The study questions for this unit will help you apply the detailed information about research design provided in the textbook in analyzing research reports and in designing studies. Both investigators and users of research must understand the major types of research and be able to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of specific designs. For some of the questions below (e.g., 2, 4), you will find it helpful to set up worksheets with rows and columns and continue to add information as you work through the remainder of the course.

1. The primary function of research design is to maximize the investigator's control over the research situation. What are the characteristics of good design?
2.  How do the characteristics of good design contribute to control of the dependent, independent, extraneous, and experimental (intervention) variables?
3. How do investigator's control extraneous variables in a study?
4. Compare the types of research designated below in terms of the purpose/appropriate situation and selected design characteristics.  Look carefully at the examples for each type of research provided in the text.
   
   --Types of research: descriptive, correlational, ex post facto, quasi-experimental, experimental, evaluation, and methodologic. Polit and Hungler include ex post facto as correlational research, but other authors may present it as a unique type of research or as quasi-experimental.
   
   --Selected design components: intervention, comparisons, controls for extraneous variables, timing of data collection.
   
5. The validity of a research design refers to how well it does its job in maximizing the investigator's control over the research situation. Validity applies to both experimental and nonexperimental research designs. What are the threats to internal validity? To external validity? What strategies do researchers use to control the respective threats?
6. How does "sample" relate to "population?
7.  List the different approaches to probability and non-probability sampling? How do they relate to internal and external validity?
8. Describe the purpose and characteristics the following qualitative research designs: ethnography, phenomonology, grounded theory, historical, and case study.
9. Compare and contrast sampling in quantitative and qualitative research.
10. What factors must a researcher consider when establishing sample size?
11. What are the advantages of blending qualitative and quantitative data within single studies? What are the obstacles?
12. Describe rights of subjects that need to be protected when considering nursing research, including giving examples of violations of these rights. What are the essential elements of informed consent? Find these in copies of consent forms in the Unit I.
13. Explain the purposes and types of institutional review.
14. What is scientific misconduct? Give an example. What can researchers do to guard against scientific misconduct?
15. What principles and guidelines are there for research involving animals?
16. Describe the elements of evidence-based nursing?