PSYB01H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Birth Order, Psychopathy, Antisocial Personality Disorder
Document Summary
The operational definition is the specific method used to manipulate or measure the variable. Some variables are better operationally defined than others. Will focus on the primary criteria researchers use to evaluate the quality of their own and each others" operational definitions: reliability and validity. Also consider some other characteristics that are important when operationally defining variables, including reactivity of measures and scales of measurement. Much of the discussion of reliability and validity will refer to self-report measures (also commonly called scales) Systematic and detailed research on reliability and validity is often carried out on self-report measures of personality and individual differences. Psychologists often use self-report measures to study psychological attributes such as intelligence, self-esteem, extraversion, and depression they also measure abilities, attributes, and potential. Costa and mccrae developed the self-report neo personality inventory (neo-pi) to measure five major dimensions of personality: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
