PSY-0013 Lecture Notes - Operational Definition, Stanford Prison Experiment, Benefice
19 Feb 2014
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Class activity: brainstorm ways of examining the question of how facebook could affect academic performance. Test age groups middle schoolers versus high schoolers; allows testing over time. Two different (but similar intellectual level) groups, one allowed to go on facebook and one control group not. Presence of shortcut key, bookmarks bar versus none. Science of social psychology: state the problem, formulate hypothesis, design study and collect data, test hypothesis with data, submit study results to scholarly article. Iv variables manipulated by researcher assumed to produce changes in participant attitudes/behaviors. Dv represents the outcome of psychology processes. Operational definitions theoretical constructs defined in observable, measureable terms. Operational definition = performance on a general knowledge test. Random assignment & researcher control allows for conclusions about the causal relationship between variables. Stanford prison experiment (ended abruptly after 6 days, originally 2-week experiment) Respect for persons human participants should remain autonomous with special protections for those with diminished autonomy (ex. children)
