Chapter 7

Question 1

Acquiescent Response Style

Answer 1

the general tendency to agree with statements regardless of their content.

Question 2

Bipolar Scales

Answer 2

prompts a respondent to balance two opposite attributes, determining the relative proportion of these opposite attributes

Question 3

Comparative Rating Scales

Answer 3

explicitly require the judge to make comparisons.

Question 4

Contrast Error

Answer 4

a tendency for raters to see others as opposite to them on a trait

Question 5

Cumulative Scales

Answer 5

made up of a series of items with which the respondent indicates agreement or disagreement.

Question 6

Differential Scales

Answer 6

include items that represent known positions on the attitude scale.

Question 7

Domain

Answer 7

the hypothetical population of all items relevant to the construct we wish to measure.

Question 8

Domain Sampling

Answer 8

we draw a sample of items from the domain and use the person’s responses to those items to estimate the desired construct, the attitude as measured by the entire population of items. The reliability of the measurement is then defined as the expected error in estimating the population value on the basis of the sample observations, that is, as sampling error.

Question 9

Factor Analysis

Answer 9

the degree to which responses appear to be influenced by the same underlying construct / statistical commonality in a set of items

Question 10

Generosity Error

Answer 10

raters overestimate the desirable qualities of people that they like.

Question 11

Graphic Rating Scale

Answer 11

Judge indicates his or her rating by placing a mark at the appropriate point on a line that runs from one extreme of the attribute in question to the other. Scale points with brief descriptions can be indicated along the line, but their function is to serve as a guide to the judges in locating the rating on the scale rather than to provide discrete categories.

Question 12

Halo Bias

Answer 12

tendency for overall positive or negative evaluations of the object or person being rated to influence ratings on specific dimensions.

Question 13

Interval Scale

Answer 13

when numbers attached to a variable imply not only that 3 is more than 2 and 2 is more than 1, but also that the size of the interval between 3 and 2 is the same as the interval between 2 and 1, they form an interval scale.

Question 14

Item Analysis

Answer 14

responses are analyzed to determine which items contribute most to the reliability and validity of measurement

Question 15

Itemized Rating Scales

Answer 15

require the rater to select one of a small number of categories that are ordered by their scale position.

Question 16

Latitude of Acceptance

Answer 16

the range of scale values that the subject agrees with

Question 17

Linear Associations

Answer 17

they are the same at all points across the range of values the measures can take – the responses can be treated as interval scaled, and powerful data-analytic methods may be used.

Question 18

Nonmonotone item

Answer 18

items that will elicit agreement from people with positions near the item’s scale value but disagreement from others whose attitudes are either more favorable or less favorable

Question 19

Monotone items

Answer 19

items that are either clearly favorable or unfavorable to the object.

Question 20

Multidimensional

Answer 20

low associations among some variables imply that several dimensions might exist.

Question 21

Nominal Scales

Answer 21

contain qualitatively different categories to which we attach names rather than numerical meaning.

Question 22

Ordinal Scale

Answer 22

contains categories that can be ordered by rank on a continuum

Question 23

Rank-Order Scale

Answer 23

judges are required to rank individuals specifically in relation to one another; the judges indicate which person is highest in regard to the characteristic being measured, which is next highest, and so on, down to the one who is lowest.

Question 24

Ratio Scale

Answer 24

do not have a true 0, and as a result, the scale values represent multipliable quantities.

Question 25

Response Scale

Answer 25

range of possible answers to a given question.

Question 26

Scales

Answer 26

(multiple-item measures) serves the basic function of providing a usable measure of theoretical construct

Question 27

Scaling

Answer 27

assignment of scores to answers to a question so as to yield a measure of a construct.

Question 28

Semantic Differential

Answer 28

a method for measuring the meaning of an object to an individual. It can also be thought of as a series of attitude scales.

Question 29

Subscales

Answer 29

when the scale item is divided into two subsets corresponding to the two content domains

Question 30

Summated scales

Answer 30

most widely used in the social sciences today. Like differential and cumulative scales, a summated scale consists of a set of items to which the research participant responds with agreement or disagreement. However, only monotone items are used in summated scales – that is, items that are definitely favorable or unfavorable in direction, not items that reflect a middle or uncertain position on the issue.

Question 31

Uni-dimensional

Answer 31

If a series of variables all measure a single general characteristic of an attitude or other construct, the variables should all be highly interrelated.