Operationalisation,- Constructs, Hypothesis

In the perfect world a psychologist would come up with an idea and then design an investigation to test that idea. Ideas often relate to
abstract concepts or terms, these are phenomena that people may think of in different ways.
For example if a psychologist wondered if frustration is a cause of aggression. Here two constructs of frustration and aggression are
involved.
Do your classmates share your view? If not then how could a study answer a question that people could not even agree on what the
constructs mean. So most ideas need to be operationalised' first. Then a hypothesis needs to written that allows measurement and
quantification of the result. Hence:Hypothesis (not operationalised): Does frustration cause aggression
Hypothesis (operationalised): People made to wait on hold for long periods of time on the telephone are more likely to raise their voice to
operator at the other end
Here the constructs of frustration and aggression have been made into tangible phenomena and measurable outcomes can be made from
the investigation.
Aims and hypotheses
The aim of an investigation is its general purpose.
What are you trying to achieve in the investigation?
The hypothesis is a precise, testable statement or prediction about the expected outcome of an investigation.
A 'null hypothesis' (Ho) prediction is one that states results are due to chance and are not significant in terms of supporting the idea being
investigated.
For example: There is no evidence that there is a difference between groups in the amount they remember.
A research hypothesis (H1) prediction is one that states that results are not due to chance and that they are significant in terms of
supporting the idea being investigated.
For example: There is evidence that there is a difference between groups in the amount they remember.
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY IN RESEARCH
Often when investigations results are analysed people like to describe them in terms of how accurate, precise, valid or reliable they are.
These terms have a commonsense meaning how they have an important meaning in the context of psychological studies.
In psychology we are often trying to measure constructs - things we cannot touch or see - such as peoples thoughts and feelings. For
example; affection, memory, creativity. Operationalisation is the process by which we turn a construct into an observable or measurable
form. For example, in order to make the construct of intelligence measurable researchers have developed standardized IQ tests on which
peoples intelligence can be scored.
Psychologists must be careful to ensure that they are actually measuring the construct they intend to measure known as construct
validity.
Reliability
Reliability refers to the consistency and stability of the results obtained from a research study.

Can the research be replicated and still get the same/very similar results? If yes then the data is reliable.

Again if sample is not representative, or extraneous variable are having a significant impact on the results then replication of the
research with another sample from the same population may not achieve the same results. That is the data is not reliable.
Reliability is how good a measure or testing was the investigation of the phenomena. For an investigation to be reliable if the same people
did the same test at a later date we would expect the same or similar result. Or if the same investigation was done by different but similar
participants then similar results would be expected. Reliability is high when a large number of participants are used. In the example if the
control group perform better than the experimental group but next week the result is the opposite the experiment is low in reliability. If control
group do better than the experimental group but using a fresh set of participants sees the opposite then again it is low in reliability.
Validity
Validity means that the research study has produced results that accurately measure the behaviour

Do the results measure what they are intended to?

If sample is not a representative one, or extraneous variables have not been well controlled, the data may not be valid.

Validity is to what extent the does the investigation measure what it set out to measure. This usually depends on the hypothesis
that is generated being fully operationalised.

For example if I believe alcohol negatively affects literacy, if I have 10 participants and 5 drink a schooner of beer and then ask
them to write out a long SMS to on their phone (and the other 5 do the same without the beer) if I assess the performance of
the two groups, can I claim anything about the affect of alcohol on literacy?
TYPES
Internal validity, extent to which study is free of design faults, which may affect results.
Ecological validity this is a type of 'external validity'. This means the extent to which generalisation can be made from the test environment to
other situations.

Learning Activity 2.14 Q1,2,3