PSYC 201W Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: E.G. Time, Qualitative Property, Dependent And Independent Variables

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 201W
• Professor: A.George Alder

Document Summary

Psyc 201 - lecture 4 - variables in psychological research. Anything that can have 2 or more values. E. g. number of wheels on bicycle is always 2. Variable levels are categories - values reflect difference in type/kind. Variable levels exist on continuum from low high. E. g. servings of fruit, distance from campus. E. g. number of national parks in bc vs alberta. E. g. cannot say that bc has half of a park. Intermediate values possible - precision limited by measurement tools. E. g. time it takes you to get to campus. In practice, ultimately converted into discrete values at some point. Continuous variables - depicted w/ line graph w/ no breaks in line. Edges of bar separate from another b/c there is no overlap in categories. Variable that is manipulated/systematically varied by researcher in experimenter. Variable where we expect to see results/variable thought to depend on independent variable. Sometimes, we can look at effect independent variable has on dependent variable.