Operationalising variables

[ktrah]

A bit confused
Do you have to operationalise variables (IV and DV) in your hypothesis? My teacher insists that you don't but I went to a lecture that said you have always have to operationalise the DV in a hypothesis. I find it really confusing to work out what the DV is unoperationalised as well. When you operationalise them, do you need to say "operationalised as..."?
Thanks!

[Slumdawg]

This is definitely a very valid concern and I know a lot of students forget to double check these uncertainties before their exam so great job for getting this cleared up beforehand!

Previously in the study design it was listed that you had to write an "Operational Hypothesis" this simply means that your DV is operationalised. However, the new study design describes a "Research hypothesis", this is also known as an 'Experimental hypothesis', which is exactly the same as an Operational Hypothesis except there is no operationalising of the DV. You just have your population + normal IV + normal DV. In last year's unit 4 exam they just asked for a "Hypothesis" and didn't specify operational or research/experimental so students could do anything, so if that happens on your exam the same rule applies. It all depends on what they decide to ask you!

Take a look at the blue notes booklet from my psych lecture, the research methods section near the start describes the process of "Operationalising" in detail (pg 75 and 76).

Furthermore, now the study design lists "Operationalised IV and DV"... So before in past exams you would be asked simply "What is the IV and DV?"... While now you're most likely going to be asked for an operationalised IV and operationalised DV. As mentioned above, read the relevant sections of the blue booklet and apply the principles described there to the IV and DV. Also, read pg 76 very carefully as I've included an example of the same DV but one is normal and the other is operationalised. So that should help you with your confusion as well..

Finally, you do not need to write "operationalised as" BUT as described on pg 76 it helps structure your response nicely and clearly demonstrate where your operationalising has occurred. But remember, it is very likely that you'll only be required to operationalise your IV and DV when asked directly for them, but have a hypothesis without any operationalising (i.e. a research/experimental hypothesis).

Hope this helped!

[ktrah]

Thanks heaps! That helped a lot

[Slumdawg]

Thanks heaps! That helped a lot

No worries, thanks for attending the lecture! Sorry I didn't get to cover research methods but hopefully you've gone through the notes in the blue booklet and that should set you up well for research methods components of the exam Good luck!