Glossary | |
| These is glossary of research key terms. | |
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| Term | Definition |
| Canon, canonized, canonical | When a theorist or text is canonized, it is promoted to an unquestionable level of truth which can be referenced without fear of challenge. |
| Cases | Objects or entities whose behavior or characteristics we study. Usually, the cases are persons. But they can also be groups, departments, organizations, etc. They can also be more esoteric things like events (e.g., meetings), utterances, pairs of people, etc. In the context of sampling, cases are also called elements. |
| Categorical variable | A variable with discrete values (e.g. a person's gender or a person's marital status). |
| Causal Relationship | a relationship in which one variable (i.e., the independent variable) is assumed to affect or influence the other variable (i.e., the dependent variable). |
| Causality | While the goal of research is to understand what causes what, this is a very difficult goal to achieve. Strictly speaking, it is impossible. In fact, the notion of causality is just a theory itself. However, on a day-to-day basis, we assume that causality does exist and that we can discover it through a combination of inductive and deductive work. In general, laboratory experiments are the only way to ascertain causality. |
| Cause | The reason(s) for an event, situation or state occurring. There are many philosophical issues about cause but for statistical causality four criteria must be met (1) concomitant variation, (2) rule out spurious relationships, (3) the cause must precede the effect in time, (4) there must be a theoretical rationale. |
| Census | a collection of data from all the units (individuals, groups, events, etc.) of a population that a researcher is interested in making statements about or referring to in his/her hypothesis. An example is the U.S. Census given every 10 years. |
| Central tendency | A measure of the typicality or centrality of a set of scores; the three main measures of central tendency are mean, median and mode. |
| Chi Square | Statistic used to test the hypothesis that two variables are not related to each other. |
| Clinical trial | A large-scale experiment designed to test the effectiveness of a clinical treatment. |
| Closed system | A closed system has no inputs from or outputs to any external world and hence is totally isolated. Scientific experiments seek to create this so the effects of deliberate causal variation of one thing can be seen without having to worry whether the cause was external. |
| Cluster Sampling | 1. A multi-stage sampling scheme in which the population is first divided into clusters, then a sample of these clusters is chosen via simple random sampling, and then a simple random sample of population elements is selected within the chosen clusters. This differs from stratified sampling in that in stratified sampling, all strata are sampled, whereas in cluster sampling we take a sample of clusters, not all clusters. Cluster sampling is used when it is difficult to construct a sampling frame for the entire population, or when it is too costly to visit randomly chosen population elements. 2. a probability sampling strategy involving successive sampling of units (or clusters); the units sampled progress from larger ones to smaller ones (e.g. health authority/health board, trust, senior managers). |
| Coding | A procedure for transforming raw data into a standardised format for data analysis purposes. Coding qualitative data involves identifying recurrent words, concepts or themes. In positivist research, coding involves attaching numerical values to categories. |
| Column Percents | Percentages in a table that add down to 100. |
| Conceptualization | The process of clarifying and specifying the meaning(s) of variables in a problem statement or hypothesis in order to facilitate examination of relevant research by refining and developing a clear, precise, testable hypothesis. |
| Glossary V2.0 | |
Tahukan Anda...
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Love is not just an emotion or feeling that changes when the loved one changes, but rather, it is the act of choosing to do what is in the best interest of the loved one over the long haul whether s/he deserves it or not, despite the cost to oneself and without expecting anything in return. |