Chapter 4 - Reliability and Validity Flashcards
When the doctor weighs Morgan as a measure of eating behavior, he uses what method of observation? __________
recording outcome
If two observers agree on their observations, you cannot conclude that their observations were reliable unless they were made on the same __________.
response
Most of us tend to look for the causes of behavior in people’s thoughts. The problem with such private events is that we must still __________ them.
explain
Dom observed the stories on the evening news one day. He found that 9 of the news items were biased. Jan also watched the evening news on the same day and found that 10 were biased. She decided Dom’s observations were reliable. Do you agree with her conclusion? __________ (Yes, No)
yes
Marge defined good teaching behavior as having personal contact with students. She observed that Tom had few personal contacts with his students. She suggested that he start having more personal contacts with his pupils. She again observed and found that he had many personal contacts with them. Marge then had 10 parents view a videotape of Tom’s teaching. They rated Tom’s quality of teaching as low when they observed few personal contacts and high when he had many personal contacts. In other words, the parents’ ratings correlated with Marge’s observations based on her behavioral definition. This correlation showed that Marge’s behavioral definition of good teaching had __________.
social validity
Barb inspected the cleaning jobs according to a 10-item checklist at 8:00 Thursday night. She found that 9 items had been done. Vince inspected the same cleaning jobs according to the same checklist at 8:00 Friday night and found only 3 of them done. Is this evidence that their observations are unreliable? __________ (Yes, No)
no
Williams and colleagues developed a new behavioral definition of non-cooperation. Two of their observers agreed 83% during simultaneous observations. Is this level acceptable? __________ (Yes, No)
yes
The general formula for calculating reliability is __________.
100xA/(A+D)
Suppose you define pain behavior as holding the pained area, moaning, and complaining of pain. Suppose observers using this behavioral definition find Mark not engaging in those behaviors during videotape A. Suppose they find him engaging in those behaviors in videotape B. How would you use five nurses to test the social validity of your behavioral definition? *short answer
Ask the nurses to serve as an outside judge and rate the amount of Mark’s pain for each videotape. If the nurses rate pain as low for tape A and high for tape B, (in other words they correlate with the observer’s observations) then the behavioral definition
Dan counted the number of consecutive 15-second intervals during which his baby sister was smiling. He was using __________ recording.
interval
Reliability is a measure of the extent to which there is __________ between two independent variables.
agreement
Tamara observed that Boris watched the news during 59 out of 60 half-minute intervals on Monday. Ann observed that Boris only watched the news during 23 out of the 60 half-minute intervals on Tuesday. Can you conclude that Tamara and Ann’s observations are unreliable? __________ (Yes, No)
no
Kim and Jose counted shootings stars one might. Kim saw 17, and Jose saw 20. Compute their reliability: [a] %; is it acceptable? [b] (Yes, No)
85%; yes
Suppose you observe three of Willie’s behaviors that you think are related to how good he is at having a conversation. Suppose you also have three adults watching the same conversations rate how good he was in the conversation. The correlation between your observations and their ratings gives you a measure of the __________ of your behavioral definition.
social validity
Eileen checked to see whether her lazy roommate was studying during a short observation made at 19 random times during the day. What method of observation was she using? __________ recording
time-sample