PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Random Assignment, Scientific Method, Dependent And Independent Variables

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Jill L Atkinson

Document Summary

To ensure that the study is not biased or confounded and that the results found actually represent the results being measured. To ensure the study is transferable to other populations and will still hold true: explain the importance of verifiability, reliability and objectivity. Verifiability means that an experiment can be replicated. Reliability means that conducting a study consistent with past methods should yield the same result. These measures ensure that the results are not due to chance or bias. Objectivity means that a result is based on events or phenomena and is not influenced by emotional or personal points of view (ie. of the researchers or subject within the study). Identify characteristics that are important in a research study and explain why. Validity, reliability, generalization, randomization: describe the importance of operational definitions. An operational definition of a concept describes the concept by how it is demonstrated in an observable or measurable way.