Final WA Flashcards
Of what is validity a property of?
A psychological test
When do we speak of construct underrepresentation?
When a test does not include the entire range of content of the construct that it intends to measure
Rachel analyzes an anxiety test and finds that the items form two factors. To what type of validity evidence does this finding contribute?
Internal structure
Alex developed a questionnaire for her research about neuroticism. She wants to know if her questionnaire is reasonably valid, that is, if it has sufficient construct validity. To this end, Alex asks researchers at her university – who are experts in this field – to rate each of the items in terms of how essential they are to the test.
What type of validity evidence is Alex evaluating here?
Test content
Is criterion validity a seperate category from convergent validity?
No, they are both a part of association with other variables
Can criterion validity be split up into predictive and discriminant validity?
No, predictive and concurrent
According to theory, neuroticism is positively correlated with anxiety. Keeping this association in mind, what evidence do you need to find that will indicate good associative validity of a neuroticism questionnaire?
Evidence on convergent validity
Consequential validity is about…
The uses of tests scores
According to wikipedia, the definition of arithmetic is:
“Arithmetic is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers—addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots.”
John creates an arithmetic test with items about addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and exponentiation. What does this test suffer from?
The test suffers from construct underrepresentation
In an exam on the history of psychology, students can pass the exam simply by choosing the most elaborate answer option for each item. Which type of validity is being threatened?
Response process validity
In an exam on developmental psychology, students that have children of their own have a higher passing rate on the exam (85% of these students passes the exam) compared to students without children of their own (65% of these students passes the exam)
Which of the below causes for this difference forms a threat to consequential validity?
- This difference is due to the students with children being able to relate the course material to their own children making the exam easier for them
- This difference is due to the students with children studying harder for the exam than the students without children
- This difference arose as the students with children took the exam in the morning as the first exam of the day, while the students without children took the exam in the evening after two other exams
(1 and 2 are both fair. Studying hard and understanding something better because you can relate it to something in real life are both intended consequences, 3 is not.)
In the psychological methods bachelor’s program, there are courses on programming, advanced statistics, and philosophy of science. After this program, students can enroll into the Behavioral Data Science (BDS) master track.
Since 2017, students are only allowed into the track if they showed
-that they attended programming courses
-that they attended advanced statistics courses
Ever since this selection procedure was invoked, less students attended the philosophy of sciences courses from the psychological methods program.
What kind of consequential validity evidence is this?
Evidence of unintended systematic effects
A researcher wants to study the structural validity of a test measuring social anxiety. The test measures cognitive and affective aspects of social anxiety. The scree plot shows an inflection point at 2. On the basis of that plot, what would you conclude about the validity of this measurement.
If a validity is being threathened, which type?
These results show evidence against the structural validity of this measurement instrument
(bc only one factor is found, there should theoretically be two)
A researcher wants to study the structural validity of a test measuring dyslexia. The test measures reading and writing aspects of dyslexia. In a factor analysis he finds that the factors correlate .901 with each other. On the basis of these results, what would you conclude on the validity of this measurement instrument?
If a validity is being threathened, which type?
These results show evidence against the structural validity of this measurement instrument
For a sample of secondary school students, a researcher correlates the scores on a career-choice test to the actual university program that the students choose a year later. What kind of validity is being studied?
Predictive validity
A research establishes the correlation between a test on openness to experience and the variable “number followers on Instagram”.
What kind of validity does the researcher try to establish?
Concurrent validity
Why is it so important to use a reliable criterion measure when evaluating a validity correlation?
Because the validity coefficient will be attenuated when the criterion measure is not reliable
What is the relationship between reliability, validity and measurement error?
High measurement error –> poor reliability –> attenuated validity coefficient
We want to calculate the convergent validity correlation between two tests: A and B. On test A, a lot of people obtained the highest score, while on test B the scores are more normally distributed
How does this difference affect the validity coefficient?
Test A doesn’t reflect the full variability of behavior, as the range is restricted, which weakens the validity coefficient