Ch. 5 Identifying Good Measurement Flashcards
Self-Report Measures
Recording people’s answers to questions about themselves in a questionnaire or interview
Observational Measures
Recording observable behaviors or physical traces of behavior
-e.g. Counting the frequency of an observable behavior
Physiological Measures
Recording biological data
e.g. Brain activity, heart rate, hormone levels
Categorical Variable
e.g. Sex, race, marital status, level of education
When the levels of a variable are categorized
Quantitative Variable
Height, weight, IQ score, GPA
When the levels of a variable have meaningful numbers
Reliability
How consistent the result of a measure are
Interrater Reliability
Consistent scores are obtained no matter who measures the variable
Internal Reliability
A study participant gives a consistent pattern of answers, no matter how the researcher has phrased the question
Test Re-test reliability
Testing additional times to ensure accuracy. Possibly after a waiting period of time between testing
Validity
Whether the operationalization is measuring what its supposed to measure.
Face Validity
A measure has face validity if it subjectively considered to be a plausible operationalization of the conceptual variable in question
This type of validity is a measure that must capture all parts of a defined construct
Context Validity
Criterion Validity
Evaluations whether a measure under consideration is associated with a concrete behavioral outcome that it should be associated with
How are reliability and validity related to each-other?
A measure may be less valid than it is reliable, but it cannot be more valid than it is reliable
If a measure does not even correlate with itself, then how can it be more strongly associated with some other variable?
