Synchronization Between Statistics, Research Hypotheses and Research Aims PDF

13/04/2015
Dr. Geshina A Mat Saat 7 April 2015

Synchronization between statistics, research hypotheses and research aims
Biostatistics Sharing Session@PPSK

School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia,
Kubang Kerian, Kelantan
USM/GMS.biostats2015 1
OBJECTIVES OUTCOMES
• Link Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy with why, • Be able to understand & link Bloom’s
what, how, when Revised Taxonomy with why, what, how,
when
• To explain the relationship between
research aims, research hypotheses & • Get the research method ‘right the first
statistics in order to get the research time’
method ‘right the first time’
• Able to synchronize
• Synchronization between statistics, research hypotheses
between statistics, research hypotheses and research aims via eexperiential
and research aims via experiential learning learning
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PART ONE:
BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY
Introduction: Why Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy?
• Graduate students are expected to:

– improve their general intellectual skills
– attain proficiency in one or more academic disciplines of

their choice
– develop interpersonal and leadership skills needed for

productive careers and effective citizenship
– other than the above, develop professional, research, and

scholarship skills
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• To what degree have students attained desired educational

goals? – in other words, what are the evidences?
• Many universities around the world makes use of Bloom’s

Revised Taxonomy to determine & measure desired
educational goals.
• Therefore it is to the graduate student’s benefit to learn and

understand how to use Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy in the
research process and writing.
• Bloom's taxonomy refers to a classification of the different objectives that

educators set for students (learning objectives).
• It divides educational objectives into three domains:
– Cognitive: Skills revolve around knowledge, comprehension, and
critical thinking on a particular topic.
– Affective: Skills describe the way people react emotionally and their
ability to feel other living things' pain or joy. Affective objectives
typically target the awareness and growth in attitudes, emotion, and
feelings.
– Psychomotor: Skills describe the ability to physically manipulate a tool
or instrument like a hand or a hammer. Psychomotor objectives
usually focus on change and/or development in behavior and/or skills.
• Within the domains, learning at the higher levels is dependent on having
attained prerequisite knowledge and skills at lower levels (Orlich et al,
2004)
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• Typically, the top three levels within a domain are used as

guides to formulate postgraduate level objectives.
• This is to draw attention to a researcher’s cognitive acumen,

affective development and psychomotor skills.
• The following table presents examples or appropriate

objectives at the higher ends of the three domains for
research.
Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy: Cognitive domain
(Adapted from Anderson et al, 2000)

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Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy: Affective domain
Category or 'level' Behavior descriptions Examples of experience, or demonstration 'Key words'

and evidence to be measured
1. Receiving Open to experience, Listen to teacher or trainer, take interest in Ask, listen, focus, attend, take part,
willing to hear session or learning experience, take notes, discuss, acknowledge, hear, be open to,
turn up, make time for learning experience, retain, follow, concentrate, read, do, feel
participate passively
2. Responding React and participate Participate actively in group discussion, active React, respond, seek clarification,
actively participation in activity, interest in outcomes, interpret, clarify, provide other
enthusiasm for action, question and probe references and examples, contribute,
ideas, suggest interpretation question, present, cite, become animated
or excited, help team, write, perform
3. Valuing Attach values and Decide worth and relevance of ideas, Argue, challenge, debate, refute,
express personal experiences; accept or commit to particular confront, justify, persuade, criticize,
opinions stance or action
4. Organizing or Reconcile internal Qualify and quantify personal views, state Build, develop, formulate, defend,
Conceptualizing conflicts; develop value personal position and reasons, state beliefs modify, relate, prioritize, reconcile,
Values system contrast, arrange, compare
5. Internalizing Adopt belief system and Self-reliant; behave consistently with personal Act, display, influence, solve, practice,
Values philosophy value set
Source: www.d.umn.edu/vcaa/assessment/bloomoverviw.docx
Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy: Psychomotor domain

Category or 'level' Behavior descriptions Examples of activity or demonstration and 'Key words'
evidence to be measured
1. Imitation Copy action of another; observe Watch teacher or trainer and repeat Copy, follow, replicate, repeat, adhere,
and replicate action, process or activity attempt, reproduce, organize, sketch,
duplicate
2. Manipulation Reproduce activity from Carry out task from written or verbal Re-create, build, perform, execute,
instruction or memory instruction implement, acquire, conduct, operate
3. Precision Execute skill reliably, independent Perform a task or activity with expertise Demonstrate, complete, show, perfect,
of help, activity is quick, smooth, and to high quality without assistance or calibrate, control, achieve, accomplish,
and accurate instruction; able to demonstrate an activity master, refine
to other learners
4. Articulation Adapt and integrate expertise to Relate and combine associated activities to Solve, adapt, combine, coordinate, revise,
satisfy a new context or task develop methods to meet varying, novel integrate, adapt, develop, formulate,
requirements modify, master
5. Naturalization Instinctive, effortless, unconscious Define aim, approach and strategy for use Construct, compose, create, design,
mastery of activity and related of activities to meet strategic need specify, manage, invent, project-manage,
skills at strategic level originate
Based on RH Dave's version of the Psychomotor Domain (Developing and Writing Behavioral Objectives, 1970). The
theory was first presented at a Berlin conference 1967, hence you may see Dave's model attributed to 1967 or 1970).
Source: www.d.umn.edu/vcaa/assessment/bloomoverviw.docx
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Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and Research Objectives
Objective Cognitive Affective Psychomotor

