PSYO 1011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Social Desirability Bias, Observer-Expectancy Effect, Heart Rate

• School: Dalhousie University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYO 1011
• Professor: Jennifer Stamp

Document Summary

Unconscious experimenter bias- the experimenter"s knowledge might slightly change the outcomes of study. Experimental expectancy effects- rosenthal revealed that characteristics of the experimenter such as age, ethnicity, personality and gender influence participant"s behaviour whenever experimenter interacts directly with participant"s in study. The self- fulfilling prophecy- a statement that changes events to cause a belief or prediction to come true. Experimenter expectancy and self fulfilling prophecy effects have been proven: If a teacher thinks highly of a student he/ she is likely to give more detailed feedback, treat the student differently. Teacher"s expectations: self fulfilling prophecy; student would become smarter . Researchers" descriptions of the way they measure or manipulate their variables are called operational definitions. One of the goals of psychological measurement is to develop measures that are reliable and valid. Reliability refers to consistency of results, validity refers to how accurate is the measure being assessed. Measures in psychological science tend to fall into three categories: self report,