SDSU Sample Size Limitations Discussion

This is the class discussion question.
Discuss and Critique a Quantitative Research Study [WLOs: 3, 4, 5] [CLOs: 2, 4]
Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, read the instructor guidance, the
quantitative section of Chapter 7 and all of Chapter 8 in the Creswell and Creswell text, the
chapter by Meltzoff and Cooper titled Chapter 6: Research Designs and Threats to Internal
ValidityLinks to an external site., and the article by Henrich et al. titled Most People Are Not
WEIRDLinks to an external site.. Also review Standard 8 of the APA Ethical Principles for
Psychologists and Code of ConductLinks to an external site. from last week.
Your instructor will post an announcement with the reference for the quantitative research
study you will discuss and critique in this discussion. The study will be found in the UAGC
Library. Refer to the Library resource How Do I Find An Article When I Have A
Citation?Links to an external site. if you need help finding the article.
In your initial post, consider the following:
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Compare and contrast the characteristics of experimental and nonexperimental
quantitative research.
State the research question the researchers were trying to answer in the study.
Identify the type of quantitative research design that was used in the assigned study.
Evaluate whether the researchers’ conclusion follows logically from the evidence
presented.
Identify threats to internal and external validity that might apply to how this study was
conducted.
Determine whether validity threats were addressed by the researchers. If so, describe
how this was done.
Summarize ethical considerations that were mentioned in the research report.
Assess what ethical considerations apply to the design of the study but that were not
mentioned by the researchers.
Explain how you might do a study on this topic differently and why your approach
would be more appropriate than the one used by the researchers.
Evaluate whether a quantitative approach would be useful for the research topic you
chose in Week 1.
Describe the actions you would take to ensure that a quantitative study on your topic
would be ethical.
Support your evaluation of the study with citations and references of the required
readings and other peer-reviewed sources. Refer to the Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and
Other Credible SourcesLinks to an external site. tip sheet to help determine which
sources are appropriate.
This is what I need
Guided Response: Review several of your colleagues’ posts and respond to at
least two of your peers by 11:59 p.m. on Day 7 of the week. You are encouraged
to post your required replies earlier in the week to promote more meaningful
interactive discourse in this discussion.
After reading your colleague’s critique of the published quantitative study,
consider the following in your reply:
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Explain whether you agree or disagree with your colleague’s assessment of
the assigned study and why.
Identify any potential threats to internal and external validity that your
colleague has not mentioned.
Examine the ethical implications your colleague has described and identify
any other potential ethical issues your colleague has not mentioned.
Propose at least one idea of how a quantitative research design might be
used for your colleague’s research topic.
Student ONE:
Devoira Davis
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Compare and contrast the characteristics of experimental and nonexperimental
quantitative research.
According to our book by Creswell & Creswell, 2018 “experimental research seeks to
determine if a specific treatment influences the outcome of a study, it is applied behavioral
science or single subject experiments which are done over time.” Whereas nonexperimental
quantitative research is two types of research can be used such as “casual comparative in
which two or more groups are study in terms of a cause that has already happened and
correlation design in which an investigator uses correlational statistics to explain a measure
of degree or association.” (Creswell & Creswell, 2018 pg. 12 para 1) In other words
experimental research is going to take time and compare a small group if any to study, it’s
also going to be focused on what actions affect the study. Nonexperimental research can use
multiple ways of arriving at an answer and it’s going to involve correlation just to explain
how two things are related.
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State the research question the researchers were trying to answer in the study.
In the study that was provided by Dr. Murphy is that the study was to analyze depression
amongst the aging population in Brazil of individuals withing institutions such as long-term
care facilities. The study wants to know how much of a difference there is in depression
among public and private and community facilities, they also want to know why depression
is increasing so much in the population and especially in the private care facilities as they are
generally thought of as being better. (Bezerra et. alt., 2020)
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Identify the type of quantitative research design that was used in the assigned study.
The article states that cross-sectional study and since it was among two groups then it would
be classified as casual comparative research. Not only does it have two groups that it focuses
it also has several correlations that connect the groups such as age, location, and health that
may play a role in the research findings. This study also discusses a topic that has previously
been discussed which is why there is so much data that lets you know depression is rising
among this demographic.
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Evaluate whether the researchers’ conclusion follows logically from the evidence
presented.
The conclusion of the study was that there needed to be more studies because this study did
not have enough participants to give an accurate picture. I would agree with that statement.
For starters they did only have two facilities and the research probably would have gone
further if they had one for each region Brazil versus the northern part. You cannot base a
whole study off of two groups in the same region. Not only that they did not allow a certain
timeframe to showcase if patients were better off or worse after certain periods. For instance,
maybe new patients exhibited high levels of depression but after six months maybe they
began to get used to it and not hate it as much. Or were there other factors such as health
and predisposed factors that made depression more likely for them. The conclusion about
this study is correct about it not being enough to make a real claim. (Bezerra et. alt., 2020)
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Identify threats to internal and external validity that might apply to how this study was
conducted.
Some real threats that apply to this study especially externally is that there were just not
enough participants to really speak on the demographic’s state. Another threat is that
internally the researchers did not truly take into account the things that could cause
depression or result in depression due to side effects, also according to Meltzoff &Cooper,
2018 there was no real question being asked, no maturation in the participants. Overall, the
study was lacking real foundation even though the idea is one that is great for the human
health field.
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Determine whether validity threats were addressed by the researchers. If so, describe
how this was done.
