Deck 8: Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs

Question 1

By what specific criterion should a nurse researcher judge the results or findings of experimental research?

A) The size of the experimental group compared with the size of the control group
B) The validity that the experimental treatment caused the desired effect on the outcome
C) The degree to which the research questions were congruent with the hypothesis and purpose
D) The degree to which the researcher was able to apply the findings to clinical or practice settings

Answer 1

The validity that the experimental treatment caused the desired effect on the outcome

Question 2

In a study to help people quit smoking cigarettes,a group of participants received one supportive phone call 10 days after attending a program on strategies to resist smoking.A second group received a supportive phone call every week for 6 weeks after attending the program,and a third group received no supportive phone calls after attending the program.What property of experimental research did the researcher employ in this study?

A) Quasi-experimental research, no control group
B) Random assignment to research groups
C) Manipulation of the intervention dose
D) Controlling for extraneous variables

Answer 2

Manipulation of the intervention dose

Question 3

How should the experimental treatment initiated by the researcher be described?

A) Independent variable
B) Dependent variable
C) Extraneous variable
D) Outcome variable

Answer 3

Independent variable

Question 4

The nurse researcher is concerned about validity in the research study being designed.What type of threat to validity is minimized by the use of a Solomon four-group design?

A) Mortality
B) Selection bias
C) Testing
D) Antecedent variable

Question 5

When would a quasi-experimental study design be a better choice for a research study than an experimental study design?

A) When the study is planned to be conducted in a laboratory setting
B) When an experimental treatment is not part of the study
C) When the researcher has not conducted research before
D) When full experimental control is not possible

Question 6

How should the nurse researcher expect the independent variable to be handled differently in a study with an experimental design compared with a study with a quasi-experimental design?

A) An independent variable is neither identified nor needed in a quasi-experimental design.
B) Although both designs identify an independent variable, the nature of the groups (randomization versus no randomization) means manipulation may result in different results.
C) Experimental designs demonstrate that the independent variable is related to the outcome, and quasi-experimental studies allow for independent variables that stand alone.
D) Although both designs identify an independent variable, experimental designs identify it before the research is initiated and quasi-experimental designs identify the independent variable after the data are analyzed.

Question 7

The nurse researcher is planning a research study in which subjects will not be randomly assigned to groups.Which type of quasi-experimental design would be most appropriate for this study?

A) Nonequivalent control group design
B) After-only control group design
C) Solomon four-group design
D) Time series design

Question 8

Which statement regarding random assignment or randomization is most accurate?

A) The process decreases the influence of researcher bias but can increase the effect of systematic bias in a study.
B) The process decreases the influence of systematic bias but can increase the effect of researcher bias in a study.
C) Each subject has an equal and known probability of being assigned to any group in a study.
D) Randomization eliminates the need for informed consent.

Question 9

The nurse researcher is critiquing a research study that involves subjects undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer.Which situation meets a criterion for inferring causality between performance of exercise and adaptation of the subjects receiving chemotherapy?

A) Adaptation behavior began before the exercise program was initiated.
B) Adaptive behavior occurred in the control group over time.
C) The level of adaptive behaviors increased proportionately with an increase in the intensity of the exercise.
D) No difference in adaptive behavior was observed between subjects in the experimental group and subjects in the control group.

Question 10

The nurse researcher is critiquing the research report of an experimental study.What aspect should be the primary consideration in determining the validity of the conclusions presented?

A) How well the researcher controlled for extraneous variables
B) The direction of the relationship between the dependent and independent variables
C) The credentials and previous experience of the researcher
D) The number of persons involved in the data collection process

Question 11

In a study to help people quit smoking cigarettes,a group of participants received one supportive phone call 10 days after attending a program on strategies to resist smoking.A second group received a supportive phone call every week for 6 weeks after attending the program,and a third group received no supportive phone calls after attending the program.What is the dependent variable in this study?

A) Program on strategies to resist the urge to smoke
B) Reduction or elimination of cigarette smoking
C) One-time supportive phone call
D) Weekly supportive phone call

Question 12

The nurse researcher is designing a research study and is considering an experimental design.Which research activity can be expected to increase the control of a study with an experimental design?