domain domain domain
1 To construct a Standard Operation Construct Organization Articulation
Procedure for nursing practices in ward
hygiene management.
2 To distinguish organizational ethics in five Analysing Valuing Naturalization

departments within Hospital ‘A’
3 To create a model linking patient support Creating Internalising Precision

system and improved health status values
• Application of Bloom’s Taxonomy in research provides

indicators of professional, research, and scholarship skills.
Statement of the problem Determine what has already been
INTRODUCTION
LITERATURE REVIEW
written on a topic
Significance of the study
Construct an overview of key concepts
Aims (Direction)
Objectives Identify major relationships or patterns
Hypothesis Identify strengths and weaknesses
Identify any gaps in the research
Identify any conflicting evidence
Construct a solid background to a

research paper’s investigation
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Methodology chapter: why, what, how, when
Chapter sub-headings
(Adapted from: Saunders et al, 2007)
What was done

DISCUSSION
What was found
What do the findings mean?
To the best of your knowledge, why do you think that is? What
accounts for these results?
Why are the findings significant/important/useful? How can

they be used, and who can use them?
What went wrong?
How do the limitations of your study affect the results?
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PART TWO:
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RESEARCH AIMS,
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES & STATISTICS
The relationship between practical problems and research

problems
Practical
problem
Research Research
answer question
Research
problem
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The relationship between research aims, research

hypotheses & statistics
Statistics
Research
Hypotheses
Research
Aim
The relationship between research aims, research

hypotheses & statistics
• The development of the research aim, including a supportive

hypothesis and objectives, is a necessary key step in
producing relevant results to be used in evidence-based
practice.
• A well-defined and specific research aim is more likely to help

guide in making decisions about study design and population
and subsequently what data will be collected and analysed
(Brian, 2006).
• A good research question (O’Leary, 2004):

– Defines the investigation
– Sets boundaries
– Provides direction
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Research Aim
• An aim identifies the purpose and focus of the investigation.
• In other words, the aim answers the question ‘What is the point of
the study?’
• The aim typically involves the word: investigate, investigation,

explore, or analyse or other verbs.
• Examples:
– Brewin et al (1999) investigated the ability of a diagnosis of
acute stress disorder and its component symptoms to PTSD.
– The aim of Tan et al’s (2014) research was to explore and

evaluate previous work focusing on the relationship and links
between regulation and PM.
Research Aim
• Objectives specify the components of how the aim will be

met:
– Deconstruct a research aim into operationalised study
components – what you will do to achieve the aim.
– Primary (or main or general) and secondary objectives (or

specific) translate directly into primary and secondary
hypotheses which may be measured.
– Prioritise and limit objectives to avoid too many

hypotheses and outcomes – what can you actually do
given the time & resource limitations.
– Presented in active language, e.g. ‘to quantify’, ‘to

determine’
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Hypothesis
• A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a precise testable statement of
what the researcher predict will be the outcome of the study.
• This usually involves proposing a possible relationship between two
variables: the independent variable (what the researcher changes)
and the dependant variable (what the research measures).
• The hypotheses can be expressed in the following ways:
– The null hypothesis states that there is no relationship between
the two variables being studied (one variable does not affect the
other). It states results are due to chance and are not significant
in terms of supporting the idea being investigated.
– The alternative hypothesis states that there is a relationship
between the two variables being studied (one variable has an
effect on the other). It states that results are not due to chance
and that they are significant in terms of supporting the theory
being investigated.
Hypothesis
Adapted from: McLeod (2014)
A good hypothesis is short, clear and should include the

operationalized variables being investigated.
• A one-tailed directional hypothesis predicts the nature of the

effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable.
– E.g.: Children will recall less of what they ate then adults.
• A two-tailed non-directional hypothesis predicts that the

independent variable will have an effect on the dependent
variable, but the direction of the effect is not specified.
– E.g.: There will be a difference in how many food types are
correctly recalled by children and adults.
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Hypothesis
Freeman and Tyrer (1992) offer an example:
• Vague hypothesis: ‘Does psychotherapy help patients with

anorexia nervosa?’
• Precisely formulated question: Does psychotherapy, in the

form of cognitive therapy, when given for ten weeks, lead to
significantly greater gain in weight in anorectic patients than
in those not receiving cognitive therapy?’
• Null hypothesis: There is no difference in the weight gain of

patients with anorexia nervosa when treated with cognitive
therapy compared with a control procedure.
Adapted from: McLeod (2014)
The Hypothesis Dilemma
A hypothesis may not be appropriate if:

