You can see that the population is dependent on the research question.
If we’re interested in Alzheimer’s disease then the population would be all people with Alzheimer’s disease. For example if we’re interested in knowing whether sugar makes kids hyperactive, the group or population we’re interested in are all children. In research design this refers to the entire group that we’re interested in knowing more about. The second term that’s important is population. So, if we’re interested in whether caffeine affects blood pressure, we might research this by measuring the variables: 1) daily caffeine intake and 2) blood pressure. Simply put, a variable is any factor that varies within a specified group or population some examples are height, weight, caffeine intake, and blood pressure. The first term you should be comfortable with is, “variable”.
Let’s begin by discussing some of the basic components of research. Research is the foundation of science, as such, understanding research design is essential for basic science literacy. Appendix: Tricky Topic Transcripts Tricky Topic Transcripts In order of appearance: 1031 Tricky Topics Tricky Topic: Introduction to Research Design
