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psychologists use operational definitions of mental processes. An operational definition is a description of a variable given in terms of how it is actually measured. This can be a difficult idea to grasp, so here are some examples…further down the list are some psychological variables
Measurement requires precise definitions of psychological variables such as intelligence, anxiety, altruism, hostility, love, alienation, aggression, guilt, reinforcement, frustration, and memory. Operational definitions provide precision by defining psychological variables in terms of specific operations.
Two types of definitions can be given: conceptual definitions and operational definitions. Loosely speaking, a conceptual definition explains what to measure or observe (what a word or a term means for your study), and an operational definitions defines exactly how to measure or observe it.
To state the operations for a term means to make the term observable by pointing to how it is measured. An operational definition, then, makes the concept observable by stating what the scientist does to measure it. As another example, consider the hypothesis that we proposed in the last chapter.
1 mar 2018 · Learn what an operational definition in psychology is, how to write one, and why they are important. Every good psychology study contains an operational definition for the variables. An operational definition allows the researchers to describe in a specific way what they mean when they use a certain term.
5 maj 2016 · More specifically, we suggest that any use of operational definitions should involve best practices related to three conceptual tasks: (a) clarification, in which researchers reflect on and...
9 sie 2014 · Given the widespread adoption of operational definition (or operationalization) and the scarcity with which it is examined in practice, we believe that psychologi- cal researchers should establish a best-practices approach to the use of operational
