{"id":586,"date":"2020-02-19T13:57:32","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T18:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/jibcresearchmethods\/?post_type=chapter&p=586"},"modified":"2024-08-01T14:46:43","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T18:46:43","slug":"key-takeaways-10","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/jibcresearchmethods\/chapter\/key-takeaways-10\/","title":{"raw":"Key Takeaways","rendered":"Key Takeaways"},"content":{"raw":"
\r\n

Key Takeaways<\/h2>\r\n<\/header>\r\n
\r\n
    \r\n \t
  • Reliability in measurement <\/em><\/strong>is about consistency. Validity in measurement <\/em><\/strong>is about social agreement.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • Internal validity <\/em><\/strong>means that the experiment actually tests what it seeks to test, while external validity <\/em><\/strong>means that the study is generic to other situations and contexts.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • A variable <\/em><\/strong>refers to a grouping of several characteristics. Attributes <\/em><\/strong>are those characteristics.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • Nominal level of measurement <\/em><\/strong>has attributes that meet the criteria of exhaustiveness and mutual exclusivity. Ordinal level measurement <\/em><\/strong>can be rank ordered, though we cannot calculate a mathematical distance between those attributes. Interval level measurement <\/em><\/strong>meets all criteria if the two preceding levels plus the distance between attributes is known to be equal. Ratio level measurement <\/em><\/strong>has attributes that are mutually exclusive and exhaustive, can be rank ordered, have an equal distance between them, and have a true zero point.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • Unit of analysis <\/em><\/strong>is the entity that you wish to be able to say something about at the end of your study, probably what you\u2019d consider to be the main focus of your study. A unit of observation <\/em><\/strong>is the item (or items) that you actually observe, measure, or collect in the course of trying to learn something about your unit of analysis.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • An independent variable <\/strong><\/em>is one that causes another. It is the variable that is manipulated by the researcher in order to measure the difference in the outcome or the dependent variable.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • A dependent variable <\/strong><\/em>is one that is caused by another.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • An extraneous variable <\/strong><\/em>may compete with the independent variable in explaining the outcome.<\/li>\r\n \t
  • A rival plausible explanation (RPE) <\/strong><\/em>is an alternative factor, to the idea that you might have been expecting respondents to try to answer, that may account for the results you observed in your research.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"
    \n
    \n

    Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n
    \n
      \n
    • Reliability in measurement <\/em><\/strong>is about consistency. Validity in measurement <\/em><\/strong>is about social agreement.<\/li>\n
    • Internal validity <\/em><\/strong>means that the experiment actually tests what it seeks to test, while external validity <\/em><\/strong>means that the study is generic to other situations and contexts.<\/li>\n
    • A variable <\/em><\/strong>refers to a grouping of several characteristics. Attributes <\/em><\/strong>are those characteristics.<\/li>\n
    • Nominal level of measurement <\/em><\/strong>has attributes that meet the criteria of exhaustiveness and mutual exclusivity. Ordinal level measurement <\/em><\/strong>can be rank ordered, though we cannot calculate a mathematical distance between those attributes. Interval level measurement <\/em><\/strong>meets all criteria if the two preceding levels plus the distance between attributes is known to be equal. Ratio level measurement <\/em><\/strong>has attributes that are mutually exclusive and exhaustive, can be rank ordered, have an equal distance between them, and have a true zero point.<\/li>\n
    • Unit of analysis <\/em><\/strong>is the entity that you wish to be able to say something about at the end of your study, probably what you\u2019d consider to be the main focus of your study. A unit of observation <\/em><\/strong>is the item (or items) that you actually observe, measure, or collect in the course of trying to learn something about your unit of analysis.<\/li>\n
    • An independent variable <\/strong><\/em>is one that causes another. It is the variable that is manipulated by the researcher in order to measure the difference in the outcome or the dependent variable.<\/li>\n
    • A dependent variable <\/strong><\/em>is one that is caused by another.<\/li>\n
    • An extraneous variable <\/strong><\/em>may compete with the independent variable in explaining the outcome.<\/li>\n
    • A rival plausible explanation (RPE) <\/strong><\/em>is an alternative factor, to the idea that you might have been expecting respondents to try to answer, that may account for the results you observed in your research.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"menu_order":13,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-586","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":172,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/jibcresearchmethods\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/jibcresearchmethods\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/jibcresearchmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/jibcresearchmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/jibcresearchmethods\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1094,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/jibcresearchmethods\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/586\/revisions\/1094"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/jibcresearchmethods\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/172"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/jibcresearchmethods\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/586\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/jibcresearchmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/jibcresearchmethods\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=586"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/jibcresearchmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=586"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/jibcresearchmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}