Theory & Research

Question	Answer
Concepts	Words or signs that refer to phenomena that share common characteristics.
Conceptualization	The process of clarifying what we mean by a concept.
Variable	A characteristic that can vary from one unit of analysis to another or for one unit of analysis over time.
Hypothesis	A testable statement about how two or more variables are expected to relate to one another.
Dependent variable	A variable that a researcher sees as being affected or influenced by another variable (contrast with independent variable).
Independent variable	A variable that a researcher sees as affecting or influencing another variable (contrast with dependent variable).
Antecedent variable	A variable that comes before both an independent variable & a dependent variable.
Spurious	Non-causal
Intervening variable	A variable that comes between an independent & a dependent variable.
Extraneous variable	A variable that has an effect on the dependent variable in addition to the effect of the independent variable.
Measurement	The process of devising strategies for classifying subjects by categories to represent variable concepts.
Deductive reasoning	Reasoning that moves from more general to less general statements.
Empirical generalizations	Statements that summarize a set of individual observations.
Inductive reasoning	Reasoning that moves from less general to more general statements.
Grounded theory	Theory derived from data in the course of a study.

Resource summary

	Created by Caitlin Hall almost 10 years ago