CHAPTER 4:RESEARCH DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS September 17, 2019 9:31 AM CHAPTER 4 Variable: any event, situation, behaviour, or individual characteristic that can take more than one value (i.e. it varies) Two basic Research Designs: i. Experimental Method - Direct manipulation & control of variables - Iv manipulated and DV measured - One variable introduced first and affects the second variable ii. Non- Experimental Method - Relationships are studied by observing or otherwise measuring the variables of interest. - e.g. asking people to describe their behaviour, recording physiological responses, or examining various public records such as census data. - Once the data on both variables is collected, researchers use statistics to determine whether there is a relationship between them. - Researching Behaviour - Two variables - Does one thing lead to something else - e.g. does flirting lead to long term love - E.g. does public speaking lead to long term anxiety How do we measure? - In psychology, most of the concepts are very abstract - Operational definition: a concrete way to measure an abstract concept/ definition of a variable in terms of the operations or techniques used to measure or manipulate it in a specific study - We are defining the variables that we hope to study: o Variable: any event, situation, behaviour, or, characteristic that varies - Need an operational definition to study something o Its your plan for what you're manipulating/ measuring - Some operational definitions are better than others - Variables must be operationally designed so that they can be studied empirically. - Operational definitions help in evaluation and replication of the study - Operational Definitions o Participant Variables " Characteristics participants bring with them to a study, including cultural background, intelligence, and personality traits such as extraversion " Sometimes participant variables are related to other variables in non- exp. And sometimes they are used to group participants for comparison on a response variable. " You can measure them but not manipulate them " e.g. levels of intelligence, levels of extraversion, sexual orientation, eye colour, religion o Situational Variables " Describe the characteristics of a situation or the env. · Can be measured in any design and/or manipulated in experimental designs. PSYC 217 Page 1
" e.g. can be measured how many laptops are there in the classroom · e.g. how people behave when hidden by a mask, so the study can be manipulated by giving and not giving a mask " e.g. Tipping behaviour in restaurants, when a waiter writes a comment or thank you on the bill " Ash's study of conformity- manipulate the number of people in the class room " e.g. temperature in a room during a study o Response variables " Refers to responses or behaviours of individuals such as reaction time, performance on a cognitive task, and degree of helping a victim in an emergency. · Are measured in either experimental or non- experimental designs. · Responses- can be measured only ? Performance on a task (e.g. memory, math, perseverance, attention)