PSYC 2030 Lecture 16: Variables in experimental Design
28 Dec 2019
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Document Summary
In psychology, an experiment consists of the systemic and careful manipulation of the independent variable(s) to establish causal effects: what is an experiment? controlling the conditions under which an action, mental action or event occurs. Varying/ randomizing the conditions systematically, and recording the change/effect of the outcome. The choices an experimenter makes to effectively test a hypothesis: experimental components, experimental validity. Variables are one of the most important aspects in an experiment. Variables: an aspect of a person, animal, subject or situation that can change depending on how it is manipulated. Most of the time we cannot directly observe those things that are interesting to us as psychologists. Therefore we must operationalize the variables into something related but observable & measurable. Variables can exisit in varying amounts: e. g. independent, dependant, controlled. Variables allow the research to keep track of their experiments and all the factors within them. Sometimes a variable that a researcher is studying might change.
