CITI - Research Study Design

Which of the following do expert panel and focus group members have in common?

Both should have their feedback taken seriously.

Surveys with data all reported by the same person may be somewhat biased because of which of the following reasons?

Socially desirable responding and shared method variance

What is common to all qualitative methods?

Textual data

A hypothesis serves as:

A proposed mechanism by which key factors relevant to a research question interact with one another

In statistics, sensitivity refers to:

A test with a true positive rate

Why may telephone surveys using random digit dialing be less effective now? Check all that apply.

ALL THE ABOVE: - Caller-ID devices allow people to see who is calling them. - Many people no longer have home telephone numbers. - Some people do not have telephone access at all.

Because it is unethical to utilize a placebo-controlled design in cases where not offering study subjects an intervention would subject them to undue harm, and where an efficacious or effective intervention that exists is available, the best design option for a study involving such a situation would be:

Active comparator

Sampling weights are used to do which of the following?

Adjust for overrepresentation of some groups in the sample.

Which of the following designs is most likely to have the quantitative component carried out first, with the qualitative component both subsequent to and dependent upon the quantitative?

Explanatory design

Which of the following designs is most likely to have the qualitative component conducted first, followed by the quantitative component?

Exploratory design

Which of the following is an acceptable method for assessing the validity of a coding system?

External auditor

When conducting survey research with children, which method of administration must be used?

Face-to-face interview

A Type I error:

Is one where the researcher rejects a true null hypothesis.

Which of the following most accurately describes the "reproducibility crisis?"

It is a problem that can potentially affect any research field.

Which of the following is not correct regarding a power analysis?

It is essential for calculating a confidence interval.

The interquartile range is useful to researchers because:

It shows the researchers how much dispersion there is in the middle range of the distribution.

Deductive disclosure refers to which of the following?

Learning respondents' identities based on their responses to multiple questions.

Outlier data in a distribution:

May be useful to the analysis and the researcher should consider whether to use it or not.

When the same researcher uses quantitative and qualitative approaches on the same topic, but not necessarily in the same study, this is called:

Mixing in the program of research

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking to increase research reproducibility by

Implementing a grant review process that evaluates various factors such as the rigor of the research premise and study design.

Which of the following most accurately describes data lifecycle management (DLM)?

It refers to the tools and processes for handling data during a research study and after it concludes.

A researcher is studying political attitudes among homeless adolescents. After completing an interview, the researcher asks the interviewee to help recruit her friends to participate in the study. What type of sampling strategy is the researcher using?

Network sampling

Which methodology best describes observational research designs?

No manipulation of study variables and no randomization of subjects

The alternative hypothesis states that the connection between key factors of interest and any observed connection is most likely:

Not due to chance

In the research context, the term validity most commonly refers to:

Whether operationalized terms actually measure what they purport to measure.

Which of the following statements is true concerning data selection?

Establishing a data selection strategy prior to collecting data decreases the chance of a biased outcome.

Dr. Jones wants to study nurses' attitudes toward end-stage cancer patients. He is primarily interested in collecting information that will be used as preliminary data for a grant application. Which one of the following is most accurate?

Dr. Jones can use a convenience sample for his study.

Respondents will likely be least motivated to fill out an online survey for:

A car dealership where they took a test drive.

The publication of short methods sections:

Can contribute to reproducibility problems because important details about materials and procedures are likely to have been omitted.

Researchers decide to find one customer who is willing to speak to them about their donut consumption. Apparently, this customer only started patronizing a certain café chain two months ago. Around the same time, she began experiencing migraine headaches. The researchers decide to do an in-depth analysis of this one case. What type of study is this?

Case Study

A successful literature review will depend on how relevant and comprehensive the chosen database is to the topics of interest, the search parameters, and which of the following?

Chosen search terms

Which of the following is true regarding data acquisition?

Data acquisition should follow a detailed collection plan that is set in advance.

Conducting numerous, separate statistical analyses increases the chance that one or more of the results appear to be statistically significant, but are actually attributable to random variation or measurement error. The problem is referred to as:

Family-wise inflation of error rate

A researcher wants to understand the process of how college students decide whether or not to seek treatment for alcohol use. In the researcher's opinion, the existing models are limited and do not have sufficient explanatory power. Which qualitative method would be most appropriate for this research questions?

Grounded Theory

In order to be considered mixed methods research, a study must:

Have both quantitative and qualitative data, analysis, interpretation, or inclusion in the research program

Which of the following questions is least likely to elicit a socially desirable response?

How do you think other people in your church feel about same-sex marriage?

Which of the following objective measures would be least appropriate to use?

Mother reports to complement child reports of depression

A group of researchers want to examine the effects of "Boston cream" donuts versus "glazed" donuts. They observe a group of people who only eat Boston cream donuts and another group that only eats glazed donuts. The groups are going to be followed for ten years and the occurrence of diabetes will be compared amongst the two groups. What type of study is this

Prospective Cohort

A researcher conducts an experiment and sets the alpha value at ≤ .05. After conducting the statistical analysis, the researcher finds that the actual p-value is .19. The researcher should make the following interpretation:

The odds that the experimental result was caused by chance/error are too large to reject the null hypothesis

If a respondent skipped some of the questions on a subscale, which of the following should occur?

The subscale score should be a weighted sum of the item responses provided, as long as no more than 25 percent of item responses are missing

Which of the following is true regarding missing data?

The type of statistical analyses chosen must match the type of missing data present.

Disadvantages of ipsative response scales include all but which of the following?

There are too many response choices.

Which statement is true about confidence intervals?

There is a close relationship between confidence intervals and p-values.

Dr. Davis wants to study gang members in a major U.S. city. What is the best sampling strategy for him to use?

Use gang members to help recruit other gang members to participate in the study.

Dr. Baker wants to study cancer survivors' satisfaction with online cancer support groups. Respondents come from many different U.S. states and foreign countries, so the survey will need to be administered online. Which of the following is the best course of action for Dr. Baker to follow?

Use open-ended questions to ask about a range of experiences.

Which of the following research scenarios is likely to produce the largest amount of missing data?

Asking college students how much money their parents earn.

A list of contact persons is most likely to be required for which of the following?

College students followed from their freshman to senior year.

Focus group members should:

Come from the target population

What are the three main goals of data lifecycle management (DLM)?

Confidentiality, availability, and integrity

The normal distribution (bell curve) results from collecting:

Continuous data

Which of the following is not true about dropout from longitudinal studies?

Once someone drops out of a longitudinal study, they do not come back.

Which of the following is true regarding data analysis?

Data analysis methods should usually be specified in advance before a study begins.

Which of the following is not a potential disadvantage of Likert-type scales?

Forcing respondents to choose between two options

Which of the following is not one of the functions of a codebook?

Indicate what statistical analyses should be used with the data.

Researchers are testing a drug that they believe to be effective in treating Disease X. Disease X causes symptoms that could be categorized as annoying but does not seriously affect an individual's health. There are no currently known treatments for Disease X. The researchers are concerned that people's belief that the drug will help them might affect their assessment of the drug's ability to improve their symptoms. What is the best design for this study?

Placebo-controlled

A researcher conducts a written survey to determine the opinion of subjects regarding their opinion of the favorability of a certain hospital. What does a large standard deviation on all the answers tell the researcher about the research sample?

There is little agreement among the survey respondents.

In which of these ways can researchers find out whether data are missing not at random?

There is no way to determine whether data are missing not at random.

Which of the following is an example of a well-focused survey purpose?

To ascertain what people know about HIV/AIDS.

Researchers develop hypotheses:

To offer explanations for phenomena they observe.

Which of the following methods is most appropriate for understanding an individual's life history and how they have made meaning of their experiences?

Narrative

Copyright (c) UWorld, Please do not save, print, cut, copy or paste anything while a test is active.

Ahh dang it!

Which of the following is correct regarding statistical analyses that delete cases with missing data?

Are appropriate only if data are missing completely at random.

What is the primary advantage of convenience samples?

Are inexpensive and easy to obtain.

What is the optimal sample size in qualitative research?

As many as needed to reach saturation

Why are semantic differential scales similar to both Likert-type and ipsative response scales?

Ask respondents to choose between opposing adjectives

A group of researchers want to examine the age, gender, and socioeconomic status of patrons of a local café chain. What research design is this?

Descriptive Research

The objectives of descriptive epidemiology are to address who, what, where, when, and how much of a variable under study is occurring. Which area would be most appropriate for a descriptive research design?

Determine the prevalence of teenage pregnancies

A group of researchers find that very few café customers are willing to talk to them. So, they now decide to look at public records available online at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They intend to access diabetes prevalence data in each state. They are then going to examine the number of café franchises in each state. Finally, they will look for a relationship between the number of café franchises and diabetes prevalence. What type of study is this?

