Chapter 3 measurement and validity

Question 1

Construct validity

Answer 1

in measurement, construct validity occurs when the measure being used accurately assesses some hypothetical construct. it also refers to whether the construct itself is valid. In research, construct validity refers to whether the operational definitions used for independent and dependent variables are valid

Question 2

content validity

Answer 2

occurs when a measure appears to be a reasonable or logical measure of a trait

Question 3

convergent validity

Answer 3

occurs when scores on a test designed to measure some construct are correlated with scores on other tests theoretically related to the construct

Question 4

criterion validity

Answer 4

form of validity in which a psychological measure is able to predict some future behaviour or is meaningfully linked to some other measure

Question 5

discriminant validity

Answer 5

occurs when scores ona test designed to measure some construct are uncorrelated with scores on other tests theoretically unrelated to the construct

Question 6

face validity

Answer 6

occurs when a measure appears, to those taking a test, a reasonable measure of some trait- not considered by some researchers to be an important indicator of validity

Question 7

interval scale

Answer 7

measurement scale in which numbers refer to quantities and intervals assumed to be of equal size

Question 8

measurement error

Answer 8

produced by a factor that introduces innacuracies into the measurement of a variable

Question 9

measurement scales

Answer 9

Ways of assigning numbers to events; see nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio scales.

Question 10

nominal scale

Answer 10

Measurement scale in which the numbers have no quantitative value but rather identify categories into which events can be placed.

Question 11

Ratio scale

Answer 11

Measurement scale in which numbers refer to quantities and intervals are assumed to be of equal size; a score of zero denotes the absence of the phenomenon being measured.

Question 12

ordinal scale

Answer 12

Measurement scale in which the numbers indicate rank order, but convey no information about the magnitude of a score or the size of the differences between the measured entities.

Question 13

reliable

Answer 13

The extent to which measures of the same phenomenon are consistent and repeatable; measures high in reliability contain a minimum of measurement error.

Question 14

valid

Answer 14

In general, the extent to which a measure of X truly measures X and not Y (e.g., a valid measure of intelligence measures intelligence and not something else).