CQP Intermediate Level
Research Methodology glossary
Every term this guide defines, A to Z, each with the chapter that teaches it. Open it when a word in a question is unfamiliar, and test yourself on it in the last week: cover the definition and say it in one sentence.
15 terms from the free first chapter
C
- Concept
An abstract idea, such as quality culture, customer satisfaction or supplier reliability. Concepts cannot be measured directly, which is exactly why the next two terms exist.
Taught in Introduction to research
- Construct
A concept deliberately defined for research purposes so it can be observed. Quality culture becomes a construct once you specify that it consists of, say, management commitment, employee involvement and continual improvement behaviour.
Taught in Introduction to research
- Controlled
Competing explanations are ruled out deliberately rather than ignored. If a defect rate falls after a training programme, control means having some way of knowing that it was the training and not the new supplier, the new supervisor or the season.
Taught in Introduction to research
- Critical
The researcher actively looks for the weaknesses in their own work, states them, and invites others to do the same. Peer review, examiner scrutiny and replication all exist because self-deception in research is the normal case rather than the exception.
Taught in Introduction to research
D
- Data
Recorded observations. Primary data is collected by the researcher for this study; secondary data was collected by someone else for some other purpose and is reused.
Taught in Introduction to research
E
- Empirical
Conclusions rest on observation and measurement that others could repeat. A claim that cannot in principle be checked against evidence is not a research finding, however plausible it sounds.
Taught in Introduction to research
O
- Operational definition
The rule that converts a construct into a variable by stating exactly how it will be measured. Customer satisfaction operationally defined as the mean of five Likert items on a named questionnaire is researchable; customer satisfaction left undefined is not.
Taught in Introduction to research
P
- Parameter and statistic
A parameter describes a population (the true mean defect rate of all batches); a statistic describes a sample (the mean of the 60 batches examined). Inference is the business of estimating the first from the second.
Taught in Introduction to research
- Population
The complete set of cases the study wants to say something about. Every tea factory registered with the Tea Board of Kenya; every batch produced in 2025; every internal auditor employed by the organisation.
Taught in Introduction to research
R
- Reliability
Consistency. The same instrument applied again under the same conditions gives the same result.
Taught in Introduction to research
S
- Sample
The subset actually studied. The whole of sampling theory exists to make a statement about the population defensible from a sample.
Taught in Introduction to research
- Systematic
The steps follow a plan set out before the data is collected, not improvised as findings emerge. A systematic study can state, in advance, what evidence would change its conclusion. An unsystematic one discovers its method after it has seen the answer it wants.
Taught in Introduction to research
U
- Unit of analysis
The thing about which data is collected and conclusions are drawn: a person, a batch, a firm, a complaint, a shift. Confusing units is a common and fatal error. A study that samples 300 employees but concludes about 12 firms has 12 cases, not 300.
Taught in Introduction to research
V
- Validity
Truth. The instrument measures what it claims to measure, and the conclusion follows from the evidence.
Taught in Introduction to research
- Variable
A measurable property that takes different values across cases. Defect rate, training hours, years of service and ISO 9001 certification status are all variables.
Taught in Introduction to research
The full glossary adds every term from the other 9 chapters, A to Z, each with the chapter that teaches it.