Psych 209: Chapter 4 Vocab

Question 1

Reliable

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Measurement Error

Answer 2

Produced by any factor that introduces inaccuracies into the measurement of some vairable

Question 3

Valid

Answer 3

In general, the extent to which a measure of X truly measures X and not Y

Question 4

Content Validity

Answer 4

Occurs when a measure appears to be a reasonable or logical measure of some trait

Question 5

Face Validity

Answer 5

Occurs when a measure appears, to those taking a test, to be a reasonable measure of some trait; not considered by researchers to be an important indicators of validity

Question 6

Criterion Validity

Answer 6

Form of validity in which a psychological measure is able to predicts some future behaviors or is meaningfully related to some other measure

Question 7

Construct Validity

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Discriminant Validity

Answer 8

Occurs when scores on a test designed to measure some construct are uncorrelated with scores on other tests that should be theoretically unrelated to the construct

Question 9

Convergent Validity

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Measurement Scales

Answer 10

Ways of assigning numbers to events; nominals, ordinal, interval, ratio

Question 11

Nominal Scale

Answer 11

Measurement scale in which the number have no quantitative value, but rather serve to identify categories into which events can be placed

Question 12

Ordinal Scales

Answer 12

Measurement scale in which assigned numbers stand for relative standing or ranking

Question 13

Interval Scales

Answer 13

Measurement scale in which numbers refer to quantities, and intervals are assumed to be of equal size; a score of zero is just one of many point on the scale and does not denote the absence of the phenomenon being measured

Question 14

Ratio Scale

Answer 14

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