Studying Behavior
Javed Ahmed
Variable
Any event, situation, behavior, or
individual characteristic that varies -
that is, has at least two values
Examples
Variable Name Levels (values)
Gender Male or Female
Test Scores # correct
Room Temp. Hot, Warm, Cold
Room Temp. Degrees Farenheit
Operational Definition
A definition of the variable in terms of
the operations or techniques the
researcher uses to measure or
manipulate it
Values of a variable
Nominal
Different groups with no numeric
properties
Male-female, distraction-no distraction
Quantitative
Amounts or quantities
Numerical
Relationships Between
Variables
Is gender related to happiness?
Do males and females differ in their
happiness?
Is distraction while studying related to
exam performance?
Do people perform better when they are
not distracted than when distracted?
Relationships Between
Quantitative Variables
Positive
Negative
Curvilinear
No Relationship
Positive relationships
Increases in the values of one variable
are associated with increases in the
second variable
Increasing study time is associated with
higher grades
Negative relationships
Increases in the values of one variable
are associated with decreases in the
second variable
Increasing hours of work are associated
with lower grades
Curvilinear Relationships
Increases in the values of one variable
are associated with both increases and
decreases of the second variable
Anxiety can help increase performance
until it gets to high – then it decreases
perfomance
High
PERFORMANC
E
Low
Low Moderate High
ANXIETY
Are the Following Relationships
Positive or Negative?
GPA and Tea/Cofee Consumption
# of website hits and # of actual visits
SAT scores and freshman GPA
# hrs TV viewed and # hrs studying
Two Ways of Studying
Relationships
Non-experimental method
Experimental method
Non-experimental Method
Behavior is observed as it naturally
occurs
Variables are measured only
Examples
Problems
Direction of cause and effect
Does X cause Y?
Or does Y cause X?
Uncontrolled third variables
Perhaps Z causes both X and Y
If so X and Y will appear to be related
Experimental Method
Addresses the problems of inferring
cause and effect
Manipulate the first variable and
observe the effect on the second
variable
Control for all other variables
Effect of IV on the DV
Does distraction cause poor
performance on an exam?
Independent Variable
“cause” variable
Manipulated first
Dependent Variable
“effect” variable
Measured as a response to the IV
Causal sequence
The IV comes first
The DV is then measured to examine
the effect of the IV
Thus, X causes Y
Y could not cause X
Control Other Variables
Experimental Control
Variables are kept constant
Randomization
Randomly assign participants to conditions
Run the conditions of the study in a
random order
Some other variable could not cause the
relationship between X and Y
Advantages of the Non-
Experimental Method
Real life situations
Prediction
Study aspects of people such as
personality characteristics
Can study variables that would be
unethical to manipulate in a true
experiment
Graphing the variables
Independent Variable (X axis)
Place the variable you identify as the “cause” on
the X (horizontal) axis
Dependent Variable (Y axis)
Place the variable you identify as the “effect” on
the Y (vertical) axis
Identifying IVs and DVs
IV
The effects of ________ DV
on ________.
Validity
Is something “valid”?
Three ways of evaluating research in
terms of validity
Construct Validity
Were the variables I studied adequately
measured or manipulated
Look at the operational definition of the
variables that were studied
Internal Validity
Can I infer that variable X caused
variable Y?
Higher internal validity with the
experimental method
External Validity
Can I generalize beyond this particular
study?
Other types of participants, other ways
of studying the variables
