nominal Measurement Scale
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Divides data into discrete categories
Has no values assigned to the various categories
Examples: Boy/Girl, Red/White/Blue/Green,
None/Dial op/Cable/DSL/Other, Ball
State/Purdue/IU/IUPUI, yes/no
Only a few statistics are appropriate for analyzing
nominal data (mode, percentage, chi-square tests)
Usually described using frequency distributions
Ordinal Measurement Scale
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Again, divides data into discrete categories
However, this level of measurement allows us to
rank-order data in terms of one being greater or
higher than another
Examples: small/medium/large, elementary/middle
school/high school/college, 20-29/30-39/40-49/50+
Extends the range of statistical techniques (median,
percentile rank, Spearman’s correlation)
Usually described using frequency distributions
Interval Measurement Scale
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Has equal units of measurement and the “zero point”
is established arbitrarily
Examples: Likert and Likert-type scales (strongly
agree to strongly disagree), Fahrenheit and Celsius
temperature scales
Again extends the statistical procedures available for
analysis (means, standard deviations, Pearson
Correlations)
Usually described using means and standard
deviations
Ratio Measurement Scale
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Has equal measurement units and an absolute zero
such that the ) on the scale reflects a total absence
of the quantity being measured
Examples: Age, distance, weight, velocity
Allows you to conduct virtually any statistical
analysis
Usually described using means and standard
deviations
Summary: Measurement Scale
If you can say that…
 One object is different from another, you have a
nominal scale;
 One object is bigger or more anything than another,
you have an ordinal scale;
 On object is so many units more than another, you
have an interval scale;
 One object ti so many times bigger, brighter, heavier,
or as tall as another, you have a ratio scale.
Question Items Issues
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Response categories should be mutually
exclusive and exhaustive (for the audience).
Think carefully about “forced responses” and
“neutral options” and overall, the number of
options you will offer.
Validity and Reliability of a
Measurement Tool
Validity and reliability influence…
 The extent to which you can learn something from
the phenomenon you are studying
 The probability that you will obtain statistical
significance in your data analysis
 The extent to which you can draw meaningful
conclusions from your data
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“Psychometric measures”
Validity
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“the extent to which the instrument measures
what it is suppose to measure”
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Face validity
Content validity
Construct validity
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Reliability
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“the consistency with which a measuring
instrument yields a certain result when the
entity being measured has not changed.”
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Test-retest, internal consistency
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Reliability is a necessary but insufficient
condition for validity
Statistics as a Tool of Research
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Statistics give information about the data and “help
the human mind comprehend disparate data as an
organized whole”
This information can be used to help give meaning to
the data (interpretation)
Descriptive statistics – summarize the general nature
of the data
Inferential statistics – help make decisions about the
data (i.e., are the results statistically significant)
The Human Mind as a Tool of Research
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The mind of a researcher must use all of the
information available to them to interpret the data to
arrive at logical conclusions to their meaning
Deductive Logic
Inductive Reasoning
Scientific Method (identifying a problem, positing a
hypothesis, gather data, analyze and interpret the
data)
Critical thinking – evaluation information or
arguments in terms of their accuracy or worth
Facility with Language as a Tool of
Research
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“Learning the specialized terminology of your
field is indispensable to conducting a
research study, grounding it in prior theory
and research, and communicating your
results to others.”
Group Work (small groups)
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Find articles that include detailed information
about measurement tools and identify the
level of measurement of those items.
Explore whether and how information about
reliability and validity of measurement tools is
conveyed. If absent, what information is
needed to convince readers that high quality
measurement instruments were employed in
the study.
Question (for next session)…
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The authors include a relatively lengthy
section on writing the research report. Why
is it important that research results are
carefully written up and made available to the
scientific community?