A glossary of useful research terms

Posted byGraham FirthPosted inOther Significant Research SummariesTags:
  • BASELINE PHASE: a baseline phase is the period in research before a new approach (intervention) is started.
  • BASELINE ASSESSMENT: a baseline assessment is an assessment of someone’s skills or competences prior to the start of an intervention in order to be able to objectively evaluate the effects of the intervention.
  • DATA: information gathered and organised for analysis or used as the basis for a decision.
  • EFFECTIVENESS: effectiveness relates to how well a treatment works in the practice of medicine, as opposed to efficacy, which measures how well treatment works in clinical trials or laboratory studies.
  • EFFICACY: efficacy indicates the capacity for beneficial change (or therapeutic effect) of a given intervention.
  • EMPIRICAL DATA: are data produced by ‘theory-neutral’ observations or experiment.
  • EVIDENCE: is everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion.
  • EXTRANEOUS VARIABLES: a research term that indicates factors other than the ‘independent variable’ (e.g. an Intensive Interaction intervention) that can have an effect on outcomes and may confound or confuse any analysis of the effect of an intervention.
  • GENERALIZABILITY: is how well research findings and conclusions from a study conducted on a sample population can be applied across the population at large.
  • IMPLEMENTATION: the stages and process of putting something into practice.
  • INTER-RATER RELIABILITY or INTER-RATER AGREEMENT: is the degree of agreement among research data-raters. It gives a score of how much homogeneity or consensus there is in the ratings given by observers or data collectors.
  • INTERVENTION PHASE: the period in research when a new approach, such as Intensive Interaction, has been introduced for evaluation purposes.
  • OBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT: detached, objectivised and unbiased assessment, not distorted by personal experience, feeling or knowledge.
  • OBSERVATION: ‘observation’ is the process of looking specifically at what is going on in a certain set of circumstances. Observations are not subjective and individualistic explanations, but should be independent, impartial and un-prejudiced.
  • OPERATIONALISATION or IMPLEMENTATION: the stages and process of putting something into practice.
  • QUALITATIVE METHODS: methods that use verbal accounts and description, rather than numbers, to gather evidence or data. 
  • QUANTITATIVE METHODS: research methods that gather numerical data, and usually subsequently use statistical techniques to manipulate and create meaning from the data.
  • QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: a ‘positivist’ research design (i.e. one looking to generate empirical data) for testing hypotheses while recognising the naturalistic context and impossibility of controlling all variables.
  • RESEARCH ETHICS: agreed rules and standards concerning the ethical conduct of research.
  • RESEARCH EVIDENCE: is evidence accumulated through some kind of structured observations of some kind of particular variables, carried out in some kind of previously defined or controlled conditions.
  • TRIANGULATION: in research, the use of data or evidence from more than one source to increase the validity or reliability of any findings.
  • VIDEO ANALYSIS: structured analysis of previously recorded video footage to see exactly what happened e.g. after a session of Intensive Interaction.
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