A question about one or more topics or concepts that can be answered through research.

Example: Is almost everyone in the country married with children or are they living alone?

A unit about which information is collected.

Example: People

Socially defined sources of knowledge.

Example: The Census Bureau

Inquiry that employs the senses' evidence.

Example: General idea of all families from our own observations of our own family.

A view that human knowledge must be based on what can be perceived.

Example: Time it takes a person to solve a Rubik's cube.

A view of knowledge is not based on irrefutable observable grounds, that it is always somewhat speculative, but that science can provide relatively solid grounds for that speculation.

Example: Intersubjectivity

Agreements about reality that result from comparing the observations of more than one observer.

1. Skepticism and Intersubjectivity

2. The extensive use of communication

3. Testing ideas Factually

4. The use of logic

1. Authorities

2. Personal Inquiry

3. The Scientific Method

4. Positivism

5. Post-positivism

An explanation about how and why something is as it is.

Example: 51% of American women were living without a spouse BECAUSE (1) younger women marrying later and (2) older women not remarrying after being widowed or after divorce.

research intedned to be useful in the immediate future and to suggest action or increase effectiveness in some area.

Example: Participitory action research and evaluation research

1. Exploratory

2. Descriptive

3. Explanatory

4. Evaluation

Research designed to describe groups, activities, situations, or events.

Example: The U.S. census is designed to describe the U.S. population on a variety of characteristics.

Words or signs that refer to phenomena that share common characteristics.

Example: "high-crime late adolescent years" and "birth cohort"

The process of clarifying what we mean by concept.

Example: The concept "high-crime late adolescent years" begins at about age 17 to age 19.

A testible statement about how two or more variables are expected to relate to one another.

Example: People who have performed volunteer roles before retirement will be much more likely to perform such roles after retirement than people who have not performed such roles.

a variable that a researcher sees as being affected or influenced by another variable.

Example: People who have performed volunteer roles before retirement will be much more likely to perform such roles after retirement than people who have not performed such roles.

A variable that a researcher sees as affecting or influencing another variable.

Example: People who have performed volunteer roles before retirement will be much more likely to perform such roles after retirement than people who have not performed such roles.

A variable that comes before both and independent variable and a dependent variable.

Example: The more fire fighters at a fire, the more damage occurs from the fire. Is this because there are more fire fighters? No. it is because the fire is probably bigger, so more fire fighters are required to put it out. So the antecendent variable is the size of the fire.

1. emperical association

2. temporal precedence or time order

3. elimination of alternative explanations (independent variables)

A variable that comes between an IV and a DV. The IV affects the intervening variable which in turn is conceived to affect the DV.

Example: Lagalizing abortion (IV) means that more children experience nurturing homes (Intervening) and that this experience reduces their likelihood of crime (DV).

A variable that has an effect on the DV in addition to the effect of the IV.

Example: The 1990's downturn in crime was explained by four extraneous variables: the legalization of abortion, an increase in the number of police, a rising prison population, and a waning crack epidemic.

The process of devising strategies for classifying subjects by categories to represent variable concepts.

Reasoning that moves from more general to less general.

Example: theoretical --> hypothetical --> observational

Statements that summarize a set of individual observations.

Example: The emperical generalization that people who did volunteer work before retirement were indeed more likely to do it after retirement as well.

Reasoning that moves from less general to more general statments.

Example: observation --> hypothesis --> theory

A. Professional Competence

B. Integrety

C. Professional and Scientific Responsibility

D. Respect for people's rights, dignity, and diversity

E. Social Responsibility

What years did the APA, the AAA, and the ASA adopt their first code of ethics?

1. Respect

2. Beneficience

3. Justice

Informed Consent

and Forms