PSYB01H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Social Loafing, Operational Definition, Mental Chronometry
Document Summary
a variable is any event, situation, behavior, or individual characteristic that varies (ie. cognitive task performance, word length, gender, age, self-esteem, etc) each of these variables represents a general class within which specific instances will vary. The specific instances are called the levels or values of the variable. A variable must have two or more levels or values. some variables will have numeric values, hence they will be quantitative (ie. age, your iq, etc. ). Algebra can be applied to such variables (ie. measure the mean). some variables are not numeric and instead identify categories, hence they are categorical (ie. gender, occupation). These variables differ, but not by quantity, and algebra cannot be applied to them. a variable is an abstract concept that must be translated into concrete forms of observation or manipulation, thus a variable such as aggression must be defined in terms of the specific method used to measure or manipulate it.
