Chapter 1 Glossary

replicable: repeatable. A skeptical researcher should be able to repeat another researcher’s study and obtain the same pattern of results. One key to a replicable study is having objective operational definitions of your variables (p. 6)

construct: a mental state that can’t be directly observed or manipulated, such as love, intelligence, hunger, feeling warm, and aggression (p. 18).

operational definition: a “recipe” for how you are going to measure or manipulate a construct; the specific, observable, concrete steps involved in measuring or manipulating that particular construct. (p. 4)

construct validity: the degree to which the study actually measures and manipulates the elements that the researcher claims to be measuring and manipulating. If the operational definitions of the constructs are poor, the study will not have good construct validity. For example, a test claiming to measure “aggressiveness” would not have construct validity if it really measured assertiveness. (p. 19)

internal validity: the degree to which the study demonstrates that a particular factor caused a change in behavior. If a study lacks internal validity, the researcher may falsely believe that a factor causes an effect when it really doesn’t. Most studies involving humans do not have internal validity because they can’t rule out the possibility that some other factor may have been responsible for the effect. Unfortunately, steps taken to increase internal validity (such as keeping nontreatment factors constant) could harm the study’s external validity. (p. 16)

external validity: the degree to which the results of the study can be generalized to other places, people, or times. (p. 22)

ethical: conforming to a profession’s principles of what is morally correct behavior. In the case of psychological research, the American Psychological Association has established guidelines and standards of morally appropriate behavior. Usually, ethical human research must be approved by an internal review board (IRB) and involve both informed consent and debriefing. To learn more about these guidelines and standards, see Table 1-3, Table 1-4, Table 1-5, and Appendix A. (p. 23)

informed consent: Giving potential participants information about the study, especially in terms of factors that might lead them to refuse to be in the study, before they decide whether to participate. (p. 23)

debrief, debriefing: Explaining the purpose of the study, answering any questions, and undoing any harm that the participant may have experienced as a result of participating in the study. (p. 25)

Internal Review Board: a committee of at least five members--one of whom must be a nonscientist--that review proposed research and montior approved research in an effort to protect human research participants. To see a diagram of the IRB process, see Figure 1-6. For animal subjects, the equivalent committee is the Internal Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). (p. 26)