BNAD 276 Lecture 1: BNAD 276 NOTE 1

• School: University of Arizona
• Department: Business Administration
• Course: BNAD 276
• Professor: Suzanne Delaney

Document Summary

An operational definition: definition of a construct or characteristic in terms of how it is measured specifically for a particular context. How do we measure mental processes: constructs represent relatively abstract concepts. For example, memory, happiness, satisfaction, humor: operational definitions define how constructs are measured, measurements assess observable characteristics or behaviors resulting in a reduction of uncertainty, data analyses try to describe, predict and explain measurements of behaviors (or characteristics). Independent & dependent variable: dependent variable: the variable being measured by investigator. Independent variable: the factor that is being manipulated (or compared) by the experimenter. Descriptive statistics & inferential statistics: descriptive statistics: refers to the summary of important aspects of a data set, such as collecting data, organizing the data. Inferential statistics: refers to drawing conclusions about a large set of data - called a population - based on a small set of sample data. The need for sampling: obtaining information on the entire population is expensive (impractical).