Chapter 4: Conceptualization & Measurement

Question 1

Concept

Answer 1

A mental image that summarizes a set of similar observations, feelings, or ideas.

Question 2

Conceptualization

Answer 2

The process of specifying what we mean by a term.

In deductive research, conceptualization helps translate portions of an abstract theory into testable hypotheses involving specific variables.

In inductive research, conceptualization is an important part of the process used to make sense of related observations

Question 3

Constant

Answer 3

A number that has a fixed value in a given situation; a characteristics or value that does not change.

Question 4

Operation

Answer 4

A procedure for identifying or indicating the value of cases on a variable

Question 5

Operationalization

Answer 5

The process of specifying the operations that will indicate the value of cases on a variable

Question 6

Content Analysis

Answer 6

A research method for systematically analyzing and making inferences from text

Question 7

Closed-ended (fixed-choice) question

Answer 7

A survey question that provided preformatted response choices for the respondent to circle or check

Ex. Compared with other campuses with which you are familiar, this campus’s use of alcohol… (Mark one)
____Greater than other campuses
____Less that other campuses
____About the same as other campuses

Question 8

Mutually Exclusive

Answer 8

A variable’s attributes (or values) are mutually exclusive when every case can be classified as having only one attribute (or value).

Question 9

Exhaustive

Answer 9

Every case can be classified as having at least one attribute (or value) for the variable

Question 10

What two characteristics should response choices have?

Answer 10

Mutually Exclusivity

Exhaustive

Question 11

Open-ended question

Answer 11

A survey question to which respondents reply in their own words, either by writing or by talking

Question 12

Index

Answer 12

A composite measure based on summing, averaging, or otherwise combining the responses to multiple questions that are intended to measure the same concept

Question 13

Scale

Answer 13

A composite measure based on combining the responses to multiple questions pertaining to a common concept after these questions are differentialy weighted, such that questions judged on some basis

Question 14

Triangulation

Answer 14

The use of multiple methods to study one research question

Question 15

Level of measurement

Answer 15

The mathematical precision with which the values of a variable can be expressed.

The nominal level of measurement, which is qualitative, has no mathematical interpretation;

the quantitative levels of measurement - ordinal, interval, and ratio, are progressively more precise mathematically

Question 16

Nominal level of measurement

Answer 16

Variables whose values have no mathematical interpretation; they vary in kind or quality but not in amount

Question 17

Ordinal level of measurement

Answer 17

A measurement of a variable in which the numbers indicating a variable’s values specify only the order of the cases, permitting “greater than” and “less than” distinctions

Question 18

Interval level of measurement

Answer 18

A measurement of a variable in which the numbers indicating a variable’s values represent fixed measurement units but have no absolute, or fixed, zero point.

Question 19

Ratio level of measurement

Answer 19

A measurement of a variable in which the numbers indicating the variable’s values represent fixed measuring units and an absolute zero point

Question 20

Face validity

Answer 20

The type of validity that exists when an inspection of items used to measure a concept suggests that they are appropriate “on their face.”

Question 21

Criterion variability

Answer 21

The type of validity that is established by comparing the scores obtained on the measure being validated to those obtained with a more direct or already validated measure of the same phenomenon

Question 22

Construct validity

Answer 22

The type of validity that is established by showing that a measure is related to other measures as specified in a theory

Question 23

Reliability

Answer 23

A measurement procedure yields consistent scores when the phenomenon being measured is not changing

Question 24

Test-retest reliability

Answer 24

A measurement showing that measures of a phenomenon at two points in time are highly correlated, if the phenomenon has not changed or has changed only as much as the phenomenon itself.

Question 25

Interitem reliability (internal consistency)

Answer 25

An approach that calculates reliability based on the correlation between multiple items used to measure a single concept

Question 26

Alternate-forms reliability

Answer 26

A procedure for testing the reliability of responses to survey questions in which subjects’ answers are compared after the subjects have been asked slightly different versions of the questions or when randomly selected halves of the sample have been administered slightly different versions of the questions

Question 27

Split-halves reliability

Answer 27

Reliability achieved when responses to the same questions by two randomly selected halves of a sample are about the same

Question 28

Interobserver reliability

Answer 28

When similar measurements are obtained by different observations rating the same persons, events, or places.