ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a number of different concepts involved in the research process. The goal here is not to teach terminology but to help you keep these ideas straight as you work with them. The concepts discussed in this chapter constitute the very heart of social science research, and familiarity with them is not only helpful in understanding how others conduct research but also vital to being able to do it yourself. Although these concepts might seem very abstract at first, by the end of the chapter you should be able to apply some of them to specific examples yourself.
