Our quest continues. We continue our interdependent path linking various important concepts in social scientific research methods. We’re going to start big picture again looking at inductive and deductive research. It’s a little philosophical (I’m sorry), but tends to be more accessible than, say, ontology vs. epistemology. It also helps that it lines up nicely with our discussion about quantitative and qualitative methods. From this Big Picture (including a nod to theory and its role in this whole thing) we narrow to chip off another piece of the puzzle: The variable. What is it? Where do we find it? And how does it relate to Should You Believe It?