PSYA01H3 Lecture Notes - Dependent And Independent Variables, Operational Definition
Document Summary
Sharks live as long as they do because they don"t experiment. When they actually attack a human, it is because of prey confusion. Control group: group that exhibits natural behaviour. Experimental group: group that demonstrates how behaviour changes. An experiment typically involves contrasting behaviour" across two or more conditions that differ in some way that should matter (i. e. affect behaviour"), according to some theory. Dependant variable is the variable that reflects behaviour of interest. Independent variable is the variable that was changed to create critical difference across conditions. What makes it tricky is the need to make the connection between abstract theoretical ideas and concrete variables that can be manipulated or measured. When the economy is bad, people lose jobs (loss of self-esteem), and they take it out on out groups" (groups that are different from your own): this is a ague theory.
