Lesson 3 Operationalisation PDF

You have exactly 60 seconds. How many uses can you think of for a paperclip? How many did we get? So! This is a measure of human creativity Do you think it is a good measure? How would you measure creativity?  Lesson 4: Operationalization How do we mea...

You have exactly 60 seconds. How many uses can you think of for a paperclip? How many did we get? So! This is a measure of human creativity Do you think it is a good measure? How would you measure creativity?  Lesson 4: Operationalization How do we measure the unmeasurable? What is Operationalizati on? Operationalization means turning abstract conceptual ideas into measurable observations. For example, the concept of social anxiety isn't directly observable, but it can be operationally defined in terms of self- rating scores, behavioral avoidance of crowded places, or physical anxiety symptoms in social situations You must be specific! ‘Questionnaire’ is not enough There are many ways to operationalize unmeasurables… Self report – people score themselves Observation – observers count or identify something e.g. number of smiles Physiological measurement - Heart rate / sweat Interviewer rating – based on responses to questions Clinician assessment – talks to person to determine what they may have based on expert knowledge How would you operationalize the following dependent variables: HAPPINESS INTELLIGEN LONG ANXIETY BOREDOM CE TERM MEMORY  E.g. Use an electronic timer to time reaction speed in SECONDS The KEY Happiness – A ten-point self is to be rating scale of happiness specific You must be so specific that another experimenter could replicate your DV without asking you anything  You can also operationalize Independent Variables & Dependent Variables Do violent video games affect aggression? An operational definition IV = (1) non-violent video game (2) violent describes exactly what the video game independent variable is and Operationalized IV – (1) Animal Farm (2) how it is measured. Grand theft auto 5 Doing this helps ensure that DV = Aggression (e.g. 10 Questionaire Qs, the experiments know Operationalized DV = Checklist Observation of Participant) exactly what they are looking at or manipulating, allowing Does drinking milk affect creativity them to measure it and IV = (1) Milk vs (2) No-milk determine if it is the IV that is Operationalized IV = (1) 500ml 3.2% fat milk causing changes in the DV. drunk in 15 minutes (2) Don’t drink anything… I REPEAT: You need to be SO SPECIFIC that anyone who wants to recreate the experiment EXACTLY as you did it, can recreate it. Fully operationalize the following research questions Does the time of day affect students' concentration? Does hunger affect intelligence? Does education level affect quality of life? Does playing video games affect memory? Does the colour of your clothes affect how people perceive you? EXTENSION: Make up your own!!! Paper 2 Section A Exam Question Practice This will be a bit of a challenge as we are still very new