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Operational definition
a concrete operation (recipe) that results in a number or catergorization
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Abstract construct
- eg. alcoholism
- promiscuity
- self-esteem
- shyness
- iq
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Test in operational definition
- a test or instrument provides an operational definition of whatever is being tested
- when intelligence, introversion, etc the test puts a number to this
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concrete job performance
these prerformances are not particularly abstract, as they will be concretely measured or observed in the future
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two ways of measuring behavior
- direct observation
- ask questions (indirect observation)
- both have problems
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problems with direct observation
- not efficient: expensive and time consuming
- Reactivity: you change your behavior because you know someone is watching you
- Hawthrone effect and halo effect
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Hawthrone effect
a form of reactivity where people change their behavior (usually improve) when they know they are being observed. It was originally defined as a short-term improvement caused by observing worker performance.
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halo effect
perception of one aspect of a person influences perception of other aspects. For example, attractive people are usually percieved as smarter and better than others in a whole host of ways.
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Problems with self report
- memory failures: general tip, ask specific and recent questions
- lying: solution, make it anonymous; but we also lie to ourselves
- social desirability bias: we say what sounds good
- lack of insight
- influenced by mood
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response biases and errors
- wording effects: how you ask a question can affect the answers
- it's better to ask a behavioral question, as it is more difficult to lie to yourself about this
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two components if a good test item
- specific and concrete
- recent
- tradeoff between recency and sample size
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three kinds of sample size relevant to a test
- number of people: important for norming
- number of items (questions): important for reliability and validity
- recency of item: time-sampling issue
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