A) Establishing strict subject selection criteria
B) Allowing participants to decide whether or not to be in the experimental group
C) Ensuring that the subjects do not know the purpose of the experimental study
D) Increasing the number of assistants involved in data collection to limit personal bias

Question 13

Which factor or characteristic should a nurse researcher expect to see only in an experimental design?

A) Research question or hypothesis
B) Experimental treatment
C) Informed consent
D) Randomization

Question 14

The nurse researcher is critiquing a research study that used an experimental research design.How can the nurse researcher know whether the study can appropriately infer causality?

A) The relationship between cause and effect must be measurable and reciprocal.
B) The relationship must not be explainable by any other variable.
C) The independent variable must change in response to manipulation of the dependent variable.
D) The outcome must be logical, expected, and predictable.

Question 15

Which study would be most effective with an after-only experimental research design?

A) The effect of cause of spousal death on widow self-esteem
B) The effect of preoperative teaching on vascular complications after surgery
C) The effect of a mentorship program on improvement of student clinical performance in a bachelor's of science in nursing (BSN) program
D) The effect of a videotape format teaching method on the knowledge of adolescent males about the warning signs of testicular cancer

Question 16

The nurse researcher is designing a study comparing weight loss among obese subjects who participated in a weight loss support group with obese subjects who chose not to participate in a weight loss support group.Which factor or condition in the study would be considered an intervening variable?

A) Data collection for both groups occurred over the Thanksgiving holiday.
B) The group who did not participate in a support group had a greater percentage of men as subjects.
C) Three subjects were diagnosed with hypertension 1 month after the study began.
D) Two subjects dropped out of the study 1 month after the study began.

Question 17

The nurse researcher is designing an experimental study.Which group of people would the researcher recognize as the control group in a true experimental study?

A) The group receiving the experimental treatment
B) The group receiving the usual treatment
C) The group experiencing adverse results
D) The group refusing to participate

Question 18

Which statement about the threats to internal validity present in a quasi-experimental study using a nonequivalent control group design is most accurate?

A) The study results will not be statistically significant.
B) The study can be strengthened by identifying and controlling threats to internal validity.
C) The results of the study cannot be generalized beyond the actual population studied.
D) Observation rather than causation is the purpose.

Question 19

Why should a nurse researcher be concerned with randomization in a study with an experimental design?

A) It reduces the risk that a subject will be harmed by participation in the study.
B) It ensures that the experimental group and the control group have the same number of participants.
C) It allows the study to proceed without the researcher knowing which group is the treatment group.
D) It increases the likelihood that differences in outcomes between the groups are not related to chance alone.

Question 20

Why is control important in a study with an experimental design?

A) It is the care taken to ensure maintenance of participant confidentiality
B) It is the introduction of one or more constants into the experimental situation
C) It is the ability of the researcher to prevent data collection from extending beyond the original time specified for the study
D) It is the faithfulness of the researcher in the application of all the assumptions of the experimental process to the study

Question 21

How are laboratory experiments subject to threats to validity?

A) Threats to internal validity are increased; threats to external validity are increased.
B) Threats to internal validity are increased; threats to external validity are decreased.
C) Threats to internal validity are decreased; threats to external validity are increased.
D) Threats to internal validity are decreased; threats to external validity are decreased.

Question 22

What technique could best control for antecedent variables in a study using true or classic experimental design?

A) Manipulation of the independent variable
B) Manipulation of the dependent variable
C) After-only data collection
D) Random assignment

Question 23

A nurse researcher is conducting an experimental study on self-care behaviors of subjects related to hygienic practices when dining in restaurants.Which of the following characteristics or factors could be antecedent or intervening variables? (Select all that apply.)

A) Subjects' ethnicity
B) Location of the restaurants
C) A recent change in health status
D) Subjects' educational level

Question 24

Why would a nurse researcher prefer quasi-experimental studies over experimental studies?

A) A smaller sample size is sufficient to obtain significant results.
B) They are stronger in establishing cause-and-effect relationships.
C) Descriptive statistics can be used to analyze the data.
D) They are more adaptable to real-world settings.

Question 25

A research study in a laboratory setting incorporates four groups (two control and two experimental)in which only one experimental or control group set is pretested,whereas all four groups are posttested.Which description(s)of the design would be most accurate? (Select all that apply.)

