Midterm 1: 205 Review

Question 1

what is an operational definition?

give 3 operational definitions of love, and explain pros and cons of each…

Answer 1

an operational definition is how the concepts to be studied “operate in an experiment.” How we measure a variable/concept.

Operational definition of love:

1. measured by how much the pupils enlarge when looking at a stimulus.
   pros: measurable, clear cut
   cons: may be difficult or require technology to measure
2. self report of how much partners love one another (likert scale 1-5)
   pros: easily collected, provides clear data
   cons: love may be subjective and people may rank differently because of that, and the ranking may be impacted by extraneous variable like if the partner took out the trash that day or if they recently got into a fight
3. how many times a person initiates physical contact while in an interaction with their partner
   pros: easily observable
   cons: physical touch doesn’t necessarily mean love it may be a better measure of physical attraction

Question 2

explain why bicycle riding would be a reliable but not valid measure of IQ. How would you demonstrate it’s lack of validity

Answer 2

Bicycle riding would be reliable as each person should usually have a consistent ability stable through tests. As researchers we should get the same result over and over. However, it is not valid because bike riding ability measures motor function more so than IQ and cognitive ability

Demonstrate this by making individuals take research backed IQ tests and then ride a bicycle and compare results

Question 3

distinguish between mundane v. experimental realism, and explain why most researchers believe the latter to be more important

Answer 3

mundane realism refers to how closely a study mirrors real life

experimental realism concerns the extent to which a research study (laboratory or field) has an impact on the subjects. Forces participants to take the matter seriously and involves them in procedures.

more important because if participants are in the study and taking it seriously, then the researcher can draw valid conclusions about behavior

ex.) milgram experiment

Question 4

define manipulation check, and pilot study and describe how Bushman and Anderson used each to ensure their laboratory experiment was methodologically sound

Answer 4

manipulation check: used to be sure the intended manipulation in a study will have the desired effect
pilot study: used to test aspects of the procedure to be sure the methodology is sound

Bushman and Anderson:
Manipulation check: the researchers assumed video game x was more violent than video game y, so they gave participants a questionnaire and asked which video game they thought was more violent

Pilot study: played the argument audio for 50 participants and asked them to rank the believability of it (the first 10 thought it was faked, so researchers made changes and the remaining 40 thought it was realistic)

Question 5

Bushman and Anderson Study

Answer 5

Experiment 1:
-used college students placed in to two groups
-first group: students were playing one of four violent video games
- second group: students were playing one of four nonviolent video games
- then they answered a questionnaire, while completing the questionnaire a recording of two people arguing was played in the room next door, with one person being left with an injured ankle and the other person leaving
- tested how fast the students stopped the questionnaire and came to the help of the victim

Experiment 2:
-generalized to an everyday scenario (field study)
-studied people leaving a movie theater after watching a violent vs. non-violent movie
- used a confederate with an ankle injury and on crutches
- dropped crutches and was having visible difficulty picking them up
-tested how fast movie goers helped the woman on the crutches