Glossary | |
These is glossary of research key terms. This glossary is intended as an aid to
professionals and non-professionals who find the world of research
somewhat intimidating. While it is impossible to cover all the terms
that can be confusing, this document briefly defines some of the more
common terms and concepts. | |
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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. |
| Glossary V2.0 | |
Glossary