Types of Research, research methodology

1. Chapter 13: Descriptive and
Exploratory Research
 Descriptive Exploratory Experimental
Describe Find Cause
Populations Relationship and Effect
Case study
Developmental Research
Normative Research
Qualitative research
Correlational, Predictive research
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2. Descriptive/Exploratory
Research
 Purpose:
– To describe a phenomenon
– To explore factors that influence and
interact with it
 Descriptive Research
– Document conditions, attitudes, or
characteristics of individuals or groups of
individuals
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3. Descriptive Research
 Exploratory Research:
– Focuses on the relationships among these
factors
Descriptive and Exploratory Research:
May be combined, depending on the
research question
Are considered nonexperimental or
observational research (no data
manipulation)
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4. Retrospective and Prospective
Research
 Retrospective Research
– Data have been collected in the past
Prospective Research
Data are collected in the present
(longitudinal studies)
Prospective research is more reliable
than retrospective
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5. Descriptive Research
 Purpose of descriptive studies:
– Document the nature of existing variables
– How they change overtime
– Structured around a set of guiding
questions
Descriptive data provide the basis for
classifying data and for further questions
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6. Case Studies
 Purpose
 In-depth description of an individual’s
condition or responses to treatment
 Can also focus on a group, institution,
or other social unit
 Case series- an expansion of a case
study (several similar cases are
reported)
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7. Case Studies
 Most often:
 Case studies emphasize unusual
patient problems or diagnoses that
present interesting clinical challenges
 A case study is an intensive
investigation designed to a analyze &
understand factors important to the:
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8. Case Studies
–Etiology, care, and outcome of
subject’s:
–Background, present status, and
responses to intervention
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9. Case Studies
It begins with a: full history,
delineation problems, symptoms,
and prior treatments,
demographic and social factors
that a relevant to the subject’s
care and prognosis
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10. Case Studies
 Literature should be cited to support
treatment
 Documentation of all interventions,
subject’s responses, and and10 follow-
up should be complete
 Data could be quantitative or qualitative,
or both
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11. Case Studies
 Major Contributions:
– Information generates hypothesis
– A thorough analysis of a single situation
may lead to discovery of non obvious
relationships
– “Case law” may lead to a conceptual form
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12. Case Studies
 Provides an opportunity for
understanding the totality of an
individual’s experience
 Limitations:
– Limited generalizability from one case to
another due to lack of control
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13. Developmental Research
 Involves the description of
developmental change and the
sequencing of behavior in people over
time (Erickson, Piaget)
 Methods used to document change:
1. Longitudinal study- follows a cohort of
subjects over time
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14. Developmental Research
 Advantage of longitudinal method:
– Ability to accumulate data through
intensive documentation of growth and
change in the same individuals
Disadvantages:
Money, long term commitment, attrition,
and confounding variables
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15. Developmental Research
2. Cross-Sectional Method- studies a
stratified group of subjects at one-point
in time
This method is used more often than
longitudinal method because its
efficiency as subjects are tested once at
the same time
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16. Developmental Research
 Disadvantages of Cross-Sectional
method:
• Selection of subjects (results reflect extraneous
factors)
• “Cohort Effects” (effects are not age-specific
but rather generation or time of birth)
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17. Developmental Research
 Provides valuable information for
generating correlational or experimental
hypothesis/es
 Generates developmental theories
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18. Normative Studies
 Purpose:
 To describe typical or standard values
for characteristics of a given population
 Directed toward:
– A specific age group, gender, occupation,
culture, or disability
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19. Normative Research
 Norms are usually expressed in terms
of:
– Mean (within a range of acceptable values)
– Normal nerve conduction velocity of the
Ulnar nerve is expressed as 57.5
meters/sec, with a normal range of 49.5 to
63.6 m/s
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20. Normative Research
 The “norm” is used as a basis for:
Prescribing corrective interventions
Predicting future performance
Researchers must be aware of
sampling biases
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21. Qualitative Research
 Quantitative Methods:
– Based on ‘Logical positivism”
– Concept/constructs can be measured and
assigned numbers
Qualitative Methods:
Based on observing the “complex
nature of humans”
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22. Qualitative Research
 Purpose:
To understand the patient’s perspective
To describe how individuals perceive their
own experiences within a specific context
 To seek an understanding why something
occurs
(Phantom pain)
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23. Qualitative Research
 Methods of Data collection:
– Interviews
– Observations
 Data Analysis and Interpretation
– Data are recorded in the narrative
– Content analysis
– Themes
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24. Qualitative Research
 “Measurement error”
– In terms of judgments not numerical
equivalency
Sampling
Size
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25. Exploratory Research
 The systematic investigation of relationship
among two or more variables
 Purpose:
– To describe relationships
– To predict the effects of one variable on
another
– To test relationships that are supported by
clinical theory
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26. Exploratory Research
 Exploratory research is guided by a set
of hypotheses
– Operational definition
– Statistical testing
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27. Exploratory Research
 The foundation of exploratory research
is the process of:
1. Correlation-
– Measures the degree of association among
variables
– A function of covariation of the data (the
extent that one variable varies directly or
indirectly with another variable)
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28. Exploratory Research
The strength of this relationship is measured
by a correlation statistic
– Pearson Correlation r (how close the
correlation coefficient is to +1or -1
2. Regression-
Predicts the score on an outcome variable
by knowing the values of other variables
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29. Chapter 13
 Now you know all
about Descriptive
and Exploratory
Research
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