NRS-433V Topic 4: Measurement, Statistics, and Appraisal
NRS-433V Topic 4: Measurement, Statistics, and Appraisal
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Nursing research is intensive and extensive and seeks to develop knowledge about health and health promotion and other objectives. Mainly, health care researchers study many elements whose features and properties are described qualitatively and quantitatively. Variables are characteristics of the study subjects or materials taking different values such as test scores, age, and temperature. Variables are categorized as dependent, independent or extraneous and researchers should control extraneous variables to improve reliability and validity of findings.
Dependent and independent variables characterize the studies with a cause-effect relationship. The independent variable is the presumed cause of an effect; it can be manipulated and controlled (Kaur & Mittal, 2021). Its value does not depend on other study variables. On the other hand, the dependent variable is the effect and it is what the researcher measures (Millimet & Parmeter, 2022). Its value varies with manipulation/changes in the independent variable. A study on the effect of sleep on the academic performance of school-going children can perfectly illustrate the independent-dependent variables’ connection. The amount of sleep is the independent variable, and the performance the dependent variable (Adelantado-Renau et al., 2019). An extraneous variable is a variable the researchers are not investigating but can affect the researcher’s understanding of the relationship between variables. Examples include the features of the environment and participants’ characteristics such as age and intelligence.
Due to the far-reaching consequences of extraneous variables, researchers should control them as much as possible. One of the reliable control mechanisms is randomization. Here, researchers randomly give the experimental groups treatments and minimize the effects of subconscious bias. The other effective strategy is matching. It is a control method where researchers match confounding variables such as age and education level into different groups to ensure that variables are equally distributed.
References
Adelantado-Renau, M., Diez-Fernandez, A., Beltran-Valls, M. R., Soriano-Maldonado, A., & Moliner-Urdiales, D. (2019). The effect of sleep quality on academic performance is mediated by Internet use time: DADOS study. Jornal de Pediatria, 95(4), 410-418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jped.2018.03.006
Kaur, L., & Mittal, R. (2021). Variables in social science research. Indian Res. J. Ext. Edu, 21(2&3), 64-69. https://seea.org.in/uploads/pdf/2021-66-64-69.pdf
Millimet, D. L., & Parmeter, C. F. (2022). Accounting for skewed or one-sided measurement error in the dependent variable. Political Analysis, 30(1), 66-88. https://doi.org/10.1017/pan.2020.45
Nursing research is intensive and seeks to develop knowledge about health and health promotion and other objectives. In research, health care professionals study many elements whose features and properties are described qualitatively and quantitatively. Variables are characteristics of the study subjects or materials taking different values such as test scores, age, and temperature. Researchers should understand the difference between variables and how to control extraneous variables.
Most experimental studies have dependent and independent variables. Dependent and independent variables characterize the studies with a cause-effect relationship (National Library of Medicine, 2018). In such studies, the independent variable is the cause of an effect, while the dependent variable is the effect. As Aman (2019) further explained, the independent variable’s value does not depend on other study variables. However, the dependent variable’s value varies with changes in the independent variables. A study on the effect of sleep on test scores can perfectly illustrate the independent-dependent variables’ connection. The amount of sleep is the independent variable, and the test scores are the dependent variable. An extraneous variable is a variable the researchers are not investigating but can affect the researcher’s understanding of the relationship between variables (Aman, 2019). Examples include the features of the environment and participants’ characteristics such as age and intelligence.
Due to the far-reaching consequences of extraneous variables, researchers should control them as much as possible. One of the reliable control mechanisms is randomization. Here, researchers randomly give the experimental groups treatments and minimize the effects of subconscious bias. The other effective strategy is matching. It is a control method where researchers match confounding variables such as age and education level into different groups to ensure that variables are equally distributed.
References
Aman, M. (2019). Identifying variables. International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR),8(3), 865-868. https://www.ijsr.net/archive/v8i3/ART20196166.pdf
National Library of Medicine. (2018). Dependent and Independent variables. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/stats_tutorial/section2/mod4_variables.html
Description
Objectives:
Describe measurement theory and levels of measurement.
Describe the influence “levels of evidence” have on practice changes.
Study Materials
Tasks
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
