Week 2 (Quarter 4)

• Research


  A systematic, objective way to generate facts
• Subject


  The people who are being studied
• Principal investigator


  The person who oversees a research
• Concepts


  The building blocks of theories
• Theory


  An generalization that presents a representation about relationships among phenomena
• Variable


  A quality of interest or concepts that can be manipulated, observed or studied
• Independent variable


  The concept being studied that usually indicates the influence or cause; the one that the researcher is manipulating
• Dependent variable


  The concept that the researcher is most interested in understanding
• Extraneous variables


  Variables that may influence or contaminate the data
• Heterogeneous


  Groups under study are very different or varied
• Homogeneous


  Groups that are very similar
• Conceptual definition


  A variable, such as anxiety, may be defined as a feeling of uneasiness
• Operational definition


  How a term is used in a study
• Hypothesis


  A statement written by the researcher that states the relationship among or between variables
• Quantitative research


  Answer a specific research question by showing statistical evidence that the data may be addressed in a particular way (experimental)
• Qualitative research


  Trying to verify or generate descriptive theory that is grounded in the data gleaned from the investigation (naturalistic)
• Deductive reasoning


  Depends on premises and is the basis for the quantitative research approach
• Inductive reasoning


  The basis for the qualitative research approach
• Relationship


  The bond or connection between two variables
• Applied research


  Conducted to generate knowledge that influences or improves practice
• Basic research


  Research that tests theories
• Abstract


  A brief overview of a research study
• Questionnaire


  Structured sets of questions on specified subjects that are used to gather information
• Random sample


  Everybody has the same chance of being assigned to any group
• Standard deviation


  A measure of spread; the average deviation of a group of scores from the mean
• Statistics


  Mathematical tools based on the normal curve used to analyze data; it must match with research designs
• Statistical significance


  An important finding that did not likely happen by chance
• Research design


  The method for finding out what the researcher wants to know, experiment, and correlate
• Research methodology


  The method of research design (paradigm as well as statistics and analysis) as well as the approximate timeline for completion of the study
• Sample


  A smaller group that represents population of interest
• Population


  The target group under investigation. The population is the entire set under consideration
• Participant


  Also called respondents, their characteristics and responses are the object of study in research
• Significance of the study

  It is written as part of the introduction section of a thesis. It provides details to the reader on how the study will contribute such as what the study will contribute and who will benefit from it
• Statement of the problem

  Part of the introduction which enumerates the research questions which the study sought to answer
• Delimitations


  It addresses how the study will be narrowed in scope
• Limitations


  Identify potential weaknesses of the study
• Introduction


  Establishes the scope, context and significance of the research to be conducted
• Experiment


  A research design used to find "cause-effect" relationships the "effect of…on…"
• Descriptive study


  Research design that describes "what is" e.g. a survey
• Correlational study


  A type of research design that depicts a relationship between variables, but not necessarily one of cause -effect