| Term | Definition |
|---|
| assumption | principle that is accepted as being true based on logic or reason without proof |
| cause-probing research | designed to illuminate the underlying causes of phenomena |
| clinical nursing research | research designed to guide nursing practice and to improve the health and quality of life of nurses' clients |
| deductive reasoning | process of developing specific predictions from general principles |
| determinism | belief that phenomena are no haphazard or random, but rather have antecedent causes; an assumption in the positivist paradigm |
| empirical evidence | evidence rooted in objective reality and gathered using one's senses as basis for generating knowledge |
| evidence based practice | practice that involves making clinical decisions on the best available evidence, with an emphasis on evidence from disciplined research |
| evidence hierarchy | a ranked arrangement of the validity and dependability of evidence of causality based on the rigor of the method that produced it |
| generalizability | degree to which the research methods justify the inference that the findings are true for a broader group than study participants; in particular, the inference that the findings can be generalized from the sample to the population |
| inductive reasoning | process of reasoning from specific observations to more general rules |
| intervention research | research involving the development , implementation, and testing of an intervention |
| naturalistic paradigm | alternative paradigm to the traditional postivist paradigm that holds that there are multiple interpretations of reality, and that the goal of research is to understand how individuals construct reality within their context; often associated with qualitative research |
| nursing research | systematic inquiry designed to develop knowledge about issues of importance to the nursing profession |
| paradigm | way of looking at natural phenomena that encompasses a set of philosophical assumptions and that guides one's approach to inquiry |
| positivist paradigm | paradigm underlying the traditional scientific approach, which assumes that there is an orderly reality that can be objectively studied; often associated with quantitative research |
| qualitative research | investigation of phenomena, typically in an in-depth and holistic fashion,through collection of rich narrative materials using flexible research design |
| quantitative research | investigation of phenomena that lend themselves to precise measurement and quantification, often involving a rigorous and controlled design |
| research methods | techniques used to structure a study and to gather and analyze information in a systematic fashion |
| scientific method | set of orderly , systematic, controlled procedures for acquiring dependable, empirical -and typically quantitive-information; the methodologic approach associated with positivist paradigm |
| systematic review | rigorous and systematic synthesis of research findings on a research question |
Combine with other sets
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