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WGU-SSC1 ch1
Western Governor's University, General Education Social Science, chapter 1
Definition | Key Term |
---|---|
A method of research consisting of a detailed, long-term investigation. | case study |
A generalized idea about people, objects, or processes that are related to one another; an abstract way of classifying things that are similar. | concept |
A survey of a broad spectrum of population at a specific point in time. | cross-section |
An attitude of the scientific method in the social sciences, requiring that scientists not pass moral judgment on their feelings. | ethical neutrality |
A method of research in which the researcher controls and manipulates variables in one group to test the effects of an independent variable on a dependent variable. | experiemnt |
A tentative statement, in clearly defined terms, predicting a relationship between variables. | hypothesis |
A survey that continues over a long period, engaging in contrasts and comparisons. | longitudinal |
A principle of the scientific method, especially in the social sciences, requiring researchers to divest themseleves of personal attitudes, desires, beliefs, values, and tendencies, when confronting their data. | objectivity |
A method of research in which researchers try to take part in the lives of the members of the group under analysis, sometimes with out revealing their purposes. | participant observation |
In the social sciences, a statistical concept referring to the totality of phenomena under investigation(e.g., all college students enrolled in four-year private universities). | population |
An aspect of scientific methodology that bolsters and complements theories, in the social sciences, four fundamental formats are used: the sample survey, the case study, the experiment, and the paricipant observation. | research |
A method of research consisting of an attempt to determine the occurrence of a particular act or opinion in a particular act or opinion in a particular sample of people. | sample survey |
A set of concepts arranged so as to explain and/or predict possible and probable relationships. | theory |
Factors whose relationships researchers try to uncover; characteristics that differ (vary) in each individual case. | variables |