Psy 290

Operational Definition

When a person unquestionably uses their own personal judgment or a single story about another person’s experience as a way to know the world

When a person accepts anything learned from the news media, books, gov't authorities or religious figures

Knowledge based on observations

Describe, predict and determine causes of behavior
AND
Understand/Explain behavior

Fundamental research questions about the nature of behavior

A statement about something that may be true

Individuals that take part in surveys?

The help researchers understand the dynamics of a particular culture or organizational setting

Organize and Explain a variety of spcific facts or descriptions of behavior

Sometimes the most interesting discoveries in science are the result of this

Principle of Belmont Report: the need for research to maximize benefits and minimize harmful effects of participation

Opportunity to deal with issues of potential harmful effects of participation & explain true purpose of the study

Instead of using deception, the Stanford Prison Experiment is an example of the type of alternative procedure

Revised in 2002 & is known as the Ethics code

Ethical Standard:

tell participants about consequences of declining or withdrawing from a study

Increase in the IV when there is an increase with the DV

(hrs studied/gpa increase together)

Non-experimental Method:

alternate explanations for a causal relationship b/t two variables exist because of this problem

Eliminates influence of individual differences as alternative explanations for the results of an experiment

this validity is challenged when the operational definition of a variable is inadequate

When a variable is measured using a reliable device, there is little of this

Measurement Scale:
A letter grade on a test

a measure is not related to variables it should not be related to

Measurement scale that provides the most measurement information

Correlation of each item on a scale with every other item

Type of Validity:
whether two or more groups of people differ on a measure in expected ways