O
Objectives:
Objectives are the goals or purpose of the research study. The reason why the study is being conducted.
Observation:
The accepted value given for a single instance of a sample study.
Observation Research:
An experiment conducted without any direct interaction between the investigators and the respondents. Also known as a quasi-experiment.
Observation Room:
The location that is separated from the room that contains the subjects usually by a one-way mirror that allows investigators to observe the reactions and hear what is going on during a focus group. They can also be referred to as the back room or viewing room.
Occupancy Status:
Determined as whether or not a housing unit is occupied or vacant (available).
Omnibus Panel:
A study conducted in intervals that allow several companies to purchase a few questions on a single survey that will be administered to a large audience. The survey results for each question will be delivered to the company that posted that particular question as well as surveyed demographic information. This is also known as a piggyback survey.
On-Air Testing:
The impact of television and radio measured after the program has gone on the air.
One-Group Pre-Test Post-Test Design:
A design developed before the experiment with measurements before and after the test to note the difference since no control group is used.
One-on-One:
A qualitative interview involving only a moderator and a single respondent.
One-Shot Case Study:
An experiment design developed before the study that only measures the post-test results and does not use a control group.
One-Way Frequency Table:
A way of charting how often particular responses are used for each question on a survey.
One-Way Mirror:
The mirror used so that observations can be made from a room separate from the room that contains the subjects being observed. This mirror allows the investigators to view the subjects, but the subjects only see themselves through a mirror when looking at the same piece of glass. Most focus groups are conducted with a one-way mirror.
Open Ended Question:
A survey question that allows the respondent an opportunity to write in the response that best answers the question for them. There are no options to chose from so the respondent must use their own wording. Also referred to as a subjective question.
Open Observation:
An instance where people know they are being studied by observers.
OpenSurvey:
An organization promoting open standards in market research.
Operational Definition:
Identifies which characteristics will be used to observe or measure a particular concept and the value that will be attributed to the observation.
Opt-In:
A way of obtaining permission from participants so that they may be contacted in the future. Double-opt in refers to participants that sign up for a service online and are then sent an email in which they confirm to the service by responding to the email’s prompts. They are essentially agreeing twice to be involved with a particular company.
Opt-Out:
A system set up so that people will continue to be contacted by the company that they signed up with until the participant chooses to terminate the relationship. At that time the respondent is able to request no further contact.
Optical Character Reader (OCR):
A computer program that is able to scan printed characters and translate those codes into electronic data.
Optical Scanner:
A device that is able to read and electronically store data from questionnaires or barcodes.
Order Bias:
This occurs when the sequence of interview questions or answers to the questionnaire influence how the respondents answer during the study.
Ordinal Scale:
A scale that allows categories to be ranked in order from smallest to largest-even though the space between two categories is insignificant. Example responses might be excellent, good, fair, and poor.
Outlier:
This data is uncharacteristic of the normal distribution. It is common for this data to be removed from the results in order to prevent skewing of the means or averages. For example, 98% of the respondents purchase a particular product 4 times a week, but 2% of the respondents purchase that product 40 times a week. Researchers will remove the data of the 2% that purchased the product 40 times.
Outmigration:
Process of relocating from a particular location in a given country to a different area within that same country.
Overrecruit:
The act of inviting more people to participate in a focus group than the study actually allows compensating for people who are planning on attending but do not.
Objectives are the goals or purpose of the research study. The reason why the study is being conducted.
Observation:
The accepted value given for a single instance of a sample study.
Observation Research:
An experiment conducted without any direct interaction between the investigators and the respondents. Also known as a quasi-experiment.
Observation Room:
The location that is separated from the room that contains the subjects usually by a one-way mirror that allows investigators to observe the reactions and hear what is going on during a focus group. They can also be referred to as the back room or viewing room.
Occupancy Status:
Determined as whether or not a housing unit is occupied or vacant (available).
Omnibus Panel:
A study conducted in intervals that allow several companies to purchase a few questions on a single survey that will be administered to a large audience. The survey results for each question will be delivered to the company that posted that particular question as well as surveyed demographic information. This is also known as a piggyback survey.
On-Air Testing:
The impact of television and radio measured after the program has gone on the air.
One-Group Pre-Test Post-Test Design:
A design developed before the experiment with measurements before and after the test to note the difference since no control group is used.
One-on-One:
A qualitative interview involving only a moderator and a single respondent.
One-Shot Case Study:
An experiment design developed before the study that only measures the post-test results and does not use a control group.
One-Way Frequency Table:
A way of charting how often particular responses are used for each question on a survey.
One-Way Mirror:
The mirror used so that observations can be made from a room separate from the room that contains the subjects being observed. This mirror allows the investigators to view the subjects, but the subjects only see themselves through a mirror when looking at the same piece of glass. Most focus groups are conducted with a one-way mirror.
Open Ended Question:
A survey question that allows the respondent an opportunity to write in the response that best answers the question for them. There are no options to chose from so the respondent must use their own wording. Also referred to as a subjective question.
Open Observation:
An instance where people know they are being studied by observers.
OpenSurvey:
An organization promoting open standards in market research.
Operational Definition:
Identifies which characteristics will be used to observe or measure a particular concept and the value that will be attributed to the observation.
Opt-In:
A way of obtaining permission from participants so that they may be contacted in the future. Double-opt in refers to participants that sign up for a service online and are then sent an email in which they confirm to the service by responding to the email’s prompts. They are essentially agreeing twice to be involved with a particular company.
Opt-Out:
A system set up so that people will continue to be contacted by the company that they signed up with until the participant chooses to terminate the relationship. At that time the respondent is able to request no further contact.
Optical Character Reader (OCR):
A computer program that is able to scan printed characters and translate those codes into electronic data.
Optical Scanner:
A device that is able to read and electronically store data from questionnaires or barcodes.
Order Bias:
This occurs when the sequence of interview questions or answers to the questionnaire influence how the respondents answer during the study.
Ordinal Scale:
A scale that allows categories to be ranked in order from smallest to largest-even though the space between two categories is insignificant. Example responses might be excellent, good, fair, and poor.
Outlier:
This data is uncharacteristic of the normal distribution. It is common for this data to be removed from the results in order to prevent skewing of the means or averages. For example, 98% of the respondents purchase a particular product 4 times a week, but 2% of the respondents purchase that product 40 times a week. Researchers will remove the data of the 2% that purchased the product 40 times.
Outmigration:
Process of relocating from a particular location in a given country to a different area within that same country.
Overrecruit:
The act of inviting more people to participate in a focus group than the study actually allows compensating for people who are planning on attending but do not.
