'I' Terms

Question 1

IBM SPSS Statistics Software

Answer 1

A computer program that facilitates the management and analysis of quantitative data.

Question 2

Idiographic

Answer 2

An approach to understanding that seeks specific, unique knowledge about a person or group, typically concerning interpretations or meanings held by the persons studied.

Question 3

Independent variable

Answer 3

A variable that has (or is assumed to have) a causal impact on a dependent variable.

Question 4

Index

Answer 4

See scale.

Question 5

Indicator

Answer 5

Something employed to measure a concept; it may refer to any measure, but sometimes it means an indirect measure used when no direct measure is available.

Question 6

Induction, Inductive, Inductivist

Answer 6

An approach to inquiry that begins with a collection of data, which are then used to develop theories, hypotheses, and concepts; compare with the deductive.

Question 7

Informed consent

Answer 7

The principle that prospective participants in social research should be given as much information as they need to make a sound decision about whether to participate in a study; a key principle in social research ethics.

Question 8

Institutional ethnography

Answer 8

A type of ethnography that explores how institutional discourses (typically workplace texts) relate to people’s everyday experiences with institutions, and how institutional relationships intersect with larger systems of social control and power in a society.

Question 9

Inter-coder reliability

Answer 9

The degree to which two or more individuals agree on the coding of an item; a frequent concern in the coding of answers to open questions and we search based on questionnaires or structured interviews.

Question 10

Internal reliability or internal consistency

Answer 10

The degree to which the items that make up a scale or index are consistent or correlated.

Question 11

Internal validity

Answer 11

A type of validity that is achieved if there is sufficient evidence that a causal relationship exists between two or more variables.

Question 12

Interpretivism, Interpretivist

Answer 12

An epistemological position that requires the social scientist to grasp the subject of meanings that people attached to their actions and behaviours.

Question 13

Intersubjectivity

Answer 13

A condition in which two or more of observers of the same phenomenon are in agreement as to what they have observed. Empiricists assume that intersubjectivity is possible insofar as knowledge is based on data acquired through the senses.

Question 14

Interval variable

Answer 14

A variable for which the intervals between the categories or identical and quantifiable.

Question 15

Intervening variable

Answer 15

A variable that is affected by another variable and in turn has a causal impact on the third. Taking an intervening variable into account often facilitates the understanding of the relationship between two variables. An intervening variable is the ‘Y’ in XYZ.

Question 16

Interview guide

Answer 16

A brief list of memory prompts regarding areas to be covered in unstructured and semi-structured interviewing.

Question 17

Interview schedule

Answer 17

A collection of questions designed to be asked by an interviewer; always used in a structured interview.

Question 18

Intra-coder reliability

Answer 18

The degree to which an individual coder is consistent over time in the coding of an item; likely to be an issue in the coding of answers to open questions in research based on questionnaires or structured interviews.