PSYCH291 Lecture Notes - Operationalization, Experiment, Fluoxetine
24 Mar 2013
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Document Summary
Hypothesis a tentative explanation for an observation, phenomenon or scientific problem; it could either be wrong or right tentative statement about causal relation between 2 variables. Variable an element, feature, or factor that is reliable to change an entity that could take on different values, eg: gender. Independent or predictor variable a variable whose variation does not depend on that of the other predictor variable the proposed cause. Dependent variable - a variable whose variation depends on that of the other the proposed effect. Operational definition (a. k. a. operationalization) - the process of defining a fuzzy concept so as to make the concept measurable and to understand it in terms of empirical observations. Concrete procedure researchers use to study variable. True experiments - it randomly allocates the subjects in order to neutralize the potential for experimenter bias; have the potential to make very strong causal control statements. Random assignment to condition and manipulation of independent variable.
