Glossary Methodology
Chapter 1: Getting started – possibilities and decisions
Action research Research engaging with groups or communities specifically to solve problems.
Appeals The bases of persuasion – for example, sex appeal and fear in advertising.
Q-Methodology A research approach used to assess individuals’ subjective understanding. Typically,
participants rank a series of statements about a topic according to their perceived
accuracy. Quantitative
Social scientists Researchers who share the assumptions that the methods of science can be applied to
researching and understanding human behavior.
Triangulation The use of two or more research methods to address the same research question. If
results from different methods agree, researchers can have greater confidence in their
findings.
Chapter 2: First decisions – what, why, how?
Abduction Reasoning from an observed effect to possible causes.
Authority A way of knowing based on knowledge from a credible or respected source of
information.
Closed-ended research Questions which ask about the direction of the relationship between variables.
questions
Construct Abstract idea or concept.
Control In experimental design, control refers to an experimental group that does not receive any
experimental treatment in order to provide a baseline for measuring changes that might
occur in other groups. As a goal of research, control refers to gaining information about
human behavior in order to be able to predict and control it.
Deduction Reasoning from a theory to defining the observations you will make to test the theory.
Description An account or documentation of observed conditions. One basic goal of research is to
describe communication phenomena in such a way that other can understand it.
Empiricism The view that knowledge should be based on experience and observation.
Epistemology The study or theory of knowledge. Epistemology addresses such questions as “What is
knowledge?” and “How do we know what we know?”
Ethnomethodology The study of how people make sense of their culture and communicate that
understanding to others. Seeks to describe and explain cultural understandings in terms
of the culture’s own language and concepts.
Explanation An attempt to account for the relationships observed among phenomena. A basic goal
of research is to explain how and why communication phenomena occur.
Exploration “Mapping out” a new area of research before proceeding to study it more specifically.
Research that may lead down unknown paths as opposed to testing a specific
hypothesis.
Hermeneutics The concept of understanding a whole in terms of its parts and vice versa.
Hypothesis A testable statement about the relationships one expects to find among variables of
interest. Two-tailed tests predict relationships between two variables but do not specify
the direction of the relationship. One-tailed tests specify the direction of relationships
between variables. Null hypotheses specify that there is no relationship between
variables.
Idiographic A research approach with an emphasis on understanding the subjectivity and
individuality of human communication, rather than universal laws of human behavior.
Induction Reasoning from observations to a theory that might explain the observations.
Intuition Refers to arriving at an answer without quite knowing how one arrived there; a hunch or
“gut instinct”.
Nomothetic A research approach with an emphasis on measurement with a view to making
generalizations about human behavior.
Null hypothesis The hypothesis that no significant difference will be found between groups or variables.
One-tailed hypothesis Proposing that any difference between two groups will be in one direction; that is, one
group will score higher than another.
Ontology The study of the nature of existence and what it is that language actually refers to.
Operationalize To define a concept in such a way that it can be measured.
Open-ended research Questions to which respondents can reply in their own words.
questions
Phenomenology A research approach that attempts to understand human behavior and consciousness
from the individual, subjective point of view.
,Positivism The idea that phenomena are governed by, and can be explained by, rules based on
objective observation and generalizations from those observations.
Prediction One major goal of research; understanding human behavior in order to forecast the
conditions under which it will occur.
Rationalism The view that knowledge is best acquired by reason and factual analysis rather than faith
or emotion.
Research questions The basic research interest posed as a question. Open-ended research questions ask
simply whether there is a relationship between variables. Closed-ended research
questions ask about the direction of the relationship.
Scaled questions Questions in which respondents are asked to mark their answers on a scale.
Scientific methods A research approach based on developing specific hypotheses or propositions that can
then be tested using specific observations designed for that purpose.
Serials Regularly published scholarly publications such as journals.
Tenacity A way of knowing based on accepting knowledge, correctly or incorrectly, because it has
stood the test of time.
