Construct Definition Practice

Following the suggestion of our Experimental Design professor, I thought of sharing my writing about one of the Learning Activities listed on page 104 of our text book, Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences, 4th Edition, by Frederick J. Gravetter and Lori-Ann B. Forzano.

I tried to be brief, but maybe ended up being too brief and did not fully explain.  So, please feel free to add your own written thoughts to this.

Question #2: Select one construct from the following list: self-esteem, femininity/masculinity, creativity, hunger, motivation, fear.

I selected fear

Question #2 (continued): Briefly describe how fear might be measured using an operational definition based on  'self-report', 'behavioral', and 'physiological' (added by me) modalities.

Fear is an emotion resulting from perceived threat and can be associated with psychological phobias of many different kinds. Therefore, a defined construct of fear should be narrow enough in scope so that it can be measured. For this particular exercise, I will consider the 'fear of social situations', which is associated with 'social anxiety disorder' (pg 202 of DSM-5).

a. Self-Report: This can be measured with a questionaire that asks several questions related to the person's perceived fear. For example: What will people think about you at the movies? Although I could come up with my own, there are questionaires already used for this purpose (i.e. Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation scale or BFNE-S from Rodebaugh et al., 2004; Weeks et al., 2005).

b. Behavioral: This can be measured 24/7 for about 30 days using several, strategically placed motion sensor activated cameras (LOL). In addition, controlled stimulus (incentives) would have to be introduced at set intervals in order to elicit the need for the person to leave the house. For example, one can make being inside the house very unpleasant during the 30 days of observation. Note that when leaving the house, the person would have to be accompanied by an observer in order to monitor for physical signs of fear (i.e. posture, gaze, skin sweat, shaky hands, avoidance of conversation). A scale would also have to be used in order to quantify the observed behavior.

c. Physiological: Hair samples of the person can be collected at the end of the 30 days and analyzed for 'cortisol' concentration along the length of each hair strand. Since each hair strand grows about 1/2 inch per month, the cortisol concentration can be correlated to the 30-day observation period. Urine samples can also be collected each day and analysed for cortisol content. The urine measure can then be correlated to each of the times when the stimulus to leave the house was presented.

Proposed Experimental Design for Measuring Anger

The previous post has an experimental diagram I proposed for measuring the effect of elicited anger and  recovery rate to normal status. Blood pressure measurements are used to calculate anger recall (dependent variable #1). Blood pressure is also used to measure metabolic recovery rate (dependent variable #2). Anger recall is defined as metabolic reactions resulting from recalling specific anger eliciting memories (i.e. fight with significant other). Neutral recall is the reference no-anger eliciting recall condition used for the control group (i.e. recall one of the 3 memorized facts taken from a short written passage). Subsequent postings will talk about the hypoteses (plural) and the statistical test that can be used in this experimental design.

Experiment Flow Diagram for Anger

This illustration has helped me understand the construct of 'anger' that I am developing. The diagram will also be useful as a guide to complete writing the protocol, to conduct the actual experiment, and to document the results.

Understanding Relationships Video

I wanted to share this video that offers a helicopter view (broad and general) about human relationships. The video is in English with Spanish subtitles.

Statistical Method Decision Tree

Here is a very helpful decision tree for figuring out which statistical method should be used in the research study.

Culture and Value Orientation: Human Nature

I wanted to share what I was reading today in one of my textbooks (Clinical and Forensic Interviewing of Children and Families, by Jerome M. Sattler). Sattler cites earlier work by Luckhohn, 1958 and Speigel, 1982 in order to outline differences in cultural value orientations within five different areas. This this post paraphrases my notes on the first of the five areas.
1. Human Nature is composed of the following three value orientations:
a. Evil Orientation - This orientation holds that everyone is born with evil orientations that need to be controlled before they manifest themselves.
b. Good Orientation - Everyone is born good and there is no need for control because control would suppress the good from being manifested.
c. Mixed orientation - everyone of us is born with both evil and good orientations. Suppression is needed to keep the evil orientations from manifesting. On the other hand, encouragement and facilitation are also needed to allow the good orientations to manifest themselves.
My personal opinion: I believe that all of us are born with the capacity for both good and evil. As we grow and adapt, we begin to develop tendencies towards the things we find to be most effective in helping us succeed within the environment that we find ourselves.
Subsequent posts will cover the other four areas of of human value orientations:
2. Relationship between person and nature
3. Time history
4. Activity level
5. Social relations
If you have Sattler' book, you can find this on page 263.

Check Out This New Source of Information

I just wanted to make a quick post and share this new source of information. It is an official blog for graduate students published by the American Psychological Association (APA). I recommend it: www.gradpsychblog.org