9 What is causality? Causality means that things have causes and that causes lead to effects. Remember, not all studies examine cause and effect...some describe variables or examine relationships among the variables. 10 What is multicausality? Very few phenomena in nursing can be clearly linked to a single cause and single effect. The presence of multiple causes for an effect is referred to as multicausality. Ex. diagnosis, age, co-morbidities, and post-surgery complications all affect a patient's length of stay. 11 What is probability? The likelihood that something will happen. The idea of relative rather than absolute causality. Researchers will design studies to examine the probability that a given effect will occur under a defined set of circumstances. 12 What is bias? A slant or deviation from the true or expected. Bias in a study distorts the findings from what the results would have been without the bias. So, researchers place great value on identifying and removing sources of bias in their study, or controlling their effects on the study findings. 13 What is control? Control means having the power to direct or manipulate factors to achieve a desired outcome. It is one way to reduce bias in the design of quantitative studies.
14 What is manipulation? A form of control used most commonly in experimental and quasi experimental designs. Typically controlling the treatment or intervention is the most commonly used manipulation. 15 What is study validity? A measure of truth or accuracy of the findings obtained from a study. The validity of a study's design is central to obtaining quality results and findings from a study. 16 What are threats to a study's validity? A general term that relates to possible problems in a study's design. Think about it: strengths and threats to a study's validity provide a major basis for making decisions about whether a study's findings are accurate and should be used in practice .... or not. 17 Validity is something that you are being asked to learn about and evaluate as a strength or weakness of a research article that you are critiquing. What are the four major types of validity identified in your textbook? statistical conclusion validity internal validity construct validity external validity 18 What is statistical conclusion validity? This type of validity is concerned with whether conclusions about relationships or differences drawn from statistical analysis are an accurate reflection of the real world. 19 What is internal validity? This type of validity is focused on determining whether a study's findings are accurate, or are more the result of the influence of extraneous variables. 20 What is construct validity? This type of validity is concerned with the fit between the conceptual definition of a variable and the instrument that is chosen to measure the variable (does it measure what it says it measures).
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- Fall '16
- Denise Cauble
- Nursing, Qualitative Research, researcher