Two-tailed hypothesis Predicts relationships between two variables but does not specify the direction. See also
one-tailed test.
Variables The aspects of a concept that are capable of being measured or taking on a value. The
construct academic performance cannot be measured; the variable grade point average
can.
Worldview A major conceptual framework for understanding the world. For example, the view that
humans are essentially similar and their behavior can be measured and predicted, versus
the view that humans are individuals and unpredictable, and their behavior may be
described but not predicted.
Chapter 3: Ethics – what are my responsibilities as a researcher?
Anonymity A way of protecting research participants in that the data collected from them does not
identify them in any way. Typically, anonymity is ensured by instructing respondents not
to put their names on any information they provide.
Autonomy A Belmont Report principle that research participants should be treated with respect.
Belmont report A report by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical
and Behavioral Research. It outlines three basic ethical principles of autonomy,
beneficence, and justice covering research with human participants.
Beneficence A Belmont Report principle that human subjects research should maximize possible
benefits and minimize possible harm to participants.
Categorical imperative Philosopher Immanuel Kant’s concept that a behavior is valid if one is willing to see it
applied as a universal rule.
Common Rule The Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects. Shared standards adopted by
federal agencies for the protection of human research subjects.
Confederates Participants in a study who have been briefed by the researcher to behave in a particular
way.
Confidentiality The assurance given to research participants that the researcher will not release any
information that will identify them. The research can link information that participants
provide to the identity of the person providing it.
Debriefing The process of ensuring that research participants receive a follow-up explanation of the
research when it is completed.
Declaration of Helsinki The World Medical Association’s internal ethical guidelines for medical professionals
researching human subjects.
Informed consent The process by which potential research participants are informed to the nature of the
research and given the opportunity to sign or not sign a voluntary agreement to
participate.
Institutional review board A panel established to review research proposals for their impact on human participants.
(IRB)
Judeo-Christian ethic In the context of human subject’s research, do not do to others what you would not want
done to yourself. A concept shared by many religions.
Justice A Belmont Report principle that the benefits and risks of research should be distributed
fairly.
Nuremberg Code An international code emphasizing that research subjects must consent to the research
in which they are involved and that the benefits of the research must outweigh the risks.
Principle of utilitarianism The principle of the greatest good for the greatest number.
Proprietary Pertaining to data or research tools that are privately owned and therefore may not be
used without the owner’s permission.
, Search engine A device such as Google or Yahoo that retrieves information from the web.
Subjects Individuals who participate in an experiment.
Unobtrusive measures Observations of people’s behavior without them being aware of such observation.
Veil of ignorance Philosopher John Rawls’s view that we take a dispassionate approach, reviewing all
sides of decision equally. We are asked to “wear a veil” that blinds us to all information
about ourselves that might cloud our judgement.
Chapter 4: You could look it up – reading, recording, and reviewing research
APA American Psychology Association. APA is the standard style for many communication
scholars when they reference other’s people work. APA style uses an “author (data)”
style in the body of the paper and places the full citation, alphabetized by author, at the
end of the paper. APA is also relevant in terms of American Psychological Association
Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct.
Bibliographic Pertaining to books and journals.
Boolean operators Terms such as AND, OR, and NOT that allow to fine-tune a database search.
Chicago In the context of research reporting, refers to the Chicago Manual of Style.
Citations The publication details of book, journal articles, or websites.
Database In the context of bibliographic research, collections of (mostly) scholarly articles that can
be searched electronically.
DOI Short for digital object identifier. A string of characters used to uniquely identify a web-
based document. Used in bibliographic citations.
Impact factor In scholarly publishing, a measure of the number of times journal articles are cited by
other scholarly articles.
Literature In the context of communication and other research, refers to refereed and published
scholarly research reports.
Metric A quantitative measure for a concept or activity – for example, the impact factor in
scholarly publishing as a measure of influence.
