Bias
a particular preference or point of view that is personal, rather than scientific
Cause and Effect
a relationship in which change in one variable causes change in another
Correlation
a relationship between two variables in which a change in one coincides with a change in the other
Generalizability
the extent to which the findings from one group (or sample) can be generalized or applied to other groups (or populations)
Hawthorne Effect
a change in a subject's behavior caused simply by the awareness of being studied
Operational Definitions
Concrete definitions of the variables that are being studied
Population
all the cases in a group, from which samples may be drawn for a study
Qualitative Research
sociological research methods that use interpretive description (words) rather than statistics (numbers) to analyze underlying meanings and patterns of social relationships.
Quantitative Research
research that collects and reports data primarily in numerical form
Reliability
the extent to which a test yields consistent results
Sample
a small group selected by researchers to represent the most important characteristics of an entire population
Validity
the ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure