Psychology 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Operational Definition, Falsifiability, Statistical Inference

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Lynda Hutchinson

Document Summary

Operational definition: define terms in hypothesis by specifying the operations for observing and measuring the process or phenomenon (ex: anxiety) ex. Taking a survey on stress result from survey (scores) is the operational definition. Observational studies: method where researchers systematically observe and record behaviour without interference, naturalistic observation, o(cid:271)ser(cid:448)atio(cid:374)s i(cid:374) a perso(cid:374)"s typi(cid:272)al so(cid:272)ial e(cid:374)(cid:448)iro(cid:374)(cid:373)e(cid:374)t, laboratory observation, observations in a more controlled lab setting. Reliability: consistency of scores derived from a test from one time and place to the next and across scores (understanding pattern of scores) Important b/c you want to know the pattern of responses you are getting from people are relatively stable. Validity: ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure. Judgement about the content of a particular test. Correlational studies: type of descriptive study that examines a relationship between two phenomena (factors, variables, correlations, measure the magnitude of the relationship between two quantifiable behavioural characteristics (variables, estimate how strong relationships are.