Scientific Research Glossary

                    Scientific Research Glossary


Concept     A generalized class name which represents certain
abstracted properties of the objects found within the class. 
Concepts can include things (beer) and properties of things (tap
beer).  Concepts can also refer to events (drinking) and
properties of events (drinking at a bar).  

Construct     A complex concept that goes beyond things or
events; the term is used when a concept relates to relationships
among things and/or events and their properties.  More inference
is required in the process of abstracting the properties
identified by the construct.  Example: drunkenness (drinking in
excess, which can result from antecedents other than just beer
drinking, with various connected characteristics and
consequences).   
    
Constructive explanation    Interpretation of phenomenon in terms
of constructs representing relationships of antecedent (stimulus)
and consequent (response) conditions.  

Control      1) Of variables:  the circumvention of extraneous
variation in an (experimental) situation so that measures of the
depend variables may more accurately reflect the manipulation of
independent variables.  2)  Of events:  management of a situation
made possible by scientific or otherwise ordered knowledge.  (The
objective of science is to describe, predict and control.)

Controlled variable      A factor or condition whose influence on
the dependent variable in a particular investigation is
eliminated experimentally or otherwise.

Corollary    A proposition deductively related to a postulate and
also empirically testable in terms of its logical implications.

Data     Recorded results of observations

Data language     The terminology in which data are recorded,
that is, the strictly empirical or observational language.

Deduction    A formal logic in which specific conclusions are
drawn from generalized premises.

Deductive theory     See theory, types of

Dependent variable     The factor or condition in an
investigation which is directly measured;  in psychology,
generally some response or response measures.

Empirical  Observational: directly based upon sensory experience.

Empiricism     A metatheoretical and scientific proposition that
emphasizes observations and the data language rather than
deductive logic and inference

Explanation     A principle or proposition in terms of which some
other propositions or events can be understood;  the process by
which such clarification is produced.

Fact     A symbolic proposition, usually a verbal statement, that
is generally agreed upon by some particular group of persons. 
(In science, facts range from scientific data, the recorded
results of experiments, to abstract theoretical propositions,
with a generally decreasing degree of acceptance or "factualness"
from the former to the latter.

Functional theory     See theory, types of

Hypothesis    A proposition, usually couched in the form of a
conjecture or provisional explanation that states a relationship
among empirical or theoretical variables.

Hypothetical construct (HC)      A construct representing a wide
range of stimulus (antecedent) and response (consequent)
conditions which are not specified;  hence, an intervening
(intraorganismic) construct with "surplus meaning" and a
relatively low degree of operational specificity (usually
distinguished from the intervening variable (IV), which is more
strictly abstractive of the S-R relationship.

Idiographic     Referring to the intensive study of an individual
subject;  contrasted with monothetic.

Independent variable     A factor or condition that is
experimentally or otherwise manipulated and whose influence on
the dependent variable is under investigation.

Induction     A logic in which specific propositions are
accumulated to produce generalized conclusions

Inductive theory      See theory, types of

Intervening variable (IV)    A construct abstracted from the
stimulus (antecedent) and response (consequent) conditions and
having no meaning beyond this S-R relationship;  hence, an
intervening (intra-organismic) construct with a high degree of
operational specificity and clarity (usually distinguished from
the hypothetical construct, which has surplus and unspecified
meaning.

Law     A statement of regular, predictable relationships among
empirical variables.

Metatheory    A set of generally and super-ordinate rules
concerning the construction of theory. ("Theories about
theories.")


Model       A conceptual analogue, generally brought in from some
other field, whose function is to direct empirical research,
differing from other types of theory in that its modification or
improvement is not involved.

Monothetic    Law-making in a generalized sense; contrasted with
idiographic.

Observation     Noting and recording of events in scientific
investigation.

Operationism    A movement in science which insists that adequate
definitions of terms are those in which meanings are synonymous
with the operations involved in measuring and therefore, if a
term has more than one set of identifying measurements, or
empirical measurements, it has more than one meaning.

Parsimony   The general principle that in science it is safe
(better), in the long run, to accept the simpler of alternative
explanatory propositions of a particular phenomenon.

Positivism    A metatheoretical and scientific position that
emphasizes parsimony and operationism in data language and
eschews speculative theorizing.

Postulate   1)  A proposition concerning the relationship of
variable that is indirectly tested by means of its theorems
(implications);  hence, a formalized type of hypothesis, usually
occurring in a deductive theory.  2)  A working assumption.

Reductionism     The general attempt to explain and interpret
phenomena by means of analysis into simpler components and
principles at a different level of analysis.

Reductive explanation    Interpretation of data in terms of other
phenomena, which are at a different level of analysis;  usually
the relationship is a hierarchial one, as for example, when
behavior phenomena are interpreted in terms of biological ones,
these in terms of biochemical ones, etc.

Science      The enterprise by which a particular kind of ordered
knowledge is obtained about natural phenomena by means of
controlled observation and theoretical interpretation

System     An organization and interpretation of data and
theories of a subject matter with emphasis upon a particular
methodology (metatheory) and working assumptions (postulates).

Theorem   A specific implication of a more general explanatory
proposition, a postulate by means by deductive logic.

Theory     1)  In a general sense, any more or less formalized
conceptualization of the relationship between variables.   2) 
Any generalized explanatory principle.  

Theory construction      The process of producing abstract and
generalized conceptualizations by various metatheoretical rules

Theory, types of      As here distinguished  1) model (see
entry),  2)  Deductive theory, a logically organized (deductively
related) cluster of laws,   3) Functional theory, more or less
informed explanatory propositions which are closely related to
data (empirical propositions) and without fixed logical form,  4)
Inductive theory, descriptive statements, summarizing clusters of
empirical positions with minimal inferential commitment

Variable    A class of objects or events, or properties thereof;
a factor of condition that is conceptualized for scientific
purposes.  (See controlled variable, dependent variable,
independent variable, intervening variable).