Quantitative Research Critique and Ethical Consideration

1Running head: QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH CRITIQUE AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATION
Quantitative research critique and ethical consideration
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2QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH CRITIQUE AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATION
In the modern medical world, research has become a critical aspect that nurses are
encouraged to undertake. Nurses’ responsibilities have diversified from patient advocacy,
infection control, physical, management of diseases or signs and symptoms into research
exploration to improve the effectiveness of finding solutions and implementing them to improve
healthcare (Pooler, 2014). This paper is a critique of the quantitative research of the PICOT
Statement and Literature Search and the ethical considerations of the investigation.
The study aimed to understand how depression can be managed using the cognitive
research therapy and the internet-based therapy. Further the study aimed at investigating the
treatment outcomes of both interventions, and which was more efficient. It then compares these
outcomes by using a randomized non-inferiority trial (Wagner, Horn, & Maercker, 2014). The
clinical problem identified is the depression in older adults. This clinical problem contributed to
the research problem of the difference in performance of using internet-based therapy and the use
of face-to-face treatment along with the cognitive behavior therapy to treat depression.
The quantitative analysis comprises a range of methods such as polls, surveys, and
questionnaires, concerned with the systematic investigation of social phenomena, using
numerical data. A total of 62 participants, diagnosed with depression, took part in the study
where 32 participants were randomly allocated to an Internet-based treatment with a psychologist
and 30 of them were assigned to a face-to-face treatment intervention over a similar period (8
weeks). Consecutive data was collected after the eight weeks to keep track of the effectiveness of
both interventions. The participants seem to have willingly taken part in the study but not the
mode of treatment (either online or face- to- face). The author rationalizes this method of
collection of data to be most appropriate as it is non- biased and hence the results are likely to be

3QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH CRITIQUE AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATION
more accurate. In the paper, the researcher cited relevant current quantitative and qualitative
material related to the critical focus of the study.
Moreover, the study uses both the dependent and independent variable to come up with
questions that help to carry out the research. The dependent variable is, depression of older
adults while the independent variable consists of Internet therapy, face-to-face treatment, and the
cognitive-based therapy. Some of the questions that may have been used to conduct the research
include; can patients with depression get treatment via Internet platforms or do they only require
face-to-face treatment? How effective is the cognitive behavior therapy? And, What are the
possible treatments of chronic pain? (Wagner, Horn, & Maercker, 2014). This critique paper
agrees that the questions were relevant to the study.
The main clinical problem in the study is the effect of the cognitive behavior therapy,
which resulted in the research problem of the impact of cognitive behavior therapy on the control
groups (Berking, Ebert, Cuijpers & Hofmann, 2013). The research opens up a discussion on
mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness stress cognitive therapy. Other studies on
the same topic have helped to explain the positive and negative effects on the reduction of
depression. Some other questions used in the development of the research include: What
alternative methods can be used instead of cognitive behavior therapy? Which studies support
the cognitive behavior therapy? What are some of the effects of cognitive behavior therapy?
The study also compiles its results using the inferential statistics that is as a result of the
descriptive statistics. The findings of the study from the internet-based treatment and cognitive
therapy are d=1.27 and d=1.37 respectively. Moreover, the findings suggest that Internet therapy
is more effective in the long run which therefore shows that internet therapy can be more useful
for patients that are unable to make physical appointments to seek treatment.