1.4 CLAIMS AND OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS

claims in psychological science

• claim: an argument someone is trying to make

  • we focus on claims based on empirical research

    • claims follow from data in the theory-data cycle

• challenge #1

  • claims based on psychological variables often depend on indirect measurements of psychological concepts we’re interested in

  • ex: claim from “delay of gratification in children”

    • pre-school children with more self-control are more likely to have higher grades, score higher on the SAT a decade later, and are more able to cope with social and personal problems

• operational definition: how a concept is explicitly measured

  • psychological processes

    • “self-control” - concept

    • effortful inhibition of impulses

  • there are multiple operational definitions that are possible for any one conceptual definition

  • checklist for an ideal operational definition:

    • has clear rules

    • does not overly depend on the interpretation of another concept that is not explained or observable

    • results in a variable with multiple values for each person in your study sample

    • results in a valid measurement of the construct (more on this later)