PSYC207 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Internal Validity, Statistical Significance, Descriptive Statistics

• School: University of Delaware
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC207
• Professor: Eric Splan

Document Summary

It has two or more levels, or values. Constant: something that could potentially vary but has only one level in a study. Measured variable: one whose levels are simply observed and recorded, self-report (e. g. , responses to questionnaires, directly observable (e. g. , gender, height, choices) Indirectly observable (e. g. , heart rate, speed/ accuracy of response) Manipulated variable: a variable a researcher controls, usually by assigning participants to the different levels of that variable, gender cannot be manipulated. Conceptual variable: abstract concepts, e. g. shyness, also called construct. Operational: testing hypothesis with empirical research, operationalize: to turn a concept of interest into a measured or manipulated variable. A claim is the argument someone is trying to make. Three types: frequency claim, association claim, causal claim. Not all claims are based on research. Describes a particular rate or degree of a single variable. Mentions the percentage of a variable, the number of people who engage in some a(cid:272)ti(cid:448)ity, or a (cid:272)ertai(cid:374) group"s le(cid:448)el o(cid:374) a (cid:448)aria(cid:271)le.