MLA Modern Language Association. In the context of reporting communication research,
refers to the MLA Style Manual.
Popular articles Articles published without a refereeing process, typically in newspapers and magazines,
and targeted to a consumer public.
Primary source An original article or book. See also secondary source.
Refereeing The process of having one’s research reviewed by other researchers in the author’s field
prior to publication. See also peer review.
Scholarly articles Research papers that have been peer reviewed and published in academic journals.
Search fields Searchable components of a database or search engine when searching for information.
Search term The word(s) types into a database or search engine when searching for information.
Secondary source An author’s interpretation or summary of an original source – e.g. a literature review.
Trade publications A journal published for a particular industry. The articles are written by experts but not
necessarily to the standards of an academic research publication.
Chapter 5: Measurement – research using numbers
Coded The process of transforming data into a simplified form, usually for computer processing.
Concurrent validity Concurrent validity is demonstrated when a measure correlates highly with other
measures designed to measure the same construct.
Construct validity Construct validity occurs when the measures of one concept or construct agree with
measures of other related concepts.
Content validity The extent to which a measure fully represents a given concept, typically as judged by a
panel of experts. See also face validity, expert validity, and panel validity.
Convergent validity Occurs where there is a demonstrable agreement between the concept or construct you
are trying to measure and other related concepts.
Correlation A statistical procedure for measuring the strength of association between two or more
variables. More generally, the degree to which variables are related.
Criterion validity Criterion validity is demonstrated when a test or measure correlates highly with some
tangible, external criterion.
Demographic Questions pertaining to such variables as age, marital status, income, and occupation.
Divergent validity Divergent validity is demonstrated when a measure of a construct or concept is shown
to be unrelated to measures of unrelated concepts.
Established measures A measure of whether the results obtained from an instrument that you are developing
reliability match the results obtained from a known, tested instrument designed for the same
purpose.
Expert validity Validity as judged by relevant experts. See also panel validity.
Chapter 1: Getting started – possibilities and decisions
Action research Research engaging with groups or communities specifically to solve problems.
Appeals The bases of persuasion – for example, sex appeal and fear in advertising.
Q-Methodology A research approach used to assess individuals’ subjective understanding. Typically,
participants rank a series of statements about a topic according to their perceived
accuracy. Quantitative
Social scientists Researchers who share the assumptions that the methods of science can be applied to
researching and understanding human behavior.
Triangulation The use of two or more research methods to address the same research question. If
results from different methods agree, researchers can have greater confidence in their
findings.
Chapter 2: First decisions – what, why, how?
Abduction Reasoning from an observed effect to possible causes.
Authority A way of knowing based on knowledge from a credible or respected source of
information.
Closed-ended research Questions which ask about the direction of the relationship between variables.
questions
Construct Abstract idea or concept.
Control In experimental design, control refers to an experimental group that does not receive any
experimental treatment in order to provide a baseline for measuring changes that might
occur in other groups. As a goal of research, control refers to gaining information about
human behavior in order to be able to predict and control it.
Deduction Reasoning from a theory to defining the observations you will make to test the theory.
Description An account or documentation of observed conditions. One basic goal of research is to
describe communication phenomena in such a way that other can understand it.
Empiricism The view that knowledge should be based on experience and observation.
Epistemology The study or theory of knowledge. Epistemology addresses such questions as “What is
knowledge?” and “How do we know what we know?”
Ethnomethodology The study of how people make sense of their culture and communicate that
understanding to others. Seeks to describe and explain cultural understandings in terms
of the culture’s own language and concepts.
Explanation An attempt to account for the relationships observed among phenomena. A basic goal
of research is to explain how and why communication phenomena occur.
Exploration “Mapping out” a new area of research before proceeding to study it more specifically.
Research that may lead down unknown paths as opposed to testing a specific
hypothesis.
