Introduction to Research
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Sources of Knowledge
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Tradition
Authorities
Personal experience
Trial and error
Intuition
Disciplined research
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Purposes of Research
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Identification
Description
Exploration
Explanation
Prediction & Control
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Methods for Research
• Research methods
– are the techniques used by researchers to
structure a study and to gather and analyze
information relevant to the research question
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Methods for Nursing Research
• Quantitative
– The study of phenomena that lend
themselves to precise measurement
and quantification, often involving a
rigorous and controlled design
• Qualitative
– The investigation of phenomena,
typically in an in-depth and holistic
fashion, through the collection of rich
narrative material using a flexible
research design
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Quantitative Research
- Scientific Approach
- Positivist Paradigm
• Quantitative Research
– Uses orderly, disciplined procedures to acquire information
– Uses deductive reasoning (developing specific predictions from
general principles) to generate hunches that are tested
– Uses mechanisms to control the study (minimizes biases,
maximizes validity)
– Gathers empirical evidence (evidence that is rooted in objective
reality and gathered directly or indirectly through the senses
versus guessing or feelings)
– Formalized instruments are used to gather information
– Data is usually in numeral form
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– Want results to be generalizable
Qualitative Research
- Naturalistic Approach
- Naturalistic Paradigm
• Qualitative Research
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Deals with issues of human complexity
Explores human issues
Attempts to understand experience as it is lived
Collects and analyzes information through narrative and
subjective material
Takes place in the field
Collection and analysis of information occurs concurrently
Uses inductive reasoning (process of developing conclusions
and generalizations from specific observations)
Not usually generalizable
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Basic and Applied Research
• Basic Research
– Purpose is to:
• Accumulate information
• Extend knowledge
• Formulate a theory
• Applied Research
– Purpose is to:
• Find an immediate
solution to a current
problem
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Research Terminology – The study
• The study
– An investigation or research project
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Research Terminology
• Study participants or subjects (quantitative &
qualitative studies)
– The people being studied
• Study informants (qualitative studies)
– The people providing the information for the study
• Researchers or investigator
– Person performing the research
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Research Terminology
• Concepts (what is being investigated)
– An abstraction based on observations of certain
behaviors or characteristics; an image or symbolic
representation of an abstract idea
– An explanatory variable or principle in a scientific
system
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Research Terminology
• Phenomena
– The abstract concept under investigation in a
qualitative study, used instead of the term variable
• Theory
– An abstract generalization that presents a systematic
explanation about the relationships among phenomena
– A reasoned explanation of known facts or phenomena
that serves as a basis of investigation by which to
reach the truth, to explain some aspect of the world
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Research Terminology
• Variables (quantitative research)
– Is any quality of a person, group, or situation that
varies or takes on different values
– Can be manipulated and measured in research
– Is something that varies
– Usually refers, in quantitative studies, to the concepts
• i.e. B/P, weight, pain – varies from one person to the next
Quantitative research seeks to understand how or why things
vary and to learn how differences in one variable affect
another
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Research Terminology
Dependent & Independent Variables
• Independent variables
– Presumed cause (an intervention)
• Dependent variables
– Presumed effect of an intervention
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Research Terminology
Dependent & Independent Variables
• Variation in the dependent variable is presumed to
depend on variation of the independent variable
• The dependent variable (outcome variable) is the variable
the researcher is interested in understanding, explaining
or predicting
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Research Terminology
Dependent & Independent Variables
• Variables are independent or dependent
depending on the role the variable plays in a
particular study
• Variables need to be defined in each study –
operational definition, operations that the
researcher must perform to collect the
required information
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Research Terminology
• Data: are the pieces of
information obtained in a
study - “collected data”
• Quantitative – numeric
information
• Qualitative – narrative
descriptions
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Research Terminology
• Relationships in
quantitative research
– Cause and effect
relationships
– Functional or associative
relationships
– More than, less than
• Relationships in
qualitative research
– Seeks patterns of
association, interconnected
themes
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Research Terminology
• Literature review:
– A critical summary of research on a topic of interest
– Builds on existing theory or research
• Hypothesis (quantitative):
– A prediction about relationships between variables
– What the researcher expects to find
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Research Terminology
• Research design:
– Is the overall plan for obtaining answers to the
questions being studied
• Population:
– Is an aggregate of all individuals or objects with some
common, defining characteristic
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Research Terminology
• Sample:
– A subset of the population
• Pilot study:
– A small-scale trial run of the study
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Reference
Loiselle, C. G., Profetto-McGrath, J., Polit, D. F., &
Beck, C. T. (2011). Canadian essentials of nursing
research. (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott,
Williams & Wilkins.
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