• You do not have an educated guess about a particular
situation
• You do not have a set of defined variables
• Your question centres on phenomenological description
• Your question centres on an ethnographic study of a cultural

group
• Your aim is to engage in, and research, the process of

collaborative change
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From Hypothesis to Statistics

• What you write as a hypothesis is directly linked to the statistic used
later.
• The type of measurement (slide 27) will determine the type of

statistical method used (slide 28).
• Statistical methodology (Lund Research LTD, 2014):

– Descriptive statistics summarizes data from a sample using indexes
such as the mean or standard deviation
– Inferential statistics draws conclusions from data that are subject to

random variation (e.g., observational errors, sampling variation)
• The next step is to determine whether interest is in relationship or

differences (see slide 28).
– ‘Relationship’ will lead to the selection of multiple regression,
linear-regression, spearman’s r or product-moment correlation.
From Hypothesis to Statistics

• Standard statistical procedure involve the development of a null hypothesis.
– Working from a null hypothesis two basic forms of error are recognized:
• Type I errors (null hypothesis is falsely rejected giving a "false
positive")
• Type II errors (null hypothesis fails to be rejected and an actual

difference between populations is missed giving a "false negative").
• In other words, for example - if units of analysis are categorical for both
independent and dependent variables, multiple regression can not be done.
• Therefore it is vital to be able to link aim to objective to hypothesis to

statistical methodology (descriptive or inferential) to ensure your research
methodology is correct and that the items in your quantitative survey are
relevant and measurable for the statistical methodology selected.
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Scales of Measurement and their Statistics
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Selecting a Statistical Test
Non Parametric Tests

Anderson–Darling test Kuiper's test
Statistical Bootstrap Methods Logrank Test
Cochran's Q Mann–Whitney U or Wilcoxon rank sum test
Cohen's kappa McNemar's test
Friedman two-way analysis of variance (by ranks) median test
Kaplan–Meier Pitman's permutation test
Kendall's tau Rank products
Kendall's W Siegel–Tukey test
Kolmogorov–Smirnov test Spearman's rank correlation coefficient
Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance (by Wald–Wolfowitz runs test

ranks)
Wilcoxon signed-rank test
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Categorical Data Analysis

• Common tests:
– Chi-square
– Fisher’s Exact Test
– McNemar test
• Reference for conducting categorical data analysis:

http://courses.ncssm.edu/math/Stat_Inst/PDFS/Categorical%20Data%20Analysis.pdf
• E-book:
http://www.planta.cn/forum/files_planta/categorical_data_analysis_202.pdf
PART THREE:
SYNCHRONIZING
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It’s a morbid but necessary job in ageing Japan: to clean up apartments where elderly people have died alone.
In March, the body of an elderly man was found on the floor of his apartment in downtown Tokyo. Neighbours
hadn’t noticed the octogenarian’s absence. His bank made the rent payments on time, his family didn’t visit, and the
only reason for the body’s discovery was a slight smell that troubled the tenant in the flat below. He had been dead
for a month. In rapidly ageing Japan, more people are dying alone and unnoticed in a country where more than 5
million elderly people live alone and increasingly isolated lives.
For these so-called “lonely deaths”, or kodokushi, families and landlords in Tokyo are increasingly turning to
Hirotsugu Masuda and his clean-up crew to salvage apartments where the occupant’s body lay undiscovered for
days or weeks. “This has started becoming a bit more common in the world and it’s become more recognised that
there’s this sort of job,” says Masuda, whose services are required 3-4 times a week in summer when bodies
decompose faster.
When Masuda’s team turns up at the Tokyo apartment, police have taken away the corpse but body fluids have
seeped into the floor. Workers wearing protective gear spray the apartment with insect repellent, using gloved hands
to pack the trash in boxes. The six-hour exercise is conducted discreetly to avoid upsetting neighbours. The crew tells
onlookers they are moving house.
Masuda’s firm works almost exclusively with “lonely deaths”, charging between ¥81,000 (RM2,494) and ¥341,000
(RM10,497) depending on apartment size. When they are done, incense and flowers are placed where the body had
been found, with the man’s photo put where his head had been. Victims forgotten by families are not given a funeral
and their remains are interred in unmarked graves.
It's a phenomenon that experts say will soon become the norm. "There's likely 40,000 of these cases and we think
that in 10 years, it's likely to go over 100,000 cases," says Hideto Kone, an NGO official working on such cases. Data
shows victims are more likely to be male. – Reuters
Source: Meyers, C (April 3, 2015). Cleaning up Japan’s ‘lonely death’ apartments. The Star online
Synchronizing
A worked example based on the case
Important words linked to
statistical methods to be selected
Aim Hypothesis Statistics

