Terms in this set (7)

Manipulation Checks For example, if a researcher wanted to study the effect of humor on learning and had participants read funny stories or boring stories before taking a memory test, then a manipulation check might ask the participant to “please rate how funny you found each story.”

A manipulation check is a test used to determine the effectiveness of a manipulation in an experimental design.

• making threats. promising violence or some other negative consequence if the person does not do what is asked.
• blackmail. threatening to reveal some embarrassing or damaging information if the person does not do what is asked.
• mocking or teasing.
• guilt trips.
• bargaining.
• flattery.
• bribing.

In many factorial designs, one of the independent variables is a nonmanipulated independent variable. The researcher measures it but does not manipulate it. The study by Schnall and colleagues is a good example.

A recent survey of social psychologists at an international meeting found that more than 75% believed that a manipulation check is “necessary in a well-designed social psychology lab experiment” (Fayant et al., 2017). Even more striking was the prevalence of manipulation checks that were potentially problematic.

independent variable

Experimental manipulation describes the process by which researchers purposefully change, alter, or influence the independent variables (IVs), which are also called treatment variables or factors, in an experimental research design. Qualitative variables represent experimental manipulations that differ in kind or type.

What is a disadvantage of using the strongest manipulation possible in a research? It creates a situation different from a real-world situation. Why do experiments conducted in field settings use unobtrusive measures?

Staged manipulations are most frequently used for two reasons. First, the researcher may be trying to create some psychological state in the participants, such as frustration, anger, or a temporary lowering of self-esteem.

Which of the following is a similarity between demand characteristics and experimenter expectancy? Both create a predisposition, resulting in a conclusion that is conducive.

You can think of independent and dependent variables in terms of cause and effect: an independent variable is the variable you think is the cause, while a dependent variable is the effect. In an experiment, you manipulate the independent variable and measure the outcome in the dependent variable.

Who are dependents? Dependents are either a qualifying child or a qualifying relative of the taxpayer. The taxpayer’s spouse cannot be claimed as a dependent. Some examples of dependents include a child, stepchild, brother, sister, or parent.

How to operationalize concepts

1. Identify the main concepts you are interested in studying.
2. Choose a variable to represent each of the concepts.
3. Select indicators for each of your variables.

Operational variables (or operationalizing definitions) refer to how you will define and measure a specific variable as it is used in your study. For example, if we are concerned with the effect of media violence on aggression, then we need to be very clear what we mean by the different terms.

Dependent variables need to be operationalised before they can be measured. A variable is operationalised when it has been turned in to something that can be measured. ‘Memory as measured by the number of items correctly recalled from a list after 5 minutes’ is an operationalised variable.

Participant variables can be controlled using random allocation to the conditions of the independent variable.

One way to control extraneous variables is with random sampling. Random sampling does not eliminate any extraneous variable, it only ensures it is equal between all groups. If random sampling isn’t used, the effect that an extraneous variable can have on the study results become a lot more of a concern.

Operationalization is the process by which a researcher defines how a concept is measured, observed, or manipulated within a particular study. This process translates the theoretical, conceptual variable of interest into a set of specific operations or procedures that define the variable’s meaning in a specific study.

Investigator effects are where a researcher (consciously or unconsciously) acts in a way to support their prediction. This can be a particular problem when observing events that can be interpreted in more than one way.

Statistics allow psychologists to present data in ways that are easier to comprehend. Psychologists use the data they have collected to test a hypothesis. Using statistical analysis, researchers can determine the likelihood that a hypothesis should be either accepted or rejected.

A confounding variable is an outside influence that changes the effect of a dependent and independent variable. This extraneous influence is used to influence the outcome of an experimental design. Confounding variables can ruin an experiment and produce useless results.

The latter is referred to as the “third variable problem”. My favorite example of the third variable problem is the correlation between the number of fire hydrants in a city and the number of dogs in a city. Cities with more fire hydrants tend to have more dogs.

1 : to throw (a person) into confusion or perplexity tactics to confound the enemy. 2a : refute sought to confound his arguments. b : to put to shame : discomfit a performance that confounded the critics.