The following hypothesis, daily "doses of humor" will cause arthritis sufferers to use less pain medication and exercise longer, was listed in a study being critiqued. Which of the following is the operational definition of "dose of humor"?

Question

a. Each day subjects in the treatment group will watch a full length comedy film before a prescribed exercise period. Each film shown will have been screened by five assistants and must evoke laughter at least 30% of the time of the film.
b. The "doses of humor" will be defined as subjects taking turns telling jokes to each other for 20 minutes each day.
c. The operational definition of "doses of humor" for purposes of this study will be the reading of three jokes taken from the newspaper each day.
d. The operational definition of "doses of humor" is that each day something funny will happen to the participant.

Answer 1

ANS: A
This definition gives the reader information that would allow a replication of the study.
Using the subject to create the humor makes it very difficult to measure and hard to replicate.
The use of jokes from the newspaper means that even the researchers would not know ahead of time how funny they are going to be, and this would make it very difficult to make use of in the future.
This definition does not provide enough information for the reader to know how humor is being offered.