Week 2 Flashcards Quantitative Research Vocabulary

These flashcards cover key vocabulary related to quantitative research, including concepts about populations, samples, statistics, variables, levels of measurement, and definitions crucial for understanding research methodology.

Population

The entire group of individuals or instances about whom we hope to learn.

Sample

A subset of the population that is used to represent the group.

Descriptive Statistics

Statistics that describe or summarize data.

Inferential Statistics

Statistics that draw conclusions from data that are subject to random variation.

Constructs

Abstractions generalized from particulars; ideas that researchers form to summarize observations.

Categorical Variables

Variables that categorize participant responses into different groups without a numerical value.

Quantitative Variables

Variables where participants fall at different levels indicating different amounts of a characteristic.

Levels of Measurement

The scale we use to measure constructs which affects the type of statistics used.

Nominal Level

A measurement level for categorical data where numbers serve only as labels.

Ordinal Level

A measurement level for numerical data where numbers indicate order but not the size of the difference.

Interval Level

A measurement level for numerical data where numbers indicate order and assume equal distances between categories.

Ratio Level

A measurement level for numerical data that has an absolute zero point.

Measurement

The process of determining characteristics, size, or quantity of a variable.

Quantitative Measurement

The rules for assigning numerical values to indicate the level or degree of a variable.

Operational Definition

A specific definition of a construct in terms of the operations or procedures used to measure it.

Independent Variable

The causal variable that is manipulated by the researcher.

Dependent Variable

The effect variable that is measured to see changes caused by the independent variable.