Correlational

Researchers are testing an experimental drug believed to be effective for controlling mild symptoms of arthritis. They are concerned that this population is older, likely to have additional health problems, and taking additional medications. Therefore, there is the possibility that there could be many confounding variables when comparing two different groups. The researchers decide to conduct a "before-after" type trial where they will compare the same test group's experiences for a period when they receive the test drug versus their experiences when they do not receive the test drug. What type of design is this?

Cross-over

Researchers are testing the effects of a new weight loss method. Subjects will be randomly assigned to groups. One group will follow the new method and the other group will not. All subjects will be randomized a second time to watch a nutritional information video and the other group will receive a motivational speech. This will result in four different groups as follows: Weight Loss Method + Motivational Speech Weight Loss Method + Informational Video No Weight Loss Method + Motivational Speech No Weight Loss Method + Informational Video What type of design is this?

Factorial

Dr. Cheng wants to examine beliefs about post-surgical recovery among a population-based sample of cardiac surgeons. She wants to include cross-ethnic comparisons in her analyses. However, she discovers that some ethnic groups represent less than five percent of the total population of cardiac surgeons. Which of the following should Dr. Cheng do?

Include more surgeons from these ethnic groups than would be indicated based on the representation of these ethnic groups within the population of surgeons

What is the appropriate method for calculating reliability for a coding category assessed on a continuous scale?

Intraclass correlation

A null hypothesis:

Is accepted if statistical analysis shows there is low probability that a difference between two groups occurred by chance.

Which of the following represents the average, and is calculated by taking the sum of all the values in the data set divided by the number of values?

Mean

Measures of central tendency are statistics that summarize a distribution of scores by reporting the most typical or representative distribution value. The most commonly used measures of central tendency are:

Mean, median, and mode.

A research team collects both quantitative and qualitative data. They code the qualitative data and examine how variations in the themes are related to the quantitative data. What type of mixing is this?

Mixing in the analysis

Little is known about what it is like for individuals to experience being laid off from their job after decades of employment. Which qualitative method is best suited to explore this question?

Phenomenological

Researchers are interested in examining whether a rigorous exercise program may prevent the development of cardiovascular disease. The subjects are healthy individuals, but considered at risk of developing cardiovascular disease. How should this study be broadly categorized?

Preventive

Dr. Wong randomly assigns respondents to complete an attitude measure with either a five-point Likert-type scale or a ten-point Likert-type scale. Compared to respondents using the five-point scale, those using the ten-point scale would be expected to:

Provide more responses near the scale endpoints

Which of the following sampling methods uses subject characteristics to determine the sample?

Purposeful sampling

A researcher conducts a series of interviews and codes the data for three main themes. These themes are then analyzed for variations by age and gender using statistical procedures. What type of approach is this?

Quantized qualitative research

A researcher is planning a study to test the safety and efficacy of a drug to treat asthma. The study will be conducted amongst adult patients with asthma who do not have other major pulmonary diseases. Which best describes all patients with asthma?

Reference Population

In statistics, the term outliers:

Refers to items in a statistical sample that lie well above or below the mean in a normal distribution.

The listening guide method of assessing reliability includes all of the following, except:

Reliability coefficient (for example, Kappa)

Which of these is the first step in specifying the direction that research will take?

Research question

Which of the following is true regarding data sharing and stewardship?

Researchers who receive federal funding may have to adhere to a data sharing requirement.

A Type I error, or a false positive, refers to a situation when:

Results are found to be statistically significant, but they are actually due to chance.

What does the Institutional Review Board (IRB) do?

Reviews proposed research in order to assess that the research is in keeping with ethical guidelines and regulatory requirements in order to protect human subjects.

When a researcher says that distribution is "skewed," the researcher means that:

The distribution is heavily to one side or the other of the mean.

Which of the following is most likely to own the data resulting from a research project?

The organization that receives federal funding for a project.

If data are collected via paper and pencil in a classroom, the source data are which of the following?

The paper forms on which students wrote their answers.

In the case of interventional research, the research question should specify which of the following?

The population of individuals that researchers are interested in examining

The choice of which methods (quantitative or qualitative) to use in a mixed methods study should always be determined primarily by:

The research question

What is the primary responsibility of oversight bodies (such as an IRB or IACUC)?

To determine compliance with regulatory requirements, including those relating to protecting research subjects.