A) Experimental design
B) After-only experimental design
C) Field experiment
D) Quasi-experimental design
E) Solomon-four group design

Question 26

A study was conducted to determine whether a videotaped instruction was more effective than a pamphlet in teaching menopausal women the benefits of annual mammograms.Which condition could be considered an antecedent variable?

A) Four participants in the pamphlet-based instruction group had mothers who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and the other group had no participants with mothers diagnosed with breast cancer.
B) Those in the group who received the videotape training were all from the same city, and those in the group who received the pamphlet-based instruction were members from different locales.
C) During the conduct of the study, most participants received flu shots from the local public health department
D) The pamphlet group had 38 members, and the videotape group had 33 members.

Question 27

A researcher collects data on subjects at baseline,1 month,3,6,9,and 12 months following institution of a weight-reduction treatment.Which descriptions are appropriate for this study's design? (Select all that apply.)

A) Experimental or quasi-experimental design
B) Time series design
C) A priori design
D) Cross-sectional design
E) Descriptive design

Question 28

A nurse researcher is planning a quantitative study to test the effect of a new wound product on wound healing.What factors are necessary to implement an experimental pretest-posttest design? (Select all that apply.)

A) Inclusion of a second control group
B) Pretest data can be collected
C) Use of two posttreatment data collection times
D) Subjects randomized to only the control group
E) Random assignment of subjects to treatment and control groups

Question 29

A research study is being conducted to analyze the effect of nutritional supplementation and type of selected support surface on rate of wound healing in sacral myocutaneous flap failures.Which of the following variables is an independent variable in this study? (Select all that apply.)

A) Rate of wound healing
B) Sacral myocutaneous flap
C) Retailer of protein supplement
D) Nutritional supplementation
E) Type of support surface

Question 30

Which research designs could be classified as experimental designs? (Select all that apply).

A) Solomon four-group design
B) After-only design
C) Nonequivalent control group design
D) After-only nonequivalent control group design
E) One group (pretest-posttest) design
F) True experiment (pretest-posttest control group) design
G) Time series design

Question 31

Which research designs could be classified as quasi-experimental designs? (Select all that apply.)

A) Solomon four-group design
B) After-only design
C) Nonequivalent control group design
D) After-only nonequivalent control group design
E) One group (pretest-posttest) design
F) True experiment (pretest-posttest control group) design
G) Time series design

Question 32

Which area(s)would be considered to be a weakness of quasi-experimental research designs? (Select all that apply.)

A) Costly to implement
B) Weakened confidence in making causal assertions
C) Subject to contamination by internal validity
D) Disruptive to the usual routine of the setting
E) Difficult to perform in a particular clinical setting
F) Findings may be the result of other extraneous variables

Question 33

When would a quasi-experimental research design be preferable to an experimental design?

A) When a smaller sample size is sufficient to obtain significant results
B) When it is needed to establish cause-and-effect relationships
C) When descriptive statistics are adequate to analyze the data
D) When there is a need to adapt to real-world settings

Question 34

Which designs would be considered experimental? (Select all that apply.)

A) Nonequivalent control group design
B) After-only design
C) True experiment (pretest-posttest control group) design
D) After-only nonequivalent control group design
E) Solomon four-group design
F) One group (pretest-posttest) design
G) Time-series design

Question 35

Which designs would be considered quasi-experimental? (Select all that apply.)

A) Nonequivalent control group design
B) After-only design
C) True experiment (pretest-posttest control group) design
D) After-only nonequivalent control group design
E) Solomon four-group design
F) One group (pretest-posttest) design
G) Time-series design

Question 36

A nurse researcher is weighing the option of using an experimental or quasi-experimental design for a study.The researcher recognizes that quasi-experiments may lack which elements? (Select all that apply.)

A) Manipulation of the dependent variable
B) Randomization of subjects to groups
C) Incorporation of an experimental group
D) Use of a control group
E) Manipulation of the independent variable

Question 37

How are field experiments subject to threats to validity?

A) Threats to internal validity are increased; threats to external validity are increased.
B) Threats to internal validity are increased; threats to external validity are decreased.
C) Threats to internal validity are decreased; threats to external validity are increased.
D) Threats to internal validity are decreased; threats to external validity are decreased.