Psychology 2810 Lecture Notes - Celsius, Level Of Measurement, Kelvin
3 Apr 2013
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Document Summary
Concepts (constructs) are words (can"t be directly observed; must be translated into things that can be observed) Operational definitions describe how concepts will be measured" (or. Manipulated"- the purpose of operational definitions is to transfer things that are words into things that can be studied. We"ll talk about manipulating" concepts when we discuss experiments. Skim ch 5"s discussion of independent, dependent, subject, and confounded variables (p. 120-122) Skip nuts and bolts (134-135; case in point and reading between the lines (137) and exercises 5. 2 - 5. 10. Measurement - using rules to assign values to variables. Variable - any observable attribute of a concept that has more than one value. Part 2: types of variables: categorical variables (values identify distinct categories of things) Values can be names (e. g. , males, females) Values can be numbers (males = 1, females = 2) Numbers don"t have a numerical meaning (don"t tell us about quantity" - they are just labels in this content)