Hermeneutics The concept of understanding a whole in terms of its parts and vice versa.
Hypothesis A testable statement about the relationships one expects to find among variables of
interest. Two-tailed tests predict relationships between two variables but do not specify
the direction of the relationship. One-tailed tests specify the direction of relationships
between variables. Null hypotheses specify that there is no relationship between
variables.
Idiographic A research approach with an emphasis on understanding the subjectivity and
individuality of human communication, rather than universal laws of human behavior.
Induction Reasoning from observations to a theory that might explain the observations.
Intuition Refers to arriving at an answer without quite knowing how one arrived there; a hunch or
“gut instinct”.
Nomothetic A research approach with an emphasis on measurement with a view to making
generalizations about human behavior.
Null hypothesis The hypothesis that no significant difference will be found between groups or variables.
One-tailed hypothesis Proposing that any difference between two groups will be in one direction; that is, one
group will score higher than another.
Ontology The study of the nature of existence and what it is that language actually refers to.
Operationalize To define a concept in such a way that it can be measured.
Open-ended research Questions to which respondents can reply in their own words.
questions
Phenomenology A research approach that attempts to understand human behavior and consciousness
from the individual, subjective point of view.
,Positivism The idea that phenomena are governed by, and can be explained by, rules based on
objective observation and generalizations from those observations.
Prediction One major goal of research; understanding human behavior in order to forecast the
conditions under which it will occur.
Rationalism The view that knowledge is best acquired by reason and factual analysis rather than faith
or emotion.
Research questions The basic research interest posed as a question. Open-ended research questions ask
simply whether there is a relationship between variables. Closed-ended research
questions ask about the direction of the relationship.
Scaled questions Questions in which respondents are asked to mark their answers on a scale.
Scientific methods A research approach based on developing specific hypotheses or propositions that can
then be tested using specific observations designed for that purpose.
Serials Regularly published scholarly publications such as journals.
Tenacity A way of knowing based on accepting knowledge, correctly or incorrectly, because it has
stood the test of time.
Two-tailed hypothesis Predicts relationships between two variables but does not specify the direction. See also
one-tailed test.
Variables The aspects of a concept that are capable of being measured or taking on a value. The
construct academic performance cannot be measured; the variable grade point average
can.
Worldview A major conceptual framework for understanding the world. For example, the view that
humans are essentially similar and their behavior can be measured and predicted, versus
the view that humans are individuals and unpredictable, and their behavior may be
described but not predicted.
Chapter 3: Ethics – what are my responsibilities as a researcher?
Anonymity A way of protecting research participants in that the data collected from them does not
identify them in any way. Typically, anonymity is ensured by instructing respondents not
to put their names on any information they provide.
Autonomy A Belmont Report principle that research participants should be treated with respect.
Belmont report A report by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical
and Behavioral Research. It outlines three basic ethical principles of autonomy,
beneficence, and justice covering research with human participants.
Beneficence A Belmont Report principle that human subjects research should maximize possible
benefits and minimize possible harm to participants.
Categorical imperative Philosopher Immanuel Kant’s concept that a behavior is valid if one is willing to see it
applied as a universal rule.
Common Rule The Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects. Shared standards adopted by
federal agencies for the protection of human research subjects.
Confederates Participants in a study who have been briefed by the researcher to behave in a particular
way.
Confidentiality The assurance given to research participants that the researcher will not release any
information that will identify them. The research can link information that participants
provide to the identity of the person providing it.
Debriefing The process of ensuring that research participants receive a follow-up explanation of the
research when it is completed.
Declaration of Helsinki The World Medical Association’s internal ethical guidelines for medical professionals
researching human subjects.
Informed consent The process by which potential research participants are informed to the nature of the
research and given the opportunity to sign or not sign a voluntary agreement to
participate.
Institutional review board A panel established to review research proposals for their impact on human participants.
