Because research topics often originate from a general topic that is too broad to cover in one study, it is essential for researchers to narrow their focus down to a more specific one of these.
What is a RESEARCH QUESTION (PROBLEM STATEMENT or HYPOTHESIS)?
100
From the Greek "nomos", this 4-syllable approach to social research is more interested in laws and rules that pertain to people generally rather than trying to understand individual cases.
What is NOMOTHETIC?
100
In research, this term represents an error in reasoning, usually based on mistaken assumptions.
What is a (RESEARCH) FALLACY?
100
Research projects share the same general structure commonly represented by THIS SHAPE, beginning with a broad area of interest, narrowing it down to a focused question, collecting and analyzing data, and then generalizing conclusions back out to the original broad area of research.
What is an HOURGLASS?
100
IRB stand for this panel of people that approve research proposals based on ethical considerations, participant safety, and legal liability to the institution.
What is the INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD?
200
Although there are various ways to come up with a research question, probably one of the most common sources of research ideas are THESE THINGS experienced by practitioners and researchers in our field of study.
What are PROBLEMS?
200
Deductive reasoning works from the more general to the more specific but this type of reasoning does the opposite, moving from specific observations to broader generalizations.
What is INDUCTIVE?
200
Philosophically speaking, social scientist have made a major shift in the way they approach research from traditional positivism (which limits research to what we can observe and measure) to this philosophical approach that indicates that researcher have moved on in their thinking.
What is POST-POSITIVISM?
200
A quantitative research design deals with numerical data, but THIS TYPE of DESIGN is interested in collecting and analyzing non-numerical data such as words, text, photographs, videos, sound recordings, etc.
What is QUALITATIVE?
200
Don't make this mistake: If participants volunteer for your study without fully understanding the procedures and risks involved, then you have neglect to get this TYPE OF CONSENT for participation.
What is INFORMED CONSENT?
300
This type of research question is designed to describe what is going on or what exists in relation to the topic of study.
What is DESCRIPTIVE?
300
If there is a correlation between variables, it could be said that there is either a positive, negative, or inverse one of these.
What is a RELATIONSHIP?
300
This term describes what a scientist is striving for when s/he attempts to put aside their biases and personal world views that may influence their research.
What is OBJECTIVITY?
300
This TYPE of STUDY only collects data at a single point in time instead of taking multiple measures over time in a longitudinal fashion.
What is a CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY?
300
If your variables end up being negatively related, don't despair. This just means that as the values of the independent variable go in one direction, the values of THIS VARIABLE go in the opposite direction.
What is the DEPENDENT VARIABLE
400
Because the three types of research questions can be viewed as cumulative, THIS TYPE is probably the most demanding because you must first describe variables and show that a relationship exists before you can establish that they are THIS.
What is CAUSAL?
400
To avoid problems with measurement fallibility, this technique of using multiple measures and observations is often employed by researchers.
What is TRIANGULATION?
400
A post-positivist view of research holds that achieving complete certainty is not possible, so this word is used to suggest that our research conclusions are based on probabilities instead of certainty.
What is PROBABILISTIC?
400
This phrase refers to identifying the entity that you are analyzing in your study. It may be individuals, groups, artifacts, geographical units, or even social interactions.
What is the UNIT OF ANALYSIS?
400
This TYPE OF FALLACY occurs when a researcher mistakenly draws conclusions about an entire group based on the observations of one or more individuals from that group.
What is an EXCEPTION FALLACY?
500
When working with hypotheses, the researcher needs to make at least 2 statements. An alternative hypothesis represents the relationship between variables that you predict, and THIS HYPOTHESIS represents the remaining possible outcome or relationship (if your prediction is not supported).
What is the NULL HYPOTHESIS?
500
Don't let the hypothetical-deductive model intimidate you, it's just the scientific tradition for testing these scientific statements of prediction.
What are HYPOTHESES?
500
Before the modern idea of research emerged, philosophers historically used THIS as an early form of research, including inductive and deductive methods.
What is (LOGICAL) REASONING or LOGIC?
500
Evaluation research is a specific form of social research. Formative evaluation research focuses on improving the object or process being evaluated, but THIS TYPE of EVALUATION examines the EFFECTS or OUTCOMES of an object or process.
What is SUMMATIVE EVALUATION?
500
This type of problem occurs when two variables appear to be related because of a third variable is influencing them both at the same time.