Topic for Assignment: Impact of Childhood Trauma on Adult Mental Health

Operational Definitions For this assignment: 1. Identify the independent variable (IV) for your project 2. Identify the dependent variable for your final project 3. Give your operational definition for the IV 4. Give your operational definition for the DV As you're giving operational definitions, be sure to keep the following guidelines in mind: Operational definitions are measurable Operational definitions are objective It should be feasible to record the operational definitions It should have "face validity"

Some examples of operational definitions: Measure of happiness: number of times someone smiles within an hour Measure of night owl'ness: the average time they go to bed over a 30 day period Measure of depression: their score on Beck Depression Inventory Measure of relationship status: whether they indicated on a form if they're in a relationship Here are some bad examples of operational definitions: Measure of happiness: how happy someone feels o How someone feels is not measureable (unless, of course, you ask them and record their response) Measure of night owl'ness: experimenter's judgment of whether they look like a night own o This isn't objective Measure of depression: their minute-by-minute rating of their mood over the course of six months o It's not feasible to ask people to rate their mood every minute for six months Measure of relationship status: how many sexual partner's they've had o The number of partners they've had in the past isn't measuring their current relationship status As always, be sure to follow the template on the following page. May the force be with you.

Operational Definition Assignment Template The following template will help you structure your assignment so you know what I'm am looking for. Please don't use this specific example, but come up with your own. General Topic: Gender pay gaps in stem Independent Variable: Gender Dependent Variable: Salary IV Operational Definition: An individual's self-reported gender DV Operational Definition: The individual's self-reported salary