Understanding Research Variables: Types, Effects, and Relationships, Exams of Nursing

Download Understanding Research Variables: Types, Effects, and Relationships and more Exams Nursing in PDF only on Docsity! pg. 1 1 research independent dependent demographic extraneous environmental modifying categorical continuous operational conceptual variables dichotomous • Independent variable: manipulated by the researcher o Cause or predictor • Dependent variable: outcome variable o Researcher’s intent to produce, modify, or predict • Demographic: subject characteristics used to describe a sample o Age, gender, ethnicity o LOS, diagnosis, acuity • Extraneous: not central to study’s research purpose; not independent or dependent o Has potential effect on results o Makes independent variable appear more or less powerful on the value of the dependent variable • Confounding: cannot be controlled once study starts • Research: focus of quantitative study not independent or dependent • Modifying: change strength and direction of relationship between other variables o Level of development in country and educational attainment and self-rated health o Mediating: link between independent and dependent o Self efficacy • Environmental: from research setting, no control o Noise • Categorical or nominal: names or categories, not real numbers • Continuous or ratio: use rael number scale 1. Which variables describe characteristics of the study participants such as gender and years of service that cannot be manipulated? Demographic 2. Which variable is manipulated by the researcher? Independent 3. Which variable is the outcome variable? Dependent 4. Which variables are uncontrolled variables that influence the findings of the research study? Extraneous? 5. A definition that describes the concepts in abstract terms? Conceptual 6. What variable is a characteristic of the study setting? Environmental pg. 2 2 7. A definition that specifies how the concepts will be measured? Operational 8. These variables are the operationalized concepts being examined in a correlational study. Independent? 9. What are the concepts or properties that are operationalized and studied? Variables? 10. Which type of variable is an intervention applied to an experimental group? Independent 11. The value of a blood pressure measurement is an example of what type of variable? continuous 12. When values are names to be measured, such as married- divorced-single, what is the type of variable? Categorical 13. Which variable is neither causative nor predictive, but the focus of a study? Research 14. Which variable may change the strength or direction of a relationship between other variables, for example the level of education of the mother between the birth wright of a newborn and nutrition of the mother? Modifying 15. Which variable is the one that the researcher is interested in explaining? dependent 16. n a study, the question was asked "What is the effect of noise levels on post-operative pain or blood pressure fluctioations in ICU patients?" Noise levels is what type of variable? independent 17. What type of variable would be "age: under 65/65 and over"? dichotomous 18. In a study, the question was asked " Is the job performance of nurses affected by salary or perceived job autonomy?" What type of variable is job performance? dependent 19. In a study of the health care needs of low income, rural dwelling persons which type of variable is low income? demographic 20. When studying the relationship between factors related to academic success among nursing students, Beauvis, Stewart, DeNisco & Beauvais (2013) found that there is an association between pg. 5 5 9. Hospital nurses are observed in order to determine exactly how long nurses swab IV ports with alcohol. Because they are being observed, they “scrub the hub” longer than they ordinarily would have. This is an example of what threat to validity of the the study design relevant to quantitative research? Hawthorne effect (alteration of behavior by the subjects of a study due to their awareness of being observed) 10. What is the relationship between a conceptual definition and an operational definition? Operational allows researcher to create a measurable variable from a concept 11. Control occurs when the researcher imposes “rules” to decrease the possibility of error and thus increases the probability that the study’s findings are an accurate reflection of reality. Which type of research design has the highest level of control in a study? Experimental research 12. A nurse researcher works on a subacute orthopedic hospital floor. She notes that elders with knee replacements sleep as many as 16 hours a day, waking only for physical therapy and meal. She also notices that those with many visitors sleep fewer hours and seem to experience more pain. She wonders whether sleep in elders after knee replacement prevents pain, or whether elders select the coping strategy of sleeping more, in response to pain. She wants to identify the possible relationship between sleep and pain so she conducts a literature search which reveals only three descriptive studies on this topic (one quantitative and two qualitative). What is “the relationship between elders’ hours of sleep following knee replacement and its relationship with report of pain”? research question 13. All of the following have the potential to generate new knowledge for nursing EXCEPT: editorials published in nursing journals 14. Researchers who select a quantitative design for their study want to: determine the strength of the relationship between the independent and dependent variable 15. A researcher conducts a study to determine the effectiveness of a special program of sensitivity training for nurse managers upon several outcomes, all related to the staff’s ability to identify and intervene appropriately when medication errors occur. This is an example of what type of quantitative research? Applied research 16. A researcher studies the effect upon dental caries formation of a year- long regimen of daily rinsing with a particularly noxious-flavored oral solution, only to discover than 285 of the 300 subjects in the study have withdrawn from it by the end of the first month. Which step in the research process was not properly undertaken? Performing a pilot study 17. Why is operational reasoning necessary for research? Allows researcher to measure the concepts studied pg. 6 6 18. A graduate student receives a mailed survey asking her to participate in research about unpleasant experiences in graduate school. She is asked to return the survey, and the instructions say, “Return of this instrument implies consent.” Why does this constitute consent? Not returning the survey constitutes refusal, and subjects may indeed refuse by not completing the survey. The opposite is equally true. 19. A research study contains the following in its Introduction section: “This study was undertaken to explore the effect of massage on total hours of sleep per 24-hour day, in persons averaging fewer than 7 hours of sleep per night, attributable to insomnia. . . . Presumably by increasing endorphin levels, massage seems to provide an immediate relaxation and an ability to sleep immediately following the session, but it is unclear whether these benefits actually extend to total sleep, despite anecdotal support. The claim that massage increases total hours of sleep has been inadequately researched. . . . Does massage increase the total number of hours of daily sleep? . . . It was posited that provision of daily late-morning massage would affect total hours of sleep per 24-hour day. The study’s causational explanation was based on the physiologic matrix of McCarthy, which includes effects of endorphins on sleep, learning ability, pain, digestive function, and cardiac output. ....... It was taken as established fact that massage is pleasant, that research subjects getting fewer than 7 hours of sleep per night were sleep-deprived, and that endorphins mediated the changes observed.” What is the research problem? Presumably by increasing endorphin levels, massage seems to provide an immediate relaxation and an ability to sleep immediately following the session, but it is unclear whether these benefits actually extend to total sleep, despite anecdotal support. 20. A researcher conducting a study to examine linkages among age, gender, driver’s license suspension, and zip code poverty, educational level, and income, sourced from the records of the State Department of Motor Vehicles, is using which of the following types of research? Descriptive research (concepts are described and relationships are identified but not examined) pg. 7 7