Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.

Web Exercises

1. Go to PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, PubMed, ERIC, or JSTOR and search for an article in an area of your interest.

• Read the article
• What are the constructs and operational definitions of the constructs in the study?
• Create one other way to operationally define each of the variables
• How would you measure these constructs based on the new operational definition?

2. Go to a social networking website (either your own account or the company website).

• Identify 10 variables on the site
• Indicate whether the variables you identified are:
  
  • Continuous or discrete
  • Qualitative or quantitative
  • Type of scale of measurement

3. James Flynn: Why Our IQ Levels are Higher than Our Grandparents'

It's called the "Flynn effect" — the fact that each generation scores higher on an IQ test than the generation before it. Are we actually getting smarter, or just thinking differently? In this Ted Talk, a fast-paced spin through the cognitive history of the 20th century, moral philosopher James Flynn suggests that changes in the way we think have had surprising (and not always positive) consequences.

• What are the constructs discussed in this talk?
• How would Flynn operationally define IQ?
• Search for other definitions of IQ
  
  • How are they similar and different?
• How do the concepts of range effects play a role in IQ tests and scores?