What Constitutes Valid and Reliable Observations in regards to Operationalizing, Variables, Experimenter Bias , Demand Characteristics, and Unobtrusive Measures?
In today's day and age we are constantly hammered with different figures, charts, and graphs, and it is important to know where these statistics are coming from and what they really mean.
To avoid experimenter bias, experimenters operationalize variables. This means that experimenters use a clear course of direction for their experiment to leave out any room for bias. For example if you were to say, "record your data" there would be lots of room for data to be recorded at your own discretion. A way to operationalize this would be to say, "First take a picture of your experiment, and then take notes about the experiment. As aforementioned this takes out all room for bias to make its way into the experiment.
The next wall experiments must face is demand characteristics. Demand characteristics simply means that the patient could learn the purpose of the experiment, and unconsciously alter their response to the experiment. To minimize this experimenters can have more than one participant to rule out any unique interpretations, minimize contact with patient, and use unobtrusive measures.
Unobtrusive measures is defined as, the attempt to conceal the difference between the independent and dependent variables. If a participant knows the difference between the variables the participant may have the "good participant effect." This means that they may unconsciously react to the experiment how the experimenter expects they will to be a "good participant."
It is no surprise to me that many people do not see psychology as a "true science." It simply just has too many little exceptions and biases that we can't control, but with the aforementioned precautions we can considerably cut down on these biases that skew many psychology experiments.
The first link listed below gives a useful list of different effects that create biases in experiments.You may find it interesting to see the specific types of biases that find their way into psychology experiments. The second link discusses operationalizing data, which I find to be the most difficult to understand. I liked the example it gave about tobacco use.
The comic below is in no way meant to be racist. I am in no way racist or prejudice. It simply is a good representation to the double standard that can exists in psychology. It does not only go this way racially, obviously it could go the opposite way. I just wanted to clarify that I do not want this to have a racial tone. It is simply a good representation.
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operationalization
To avoid experimenter bias, experimenters operationalize variables. This means that experimenters use a clear course of direction for their experiment to leave out any room for bias. For example if you were to say, "record your data" there would be lots of room for data to be recorded at your own discretion. A way to operationalize this would be to say, "First take a picture of your experiment, and then take notes about the experiment. As aforementioned this takes out all room for bias to make its way into the experiment.
The next wall experiments must face is demand characteristics. Demand characteristics simply means that the patient could learn the purpose of the experiment, and unconsciously alter their response to the experiment. To minimize this experimenters can have more than one participant to rule out any unique interpretations, minimize contact with patient, and use unobtrusive measures.
Unobtrusive measures is defined as, the attempt to conceal the difference between the independent and dependent variables. If a participant knows the difference between the variables the participant may have the "good participant effect." This means that they may unconsciously react to the experiment how the experimenter expects they will to be a "good participant."
It is no surprise to me that many people do not see psychology as a "true science." It simply just has too many little exceptions and biases that we can't control, but with the aforementioned precautions we can considerably cut down on these biases that skew many psychology experiments.
The first link listed below gives a useful list of different effects that create biases in experiments.You may find it interesting to see the specific types of biases that find their way into psychology experiments. The second link discusses operationalizing data, which I find to be the most difficult to understand. I liked the example it gave about tobacco use.
The comic below is in no way meant to be racist. I am in no way racist or prejudice. It simply is a good representation to the double standard that can exists in psychology. It does not only go this way racially, obviously it could go the opposite way. I just wanted to clarify that I do not want this to have a racial tone. It is simply a good representation.
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operationalization