This video, we're going to be talking about operational definitions. So, research topics in psychology can be very abstract. Right? We're studying things like joy, resilience, motivation. I knew one person who studied awe, like the feeling of wonder and awe.

So very difficult things to define. And because of that, we need to operationalize our variables. And when we operationalize our variables, what we're doing is basically taking these abstract concepts and making them into something that is more concrete and measurable. So when we operationalize a variable, we end up with an operational definition, which is a description of a variable in quantifiable terms, or in, like, measurable terms as it is a different way of thinking about that. So we take these abstract variables and make them into something that we can actually measure and do a research study on.

Now, these are important to be aware of because psychologists in different fields may define the same term differently. Honestly, psychologists in the same field will sometimes define the same term in different ways. Just because, like I said, some of these things are really genuinely hard to define and people can't always agree on the best way to do that. And so we will see different operational definitions across different research. So definitely be aware of that and be looking for that.

So to give you kind of a fun example, I was trained as a developmental psychologist. And if you ask me to define attachment, I would probably say something along the lines of, it is a behavioral system that evolved to promote infant safety and proximity to their caregiver and to promote infant exploration and mastery of the environment. Okay? That's how I was trained. Now I asked my husband to define the same word.

Now, to give you context, he is a social psychologist. We went to the same graduate program the same year. The only difference is that he was trained by the social faculty and I was trained by the developmental faculty. And he defined attachment as an affective bond between two people. Okay?

So these are two completely different things. Right? We're talking about two completely different constructs, but we both defined them as attachment. Now, that is important because if he and I were to do completely separate research studies, we could come to the same conclusion. Right?

We could both have a finding that says, stronger attachment predicted lower depression. But that research finding would mean two completely different things. Right? If my husband found this finding, it would basically mean that having friends predicts lower depression. If I had this finding, it would mean that having this, like, relationship with your caregiver in infancy is predicting lower depression.

Okay? And you have to be aware of how we defined that term to be aware of how you should be interpreting those results. So just keep an eye out for this. It's not always going to be an issue, but it does come up fairly often in psychology. Now one other thing to note is that operational definitions ideally should inform a researcher's measurement strategy.

And what I mean by that is the way that you define your construct should be basically how you are measuring it. So if he and I both were to use a survey, his survey should be asking people about, you know, friendship, affective bonds. How many friends do you have? How often do you see them? How close do you feel?

You know, how, you know, loving is the relationship? Whatever it is. My survey should be tapping into, you know, behaviors that the person engaged in infancy, you know, with their caregiver, how they explored their environment, how they mastered their environment, etc. So when you are beginning to read psychological research, just keep an eye out for this. Usually, in the introduction of a research paper, they'll explicitly say, we defined aggression as this.

We operationalized joy as this. So it's usually pretty explicitly laid out. So be aware of what that definition is. Make sure that how they defined it matches onto how they decide to measure it and study it, then be sure to interpret the results with all of those things in mind. Alright.

So those are operational definitions, and I'll see you guys in our next video. Bye bye.