PSYC 2360 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Developmental Psychology, Operational Definition, Social Psychology

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2360
• Professor: Gloriagonzalez-morales

Document Summary

The basis of science is empirical measurement of relevant variables. Measurement: the assignment of numbers to objects or events according to specific rules. Measurement is possible in science because we can use numbers to represent the variables we are interested in studying. Conceptual variables: the ideas that form the basis of a research hypothesis (ex. To be able to measure these conceptual variables it involves turning them conceptual variables into measured variables: consist of numbers that represent the conceptual variables. In some cases, the transformation from conceptual variables to measured variables is easy and direct (ex. If you are using the conceptual variable: measured variables are often referred to as (cid:494)measures(cid:495) of the (cid:498)study time(cid:499), the direct measured variable would be (cid:498)seconds of study(cid:499), ex. Measured variable: ratings of another person(cid:495)s attractiveness. But, other conceptual variables can be assessed by many different measures. Measured variable: number of times a child picks one toy vs. another.