To investigate why There is no relationship between number Linear regression
‘lonely deaths’ occur of family members and ‘lonely deaths’
There is no association between living Spearman’s r

If unsure of how to
write the aim; use styles and ‘lonely deaths’
what, where, when,
how, or why.
There is no difference between genders Chi-square
and ‘lonely deaths’
*Underlined texts = variables of interest.

1. Must first be defined in units of analysis: ratio, interval, nominal, or ordinal
2. Assumptions underlying the statistics must be met before conducting analysis.
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Partial references
Brewin, C. R., Andrews, B., Rose, S., & Kirk, M. (1999). Acute stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder in
victims of violent crime. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 156(3): 360-366
Brian H. R. (2006). Forming research questions. J Clin Epidemiol. 59:881–6.
McLeod, S. A. (2014). Aims and Hypotheses. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/ aims-

hypotheses.html
O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage.
Orlich, D., Harder, R., Callahan, R., Trevisan, M., Brown, A. (2004). Teaching strategies: a guide to effective
instruction (7th ed.). Houghton Mifflin.
Tan, K.H., Shi, L., Tseng, M.L., Cui, W.-J. (2014). Managing the indirect effects of environmental regulation and
performance measurement, Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, 13 (2): 148-153.
V. (July 17, 2013). How to write a Discussion chapter for your thesis or dissertation. Retrieved from:
http://prconnections.net/2013/07/17/how-to-write-a-discussion-chapter-for-your-thesis-or-
dissertation/
Queensland University of Technology (Feb 12, 2015). Writing a literature review. Retrieved from:
http://www.citewrite.qut.edu.au/write/litreview.jsp
18

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13/04/2015

Dr. Geshina A Mat Saat 7 April 2015

Biostatistics Sharing Session@PPSK

Introduction: Why Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy?

• Graduate students are expected to:

– attain proficiency in one or more academic disciplines of

– develop interpersonal and leadership skills needed for

– other than the above, develop professional, research, and

Introduction: Why Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy?

• To what degree have students attained desired educational

• Many universities around the world makes use of Bloom’s

• Therefore it is to the graduate student’s benefit to learn and

Introduction: Why Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy?

• Bloom's taxonomy refers to a classification of the different objectives that

Introduction: Why Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy?

• Typically, the top three levels within a domain are used as

• This is to draw attention to a researcher’s cognitive acumen,

• The following table presents examples or appropriate

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy: Cognitive domain

(Adapted from Anderson et al, 2000)

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy: Affective domain

Category or 'level' Behavior descriptions Examples of experience, or demonstration 'Key words'

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy: Psychomotor domain

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and Research Objectives

Objective Cognitive Affective Psychomotor

2 To distinguish organizational ethics in five Analysing Valuing Naturalization

3 To create a model linking patient support Creating Internalising Precision

Introduction: Why Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy?

• Application of Bloom’s Taxonomy in research provides

Objectives Identify major relationships or patterns

Hypothesis Identify strengths and weaknesses

Identify any gaps in the research

Identify any conflicting evidence

Construct a solid background to a

Introduction: Why Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy?

Introduction: Why Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy?

What was done

What was found

What do the findings mean?

Why are the findings significant/important/useful? How can

What went wrong?

How do the limitations of your study affect the results?

The relationship between practical problems and research

The relationship between research aims, research

The relationship between research aims, research

• The development of the research aim, including a supportive

• A well-defined and specific research aim is more likely to help

• A good research question (O’Leary, 2004):

• An aim identifies the purpose and focus of the investigation.

• The aim typically involves the word: investigate, investigation,

– The aim of Tan et al’s (2014) research was to explore and

• Objectives specify the components of how the aim will be

– Primary (or main or general) and secondary objectives (or

– Prioritise and limit objectives to avoid too many

– Presented in active language, e.g. ‘to quantify’, ‘to

A good hypothesis is short, clear and should include the

• A one-tailed directional hypothesis predicts the nature of the

• A two-tailed non-directional hypothesis predicts that the

Freeman and Tyrer (1992) offer an example:

• Vague hypothesis: ‘Does psychotherapy help patients with

• Precisely formulated question: Does psychotherapy, in the

• Null hypothesis: There is no difference in the weight gain of

Adapted from: McLeod (2014)