Nokes and Nwakeze (2007) Was to Test

¶ … Nokes and Nwakeze (2007) was to test the effectiveness of health outcomes on health outcomes of HIV and people aged 50+ and older. This was a quasi-experimental designs and random sampling was used. The study setting was a community-based organization that served resource-challenged people living with HIV / AIDS and many of these were black with minimal education. There were potentially 639 eligible clients, but despite repeated attempts many could not be reached. In the end, 43 people participated in the research.

Identify the reliability and validity of the data collection instrument.

If the data collection instrument has been newly developed, has the appropriate pretesting for reliability and validity been conducted?

If that data collection instrument is an established one, has sufficient evidence been provided from prior studies to allow evaluation of the instrument's reliability and validity?

No data collection instrument was used in this case. Rather the premise of random sampling was tested by having subjects randomly assigned to an experimental group that would commit themselves to joining an 8-week psychoeducational group and completing data over 4 time periods.

You are planning a qualitative study on couples who have extremely opposite eating preferences based on the intake of fat. You want to know how strictly each adheres to the diet regimen. Should you use Interview or Observational Techniques to gather the data? Pick one technique and explain why you think it would be the best. Also comment on the disadvantages of using this technique.

I would use the Interview technique since Observational would require that I accompany them each and every moment o their lives which would be not only unethical but also impossible.

On the other hand, the Interview technique has its shortfalls in that not only may respondents either intentionally or unintentionally answer incorrectly, but they may have forgotten some of their lapses and, even if required to keep a journal, may have lapsed in doing so and refrain from admitting.

Furthermore, both potential interviewer and interviewee bias (where each is effected by characteristics of the other) may create further complicity, and context of interviews (the time -- fatigue may intrude -- the setting, mood of participant and so forth) may introduce certain confounding factors. Interviewers / interviewees may misinterpret / mistake question or response as well as accompanying gestures / mannerisms, and, if conducted over the phone, other obstacles may intrude such as person's impatience to return to his/her routine, impatience with interview, and so forth.

During development of the data analysis plan, the researcher identifies the level of significance. Human subjects' research studies often establish the level of significance at p < 0.05. Discuss what the level of significance means, and how it is related to type I and type II errors. Why is the level established prior to data collection?