Rsearch Terminologies

• Abstract - brief overview of research
• Applied Research - conducted to generate knowledge that influences/improves practice
• Basic Research - study that tests theories
• Conceptual Definition – a variable, may be defined as a feeling of uneasiness.
• Concepts - building block of theories
• constitutive definition - basic, dictionary definition
• control group - the one that doesn't get the treatment
• correlational study - type of research that depicts a relationship between 2 variables
• data information - basis of reasoning, discussion, and calculation
• descriptive study - a research design that describes "what is"
• experiment - a research design used to find the cause-effect relationships
• experimental group - the one that gets the treatment
• external validity - how generalizable the results are as it concerns her location and populations
• extraneous - variable that may cause contamination of data
• Heterogeneous- groups under study are very different or varied.

  Homogeneous- groups that are very

  similar.
• independent variable - concept being studied that usually indicates the cause; the one being manipulated
• dependent variable - the concept that the researcher is interested in studying
• hypothesis - statement written by researcher that states the relationship between or among variables
• inductive reasoning - qualitative

  deductive reasoning - quantitative
• Internal validity- the extent to which a study measures what it is supposed to measure (accuracy within a study)
• introduction - establishes the scope, context, and the significance of the research
• limitations - identifies potential weaknesses of study
• measures of central tendency - averages
• mean - the arithmetic average
• median - the middle value, half the scores above half scores below
• methodology - systematic approach to a conduct of a process
• mode - score that occurs the most
• null hypothesis - proposition to be tested statistically, experimental intervention has "no effect" meaning that the experimental group doesn't have results that differ from the results of a control group
• operational definition - how a term is used in the study
• participants - called respondents, their responses are the object of the study
• principal investigator - oversees research
• population - target group under investigation, the entire set under consideration
• samples - drawn from population
• purpose of the study - states the objectives and aims of the research
• random - by chance
• qualitative research - descriptive theory, naturalistic

  quantitative - statistical evidence, experimental
• Questionnaire -structured sets of questions on specified subjects that are used to gather information.
• random sample - everyone has the same chance to be assigned at any group
• research - a systematic, objective way of generating facts
• research design - the method for finding out what the researcher wants to know, experiment, and to correlate