These threats are very valid as in the conclusion they were all mentioned as reasons why the
study needed to be re-done. The researchers clearly know that they have not done adequate
work in getting all the areas of validity covered. The conclusion shows that there is more
work that would be needed in order to validate the claims which were that older people in
these facilities are experiencing high levels of depression. Creating a concrete hypothesis
may better serve this research study as it could focus the materials.
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Summarize ethical considerations that were mentioned in the research report.
Some ethical concerns for this research would be sections two through four as they discuss
everything from competence to privacy and confidentiality. You’re dealing with an older
population so you would want to make sure that they understand and can fully participate in
the study. You would want to make sure that the researchers understand all aspect of human
relations as not to bring their own biases into the study, and lastly you would want to make
sure that privacy and confidentiality were in the proper place due to HIPPA laws.
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Assess what ethical considerations apply to the design of the study but that were not
mentioned by the researchers.
Privacy and confidentiality would be major components as the articles speaks about different
health factors that may play a role in depression such as diabetes. (Bezerra et. alt., 2020) The
researchers did not mention how or if they planned on making sure that no patient would be
identifiable by his or her medical diagnosis. The researchers also did not mention how they
plan to keep patient information safe while conducting the studies especially since it was
between multiple facilities and there is a chance of mixing patient information.
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Explain how you might do a study on this topic differently and why your approach
would be more appropriate than the one used by the researchers.
Honestly this study reminds me of what I chose in week one about PTSD not being
considered when diagnosing black and brown school aged children even though a lot of their
background would suggest it. While it is a worthwhile topic getting a concrete hypothesis
out of it is hard, thus making finding the research to back it up just as hard. The best key to
any good research is a solid hypothesis and studies like these and the one I mention are too
general in my opinion.
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Evaluate whether a quantitative approach would be useful for the research topic you
chose in Week 1.
I do not think that quantitative research would work for my research topic as I feel like it is
too general and needs more work on finding a true hypothesis of what I am trying to prove. I
think that mixed research is going to work the best because there is more than one
demographic I want to explore, and I also do want to understand why these children are not
afforded the same feelings as those who surround them.
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Describe the actions you would take to ensure that a quantitative study on your topic
would be ethical.
Some efforts I would take would be getting the proper informed consent and then ensuring
that the human relations part was very much intact. It is very hard to speak about sensitive
subjects without fear of judgement and so giving the children a true safe space to speak about
the things that hurt and trigger them would be one of my biggest concerns. Also making sure
that the parents feel comfort and at ease as they would be the ones who would have to assist
in the healing process.
References
Bezerra, C. B., Saintrain, M. V. D., Nobre, M. A., Sandrin, R. L S. P., Galera, S. C., & Bruno,
Z. V. (2020). Major depression and associated factors in institutional older
adults. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 25(8), 909916. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2019.1710543Links to an external site.
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and
mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). SAGE.
Meltzoff, J., & Cooper, H. (2018). Critical thinking about research: Psychology and related
fields (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association
Student Two:
Danielle Potts
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Compare and contrast the characteristics of experimental and nonexperimental
quantitative research.
A survey design is one in which there is a quantitative data recording method in which
information is gathered for trends, attitudes, and opinions of a population.
In experimental quantitative research, there are two or more variables in which are
manipulated in a study. The manipulation is controlled, and the other variables are held
constant.
The main differences in the two studies are that in experimental cases there is always a
constant variable. In the nonexperimental study, there is no constant variable.
Nonexperimental studies do not have any random assignments, whereas, in experimental
studies, all the cases are random.
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State the research question the researchers were trying to answer in the study.
Per the introduction, the researchers were aiming to “l study aimed to analyze the
prevalence of major depression in 237 older adults aged 60 to 104 years living in long-term
care facilities.(Bezerra C.B. (2020).”
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Identify the type of quantitative research design that was used in the assigned study.
Nonexperimental
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Evaluate whether the researchers’ conclusion follows logically from the evidence
presented.
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Identify threats to internal and external validity that might apply to how this study was
conducted.
The threats to this study would include the individual’s history, whether they already had a
diagnosis of depression.
Family involvement was stated to be the leading cause of depression; someone completing
the survey that has family involvement would be a threat to the results of the study.
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Determine whether validity threats were addressed by the researchers. If so, describe
how this was done.
The threats were not discussed in the research, they did have information regarding
hypertension and diabetes did not correlate to depression. Another threat would be the lack
of individual studies,==d; there were only two facilities in one city that were studied.
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Summarize ethical considerations that were mentioned in the research report.
The ethical consideration was the declination of participants due to their limited cognitive
and functional capabilities.
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Assess what ethical considerations apply to the design of the study, but that were not
mentioned by the researchers.
It was not mentioned that the individuals were explained to about the experiment and the
potential psychological effect the study could have.
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Explain how you might do a study on this topic differently and why your approach
would be more appropriate than the one used by the researchers.
This would be my first survey, so I can’t imagine I would do better than those that have been
doing it for a while. I would hope to solve the ethical concerns and threats that have been
mentioned throughout the discussion.
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Evaluate whether a quantitative approach would be useful for the research topic you
chose in Week 1.
I believe that quantitative survey would be useful in my study for substance abuse.
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Describe the actions you would take to ensure that a quantitative study on your topic
would be ethical.
I would be sure to brief all individuals of the survey they would be completing along with its
anonymity. I would also provide resources for those that may have intellectual disabilities
who would struggle with completing the survey on their own.
Reference
Bezerra, C. B., Saintrain, M. V. D. L., Nobre, M. A., Sandrin, R. L. e S. P., Galera, S. C., &
Bruno, Z. V. (2020). Major depression and associated factors in institutionalized older
adults. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 25(8), 909–916.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2019.1710543
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and
mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). SAGE.

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