2.2 Methods of Observation: Discovering What People Do

psychology

operational definition

A description of a property in measurable terms.

construct validity 

The degree to which the operational definition adequately describes the important features of the phenomenon being studied.

power

A detector’s ability to detect the presence of differences or changes in the magnitude of a property.

reliability

A detector’s ability to detect the absence of differences or changes in the magnitude of a property.

demand characteristics

Those aspects of an observational setting that cause people to behave as they think someone else wants or expects.

naturalistic observation

A technique for gathering information by unobtrusively observing people in their natural environments.

observer bias

The tendency for observers’ expectations to influence both what they believe they observed and what they actually observed.

double-blind study

A study in which neither the researcher nor the participant knows how the participants are expected to behave.