Deck 10: Quantitative Methodology: Noninterventional Designs and Methods

Question 1

Predictive correlational studies are designed to provide a way to predict the value of one variable, in relation to another variable. Which of the following research studies are predictive correlational in design?

A)One that studies the relationship of hospital admission blood alcohol level in chronic alcoholics to the amount of time that elapses before delirium tremens begin
B)One that classifies patients coming to an emergency department as critically ill, acutely ill, or not acutely ill
C)One that quantifies the probability that adolescents completing a one-day type I diabetes workshop will develop ketoacidosis in the following year
D)One that studies both girls and boys in grammar school and counts the number of interactions they have with one another daily
E)One that describes the incidence of postterm labor in all counties of New York state
F)One that measures the effect of a researcher-applied independent variable upon a dependent variable

Answer 1

One that studies the relationship of hospital admission blood alcohol level in chronic alcoholics to the amount of time that elapses before delirium tremens begin
One that quantifies the probability that adolescents completing a one-day type I diabetes workshop will develop ketoacidosis in the following year

Question 2

Researchers studied alcoholism recovery, comparing the success rate for two groups of participants: those receiving individual psychotherapy and those not receiving individual psychotherapy. The researchers measured sobriety once, at 18 months' posttreatment initiation. What study design would be most suitable for this type of research project?

A)Longitudinal descriptive design
B)Comparative descriptive design
C)Cross-sectional design
D)Model-testing design

Answer 2

Comparative descriptive design

Question 3

If a researcher plans to study graduate-level achievement in all students who were educated under the Vermont public school system, in a small town that used both state-mandated texts and enrichment texts of the school board's choosing, the researcher would be using a fairly small sample, bound by geography and time. Which type of validity is decreased by a study like this one?

A)Construct validity
B)Statistical conclusion validity
C)External validity
D)Internal validity

Answer 3

External validity

Question 4

A researcher analyzes the past 3 years of patterns of hospital admissions, mortality, and primary diagnosis, drawing from the admission department's database. What kind of research could this be?

A)Prospective
B)Retrospective
C)Cross-sectional
D)Longitudinal
E)Descriptive
F)Correlational
G)Predictive
H)Trend design

Question 5

What are the desired outputs of model-testing designs?

A)Evidence that for all future participants the relationships in the model will hold true
B)Identification of which ones of a group of variables are associated with a given outcome
C)Elimination of possible terms in the model that are found not to be statistically significant
D)Establishment of a working theoretical model for a process
E)Proof of causation

Question 6

Researchers study 54 nonsmoking women with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer, for the purpose of describing the women's progress in response to standard treatment, which all of them receive. Which of the following designs would be suitable for this study?

A)Comparative descriptive
B)Time-dimensional
C)Prospective cohort
D)Cross-sectional
E)Predictive correlational
F)Longitudinal
G)Simple descriptive

Question 7

Structural equation modeling (a type of model-testing research) uses large samples. What is the reason for this?

A)Interactions among many variables are tested.
B)The research is experimental, so a large, multi-site sample is preferred.
C)Causation cannot be demonstrated in a small sample.
D)Differences often are minuscule, because the sample is homogeneous, and so the effect size is small.

Question 8

A researcher designs a study that tallies how many days the schoolchildren living in Illinois must stay inside at recess because of inclement weather. The researcher's intent is to generalize study findings to all public schools in Illinois, as a justification for a larger and better indoor multipurpose room for any new or remodeled schools in the state. What strategies on the part of the researcher would help achieve this level of generalizability? Assume that all schools in the sample will receive a copy of the plans for the study, with a statement emphasizing the possible benefits to the area schools through participation in the study.

A)The researcher will not allow any school to decline to participate in the study.
B)The researcher will select a large sample of schools randomly from all schools in Illinois.
C)The researcher will send a questionnaire to every school in Illinois.
D)The researcher will promise participating schools that they will be first in line for monetary rewards to enhance their schools' multipurpose rooms.
E)The researcher will choose 200 target schools in the state that average the highest percentage of instructional days affected by inclement weather.

Question 9

How does a comparative descriptive design differ from a typical descriptive design?

A)It compares statistics between the current time and an earlier time, whereas the typical descriptive design focuses on only one time period.
B)It compares a number of variables and examines the relationship between them, whereas a typical descriptive design never does this.
C)It differs in name only; both have the same design.
D)It describes data from two different groups, whereas a typical descriptive design focuses on a single group.

Question 10

A hospital manager reviews the past year's charting to determine what kind of oral care patients have actually been receiving, who has been delivering the oral care, and oral care's relationship with infection of all sources. This study could be which of the following?

