PSYCO347 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Internal Validity, Longitudinal Study, Confounding
14 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Before any investigation can begin, the researcher must first generate a hypothesis a testable prediction about the relationship between two or more variables. If there is insufficient existing information about a relationship phenomenon, they may instead propose a more general research question that clearly specifies the variables of interest but does not make specific predictions about the associations among those variables. The essential feature of a hypothesis or research question is that it is testable. Before any predictions about a given variable can be tested, each variable must be precisely defined or operationalized. An operational definition is an exact, specific, concrete definition of house the researcher chose to conceptualize and measure the variable. A research strategy concerns the way in which the researcher decides to investigate a question or hypothesis. Many investigations are designed to help the researcher illustrate or describe a phenomenon of interest.
