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Glossary of research terms used both on and off this site

There are 34 entries in this glossary.
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Term Definition
abstract

A statement summarizing the important points of a text. Brief summary or description of the essential content of an article, chapter or other complete work. Abstracts are frequently written by the author of the complete work.
agent
  1. A means by which something is done or caused; instrument.
  2. A force or substance that causes a change: a chemical agent; an infectious agent.
aggregate

A group of persons that have certain traits or characteristics in common without necessarily having any direct social connection with one another.
bivariate analysis

Pertaining to two variables only
channeling

The act or practice of serving as a medium through which a spirit guide purportedly communicates with living persons.
construct
  1. Something that exists theoretically but is not directly observable.
  2. A concept developed (constructed) for describing relations among phenomena or for other research purposes.
  3. A theoretical definition in which concepts are defined in terms of other concepts. For example, intelligence cannot be directly observed or measured; it is a construct.
control group

In experimental research, a group that, for the sake of comparison, does not receive the treatment the experimenter is interested in.
correlation

The extent to which two or more things are related ("co-related") to one another. This is usually expressed as a correlation coefficient.
data

information collected by a researcher. (Data is the plural term; datum the singular). Data are often thought of as statistical or quantitative, but they may take many other forms as well--such as transcripts of interviews or videotapes of social interactions. Nonquantitative data such as transcripts or videotapes are often coded or translated into numbers to make them easier to analyze.
data set

a collection of related data items, such as answers given by respondents to all questions on a survey.
dependent variable
  1. The presumed effect in a study; so called because it "depends" on another variable.
  2. The variable whose values are predicted by the independent variable, whether or not caused by it. For example, in a study to see if there is a relationship between students' drinking of alcoholic beverages and their grade point averages, the drinking behavior would be the presumed cause (independent variable); the grade point average would be the effect (dependent variable).
descriptive statistics

statistics that summarize a data set, e.g., mean, median, mode, standard deviation
error

The difference between an observed score and a predicted or estimated score. Symbolized as e or E
experiment

A study undertaken in which the researcher has control over some of the conditions in which the study takes place and control over some aspects of the independent variables being studied. Random assignment of the subjects to control and experimental groups is usually thought of as a necessary criterion of a true experiment.
external validity

the extent to which the findings of a study are relevant to subjects and settings beyond those in the study. Another term for generalizability
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