Psychology 231
Research Methods in Psychology
Dr. McBride
Solutions for Learning Check on pp. 13-14 of Lab Manual
(1) Give an operational definition for hungry.
Remember that operational definitions are definitions that allow actual measurement or manipulation so
the Websters definition for hungry will not cut it here. But there are different ways to operationally define
hungry so there isn't one right answer. Some possibilities are: # of times a person's stomach makes noise
in an hour, # of calories a person has eaten in the past 12 hours, etc.
(2) Give an example of a hypothesis that can be made from the theory "sleeplessness causes depression."
To make a hypothesis, you need to be specific about the results you will get in a particular study.
Therefore, the hypothesis depends on the design of the study to some degree. So if we conducted a study
where sleeplessness was manipulated (subjects were randomly assigned to either sleep for 8 hours or stay
awake all night) and we operationally defined depression as the score received on a questionnaire with
items related to depression, then our hypothesis might be "People in the group forced to stay awake all
night will have lower scores on the depression questionnaire" (assuming lower scores means more
depression).
(3) What is the difference between a data-driven hypothesis and a theory-driven hypothesis?
Data-driven hypotheses are made using results from past studies for predictions and theory-driven
hypotheses are made from theories that explain a behavior.
Multiple Choice questions:
(4) c
(5) c
(6) b
(7) d
(8) b
(9) d
(10) d
Feel free to e-mail me or come by if you have questions dmmcbri@ilstu.edu.