Glossary of Research Terms

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Alternative hypothesis

A statement that some difference or effect is expected. Accepting the alternative hypothesis leads to changes in opinions or actions. Thus, the alternative hypothesis is the opposite of the null hypothesis.

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Analysis of covariance

An advance analysis of variance procedure in which the effects of one or more metricscaled extraneous variables are removed from the dependent variable before conducting the ANOVA

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Analysis of variance (ANOVA)

A statistical technique for examining the differences among means that involves the decomposition of the total variation observed in the dependent variable. It determines whether there is reason to believe that the population means differ. The null hypothesis is that all means are equal.

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Analysis sample

In discriminant analysis, the sample used for estimation for the discriminant function

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Analytical model

A set of variables and their interrelationships designed to represent, in whole or in part, some real system or process.

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Analytical services

Marketing research services providing sophisticated procedures for complex problems. Services include questionnaire design and pretesting, data collecting strategy, sampling plans, and experimental designs.

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Area sampling

A common form of cluster sampling in which the clusters consist of geographic areas, such as counties, housing tracts, or blocks.

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Asymmetric lambda

A measure of the percentage improvement in predicting the value of the dependent variable, given the value of the independent variable in contingency table analysis.

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