what is an operational definition in psychology

An operational definition in psychology is a statement of the procedures or ways in which a researcher is going to measure behaviors or qualities. It is a way to define a variable in a specific and measurable way, allowing researchers to describe what they mean when they use a certain term. Operational definitions are important in psychology because they allow other people to see if the research has validity, meaning if the researchers are actually measuring what they intended to measure. In other words, operational definitions help ensure that psychological experimentation is truly scientific in nature. To write an operational definition, researchers need to state clearly and specifically how they are manipulating their independent variable and how they are measuring their dependent variable. By doing so, they can ensure that their study contains operational definitions for the variables in the research.