(IRB)
Judeo-Christian ethic In the context of human subject’s research, do not do to others what you would not want
done to yourself. A concept shared by many religions.
Justice A Belmont Report principle that the benefits and risks of research should be distributed
fairly.
Nuremberg Code An international code emphasizing that research subjects must consent to the research
in which they are involved and that the benefits of the research must outweigh the risks.
Principle of utilitarianism The principle of the greatest good for the greatest number.
Proprietary Pertaining to data or research tools that are privately owned and therefore may not be
used without the owner’s permission.
, Search engine A device such as Google or Yahoo that retrieves information from the web.
Subjects Individuals who participate in an experiment.
Unobtrusive measures Observations of people’s behavior without them being aware of such observation.
Veil of ignorance Philosopher John Rawls’s view that we take a dispassionate approach, reviewing all
sides of decision equally. We are asked to “wear a veil” that blinds us to all information
about ourselves that might cloud our judgement.
Chapter 4: You could look it up – reading, recording, and reviewing research
APA American Psychology Association. APA is the standard style for many communication
scholars when they reference other’s people work. APA style uses an “author (data)”
style in the body of the paper and places the full citation, alphabetized by author, at the
end of the paper. APA is also relevant in terms of American Psychological Association
Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct.
Bibliographic Pertaining to books and journals.
Boolean operators Terms such as AND, OR, and NOT that allow to fine-tune a database search.
Chicago In the context of research reporting, refers to the Chicago Manual of Style.
Citations The publication details of book, journal articles, or websites.
Database In the context of bibliographic research, collections of (mostly) scholarly articles that can
be searched electronically.
DOI Short for digital object identifier. A string of characters used to uniquely identify a web-
based document. Used in bibliographic citations.
Impact factor In scholarly publishing, a measure of the number of times journal articles are cited by
other scholarly articles.
Literature In the context of communication and other research, refers to refereed and published
scholarly research reports.
Metric A quantitative measure for a concept or activity – for example, the impact factor in
scholarly publishing as a measure of influence.
MLA Modern Language Association. In the context of reporting communication research,
refers to the MLA Style Manual.
Popular articles Articles published without a refereeing process, typically in newspapers and magazines,
and targeted to a consumer public.
Primary source An original article or book. See also secondary source.
Refereeing The process of having one’s research reviewed by other researchers in the author’s field
prior to publication. See also peer review.
Scholarly articles Research papers that have been peer reviewed and published in academic journals.
Search fields Searchable components of a database or search engine when searching for information.
Search term The word(s) types into a database or search engine when searching for information.
Secondary source An author’s interpretation or summary of an original source – e.g. a literature review.
Trade publications A journal published for a particular industry. The articles are written by experts but not
necessarily to the standards of an academic research publication.
Chapter 5: Measurement – research using numbers
Coded The process of transforming data into a simplified form, usually for computer processing.
Concurrent validity Concurrent validity is demonstrated when a measure correlates highly with other
measures designed to measure the same construct.
Construct validity Construct validity occurs when the measures of one concept or construct agree with
measures of other related concepts.
Content validity The extent to which a measure fully represents a given concept, typically as judged by a
panel of experts. See also face validity, expert validity, and panel validity.
Convergent validity Occurs where there is a demonstrable agreement between the concept or construct you
are trying to measure and other related concepts.
Correlation A statistical procedure for measuring the strength of association between two or more
variables. More generally, the degree to which variables are related.
Criterion validity Criterion validity is demonstrated when a test or measure correlates highly with some
tangible, external criterion.
Demographic Questions pertaining to such variables as age, marital status, income, and occupation.
Divergent validity Divergent validity is demonstrated when a measure of a construct or concept is shown
to be unrelated to measures of unrelated concepts.
Established measures A measure of whether the results obtained from an instrument that you are developing
reliability match the results obtained from a known, tested instrument designed for the same
purpose.
Expert validity Validity as judged by relevant experts. See also panel validity.
