Psychometric Properties

Question 1

sensitivity

Answer 1

-the proportion of people who have a disease who have a positive result; how the test accurately assesses correctly those who do have a diagnosis
-decrease the threshold/cutoff to increase this
-e.g., assessments for suicidal ideation need to be very ____

Question 2

specificity

Answer 2

-the proportion of people who have a disease who have a positive test result; how the test accurately assesses correctly those who do NOT have a diagnosis
-increase the threshold/cutoff to increase this
-e.g., ASD dx needs to be more ____

Question 3

true positive

Answer 3

have the disease and have a positive test; hit rate

Question 4

false positive

Answer 4

do NOT have the disease, but have a positive test; false alarm

Question 5

false negative

Answer 5

have the disease, but have a negative test (the test does not pick it up); fall thru the cracks

Question 6

true negative

Answer 6

do not have the disease and have a negative test; correct rejection rate

Question 7

criterion referenced

Answer 7

test developer/publisher sets the cutoffs/thresholds and interpretation guidelines; an outside criterion influences the score thresholds

Question 8

norm-referenced

Answer 8

comparison scores in which individual scores are compared to a population norm - the group that originally took the test to determine the scores that an individual receives

Question 9

raw scores

Answer 9

no inherent meaning, summer of item responses (total points) when scored; needs interpretation guidelines from the test developer

Question 10

standard scores

Answer 10

raw scores that have been converted to an interpretable scale that are based on normal distribution and the norm group
-e.g., z-scores, T scores, etc.

Question 11

percentages

Answer 11

raw score that reflects the number of correct responses obtained out of the total possible number of correct responses on a test (no inherent meaning)

Question 12

percentiles

Answer 12

scores that reflect the rank or position of an individual’s test performance in comparison to others who took the test

Question 13

reliability

Answer 13

consistency or stability of the scores/responses across time

Question 14

inter-rater reliability

Answer 14

-consistency of scores across examiners (across coders)
-must operationalize the constructs measured
-if a test does not have this, the effects observed may be due to the individual who coded
-ideal to have higher ___ ____ (r = .90)

Question 15

internal reliability

Answer 15

-consistency of the structure (across items); homogeneity of the group of items in a response set or within subscales
-how well do the items measured in the test strongly associate with the construct measured
-e.g., in the BSI –> depression subscale has highest level of ___ ____

Question 16

Reliability Cutoffs

Answer 16

-very high: >.90
-high: .80-.89
-acceptable: .70-.79
-moderate/acceptable: .60-.69
-low/unacceptable: < .59

Question 17

validity

Answer 17

the extent to which a test measures what it intends to measure

Question 18

relationship between validity & reliability

Answer 18

assessment can be reliable and not valid
–> measure can be reliable and not valid (can have high reliability but low validity)
–> unreliable measure CANNOT be valid
–> e.g., BMI has high reliability but low validity

Question 19

content validity

Answer 19

-representativeness of items
-evaluation component:
1) who came up with the questions?
2) how were the items selected?
3) how representative are the items of the domain?

Question 20

criterion validity

Answer 20

-tests how well the assessment scores correlate with an outside construct
-tests if external ____ is related to whatever outcomes measured

Question 21

concurrent validity

Answer 21

a type of criterion validity that assesses how well the instrument correlates with scores of an external criterion or those of a previously established measurement of the same construct
-e.g., does the instrument correlate to DSM diagnosis

Question 22

predictive validity

Answer 22

a type of criterion validity that assesses if the instrument at whatever time point predicts future instrument scores or outcomes
-e.g., when a pre-employment test accurately predicts an applicant’s future job performance

Question 23

construct validity

Answer 23

-the extent that the instrument is measuring what it is supposed to measure
-internal consistency is evidence to support ___ ____

Question 24

convergent validity

Answer 24

a type of construct validity which measures how well the current instrument correlates with other instruments of the same construct
-e.g., Hamilton depression rating scale vs. BDI

Question 25

discriminant validity

Answer 25

a type of construct validity which measures how well the current instrument differentiates against other instruments of different constructs
-e.g., an assessment of self-esteem should not be correlated with an assessment of intelligence

Question 26

Validity Cutoffs

Answer 26

very high: > .50
high: .40-.49
moderate/acceptable: .21-.40
low/unacceptable: < .20