Chapter 3 Flashcards
What is a theory?
a set of statements about the mechanisms underlying a particular behaviour
What is a construct?
- hypothetical attributes or mechanisms that help explain and predict behaviour in a theory.
- Cannot be directly measured or observed, but the external factors and behaviours that are associated with the construct can be.
What is an operational definition?
a procedure for indirectly measuring and defining a variable that cannot be observed or measured directly
What is validity?
Validity of a measurement procedure is the degree to which the measurement process measures the variable that it claims to measure.
Especially important whenever an operational definition is used to measure a hypothetical construct
What is face validity?
an unscientific form of validity demonstrated when a measurement procedure superficially appears to measure what it claims to measure
What is concurrent validity?
demonstrated when scores obtained from a new measure are directly related to scores obtained from an established measure of the same variable.
What is Predictive validity?
demonstrated when scores obtained from a measure accurately predict behaviour according to a theory
What is construct validity?
requires that scores obtained from a measurement procedure behave exactly the same as the variable itself. CV is based on MANY research studies that use the same measurement procedure and grows gradually as each new study contributes more evidence.
What is divergent validity?
demonstrated by showing little or no relationship between the measurements of two different constructs.
What is convergent validity?
demonstrated by a strong relationship between the scores obtained form two (or more) different methods of measuring the same construct.
What is reliability?
the stability or consistency of the measurement. If the same individuals are measured under the same conditions, a reliable measurement procedure produces identical (or nearly identical) measurements.
What is test-retest reliability? What is parallel-forms reliability?
it’s established by comparing the scores obtained from two successive measurements of the same individuals and calculating a correlation between the two sets of scores.
If alternative versions of the measuring instrument are used for the two measurements, the reliability measure is called parallel-forms reliability.
What is inter-rater reliability?
the degree of agreement between two observers who simultaneously record measurements of the behaviours.
What is split-half reliability?
this is obtained by splitting the items on a questionnaire or test in half, computing a operate score for each half, and then calculating the degree of consistency between the two scores for a group of participants.
What accurately describes the relationship between validity and reliability?
A measure cannot be valid unless it’s reliable. But a measure can be reliable without being valid.
