basic concepts

Question 1

population

Answer 1

the entire collection of events in which you are interested

Question 2

external validity

Answer 2

refers to the question of whether the sample reflects the population

Question 3

random assignment

Answer 3

concerns the source of the data

Question 4

variable

Answer 4

property of an object or event that can take on different values, e.g. hair colour

Question 5

independent variable

Answer 5

what we manipulate

Question 6

dependent variable

Answer 6

what we measure

Question 7

discrete variable

Answer 7

variables with only a limited number of values, e.g. gender or high school class

Question 8

continuous variable

Answer 8

variables which may have a low point and high point on a scale, e.g. self-esteem score and age

Question 9

quantitative data (or measurement data)

Answer 9

the results of any sort of measurement, e.g. grades on a test, people’s weights

Question 10

qualitative data (or frequency data or categorical data)

Answer 10

consist of frequencies for each category