The Basics
Deals with questions of "why"
What is Theory?
Characteristics or qualities that describe an object
What are Attributes?
An instrument that measures what it is says it measures is...
What is Valid?
Exploration, description, explanation
What are the three purposes of research?
Whom or what you are studying
What is Population (=N)?
What is Methodology?
A variable assumed to depend on or be caused by another
What is the Dependent Variable?
The degree of consistency of a measure
What is Reliability?
A study involving the collection of data at different points in time
What is Longitudinal?
A type of probability sampling in which the units composing a population are assigned numbers
What is Random Sampling?
A specified, testable expectation about empirical reality that follows from a more general proposition
What is a Hypothesis?
A variable with values that are not problematic in an analysis but are taken as simply given
What is an Independent Variable?
History, maturation, selection, mortality, and regression to the mean
What are threats to Internal Validity?
A study based on observations representing a single point in time
What is Cross-Sectional?
The summary description of a given variable in a population
What is a Parameter?
Understanding and the prediction and control of events
What is the purpose of science?
Converts concepts into variables
What is Operationalization?
The degree to which a measure covers the ranges of meaning within a concept
What is Content Validity?
The logical model in which general principles are developed from specific observations
What is Inductive research?
A variable whose attributes have only the characteristics of exhaustiveness and mutual exclusiveness (for ex, gender)
What is a Nominal measure?
All fields of research require this
What are Ethical Considerations?
A statistical correlation between two variables is one sign of...
What is a Causal Relationship?
The possibility that the conclusion drawn from experimental results may not accurately reflect what has gone on in the experiment itself
What is Internal Validity?
Research that begins with a theory from which a hypothesis is derived, which is then tested through observation
What is Deductive research?
A level of measurement describing a variable with attributes that can be rank-ordered along some dimension (for ex, high, medium, low)
What is an Ordinal measure?