Key Concepts in

Quantitative Research

Dr. Nidal F. Eshah

RN, CNS, PhD
 Faces and Places of Research

 Study, investigation or research project.

 Subjects, study participants or respondents.
 Researcher, investigator or scientist.
 Project director or principal investigator (PI).
 Co-investigators.
 Collaborative research.
 Consultants.
 Funder or sponsor.
 Reviewers (peer reviewers).
 Mentors.
 Research Settings
 Site
 Multisite studies
 Naturalistic settings
 Laboratory settings
 Quasi-natural
Building Blocks of a Study

 Variables are the central building

blocks of quantitative studies.
 A characteristic or quality that takes on
different values, i.e., that varies from
one person to the next.
Examples:
 Blood type
 Weight

 Length of stay in hospital

 Research focuses on abstract rather
than tangible phenomena. (e.g. pain,
coping, grief, and resilience are all
abstractions of particular aspects of
human behavior and characteristics).

 These abstractions are referred to as

concepts.
 Construct refers to an abstraction or
mental representation inferred from
situations or behaviors.

 The terms construct and concept are

sometimes used interchangeably.

 Although by convention, a construct often

refers to a more complex abstraction than a
concept.
 Types of Variables

 Continuous (e.g., height, weight)

 Discrete Variables

 Categorical (e.g., marital status,

gender)
 Dichotomous variables

** Attribute variable vs. Active variable

 Types of Variables (cont.)
Independent variable —the presumed
cause (of a dependent variable)

Dependent variable —the presumed effect

(of an independent variable)

 Variability in the dependent variable is presumed to

depend on variability in the independent variable.
Example: Smoking (IV) Lung cancer (DV)

 Does a nursing intervention cause more rapid

recovery?
 Definitions of Concepts and
Variables

 Conceptual definition:
the abstract or theoretical meaning of
a concept being studied.

 Operational definition:
the operations (measurements) a
researcher must perform to collect
the desired information.
 Variability
 Homogeneous

 Heterogeneous
 Data
 Are the pieces of information obtained in the course
of the investigation.
 In quantitative studies, researchers identify the
variables of interest, develop operational definitions
of those variables, and then collect relevant data
from subjects.
 The actual values of the study variables constitute
the data for the project.
 Quantitative researchers collect primarily
quantitative data—information in numeric form.
Box 2.1 Example of Quantitative Data
Box 2.2 Example of Qualitative Data
 Relationships
A bond or connection between variables.

 Cause-and-effect
(causal) relationship (e.g., cigarette
smoking and lung cancer)

 Functional
(associative) relationship (e.g., gender
and life expectancy)
Key Challenges of Doing Research
 Conceptual
 Financial
 Practical
 Ethical
 Clinical
 Methodologic
 Major Methodologic Challenges

Designing studies that are:

 Reliable and valid (quantitative

studies)
 Criteria for Evaluating Quantitative
Research
 Reliability
The accuracy and consistency of obtained
information.

 Validity
The soundness of the evidence—whether
findings are convincing, well-grounded.
 Bias
 Bias is a major concern in designing a study
because it can threaten the study’s validity.

 Bias: an influence producing a distortion in

study results.

Examples of factors creating bias:

 Lack of participant candor
 Faulty methods of data collection
 Researcher’s preconceptions
 Faulty study design
 Types of Bias
 Random bias: a handful of study participants
might fail to provide totally accurate information
as a result of extreme fatigue at the time the
data were collected.

 Systematic bias: results when the bias is

consistent or uniform.

* Quantitative researchers use various methods to

combat the effects of bias, and many of these
entail research control.
 Research
Control in Quantitative Studies
 Achieved by holding constant factors (extraneous
variables) that influence the dependent variable, to
better understand its relationship with the
independent variable.

 Example:
1. Mother’s age infant birth weight
2. Mother’s age prenatal care infant birth weight
3. Mother’s age nutrition infant birth weight
Randomness—An important tool for achieving
control over extraneous variables.

Replication
 Virtually every study has flaws or limitations.
 Nursing practice is almost never changed on the
basis of a single study, no matter how sound.
 Evidence-based practice generally builds on
accumulated evidence.

 Replication: are attempts to validate the

findings from one study in an independent
inquiry.
 Generalizability

Generalizability:
The extent to which study findings
are valid for other groups not in the
study