A)Prospective
B)Retrospective
C)Correlational
D)Descriptive
E)Quasi-experimental

Question 11

Hospital nurses are observed in order to determine exactly how long nurses at a major urban hospital swab IV ports with alcohol. The researcher chooses to observe nurses in a high-acuity emergency department within that hospital. Because the nurses often are in near-code circumstances, they "scrub the hub" only as long as they have time to do so. Collecting data exclusively from this high-acuity unit is an example of what concept, relevant to quantitative research?

A)Causality
B)Control
C)Retrospective design
D)Bias

Question 12

Why is selection of an appropriate design for a Non-interventional research study important?

A)If the design is an incorrect one, the researcher will examine variables and their interactions in a way that does not answer the research question.
B)The design involves a choice between quantitative, qualitative, outcomes, or mixed methods research.c.All designs should include data collected across time.
D)If the design is appropriate, the researcher can eliminate error.

Question 13

Random selection of 300 participants yields a sample. Demographic analysis of that sample reveals that there are 99 teachers in the sample, despite the fact that the target population contains far fewer than 33% teachers. Which term describes the sample?

A)Biased
B)Controlled
C)Multicausal
D)Fully manipulated

Question 14

Several television programs, such as those with an amateur performance component, allow viewers to text in votes for their favorite performer. From a research point of view, this is what kind of a design?

A)Simple descriptive
B)Comparative descriptive
C)Longitudinal
D)Simple correlational

Question 15

What do cross-sectional designs, trend designs, and longitudinal designs have in common?

A)They all study participants at one time.
B)They all focus on change over time.
C)They all involve data collection over months or years.
D)They are identical to ordinary descriptive designs.

Question 16

A researcher conducts a correlational study to determine the relationship between strict discipline in one's home of origin and anxiety disorders. At the beginning of the study the researcher defines the study variables, both conceptually and operationally. Which type of validity demands careful definition of study variables?

A)Construct validity
B)Internal validity
C)External validity
D)Statistical conclusion validity

Question 17

Correlational research has which of the following characteristics?

A)Examines the strength of a relationship, to determine causality
B)Allows independent variables to be manipulated
C)Examines relationships among existing variables
D)Is used to generate rather than test hypotheses
E)Always uses large samples
F)Can test a model

Question 18

Why is the threat of participant attrition more problematic in longitudinal designs than in other types of descriptive research?

A)Participants are elderly.
B)Data analysis is complex, and missing data points necessitate dropping the participant from the analysis.
C)Data collection occurs over a much longer period of time.
D)Treatments are aversive, making participants in the experimental group drop out.

Question 19

Which of the following are potential sources of bias when conducting a research study?

A)A random number table
B)The research assistant's belief that people with a certain hair color are illogical
C)The statistician's level of precision when inputting data
D)The sample characteristics
E)A 15-item scale that quantifies intrapartal depression
F)A blood pressure cuff that has been properly calibrated

Question 20

Which one of the following research approaches tests causality?

A)Grounded theory
B)Experimentation
C)All quantitative research
D)Correlational research

Question 21

A theoretical model is developed through qualitative research. The model explains family dynamics in relation to a new leukemia diagnosis for an infant. The researcher now tests the model, using structural equation modeling (SEM). The final model contains family size, parental age, availability of extended family support, economic status, insurance status, and parental religious beliefs, as they predict anger, depression, effective decision-making, parental self-care, and cohesion. Which of the following are true, in relation to the model's variables?

A)Parental religious belief is an exogenous variable.
B)Leukemia diagnosis is an exogenous variable.
C)Extended family support is an endogenous variable.
D)Insurance status is an exogenous variable.
E)Effective decision-making is an endogenous variable.
F)Residual is NOT represented by any of the following: family size, parental age, availability of extended family support, economic status, and insurance status.

Question 22

A researcher surveys patients at various points of their hospitalizations, relative to the quality of hospital food, measured on a scale that includes taste, texture, amount, temperature, and general appearance. Demographic data collected include age, gender, ethnicity, income, and family information, plus dates of admission and discharge for each patient. Variables related to food include individual items' protein, fat, and calorie content, a self-rating of appetite at three points of the day, special diet requirements, and type of diet eaten at home. The researcher uses multiple regression analysis to make sense of the copious data. The number of hours that elapse between survey completion and hospital discharge seem to be the strongest predictor of quality of hospital food. Which three of the following statements are most likely explanations of this finding, considering the study's Non-interventional design?

A)Nurses don't treat patients who are close to going home as sick people and are more likely to encourage them to try to eat, which improves their appetites.
B)As hospital discharge nears, patients feel better and their appetites improve.
C)As hospital discharge nears, patients are increasingly ambulatory and expend more calories, improving their digestion and their appetite.
D)Patients who are close to leaving the hospital receive decreasing amounts of opioid medication and, consequently, their appetites are less suppressed.
E)Being surveyed about eating causes patients to be hungry.
F)As hospital discharge nears, hospital workers are less likely to be sympathetic to patients' complaints; this causes them to increase their oral intake.